There’s no disguising the pain of a loss your coach calls “heartbreaking.”
That’s the word New Hope High School football coach Kris Pickle used to describe his team’s 32-27 loss to Aberdeen last week in Columbus. Tramonte Prather’s 19-yard touchdown pass to B.J. Williams with six seconds remaining helped Aberdeen even its record at 1-1 and dropped New Hope to 0-2.
New Hope will try to get back on track at 7 p.m. Friday when it plays at Columbus (1-1).
For Pickle, the Lowndes County rivalry is an ideal way to get his players re-focused on their goal of improving every week.
The loss to the Bulldogs was even more stinging because the Trojans used a touchdown pass from Thomas Stevens to Andre Erby to take the lead with less than three minutes remaining. Unfortunately, Prather escaped two defenders in the backfield and found Williams wide open in the back of the end zone for the game-winning score.
Pickle shouldered the blame for the score because he said he inserted offensive players into the game on defense so the Trojans had quicker players on the field. The down side, though, was all of the Trojans’ pass defenders didn’t stay with their man-to-man coverage.
“We didn’t prepare them for the last play like we should have,” Pickle said.
Pickle said the silver lining for the missed coverage is it is correctable and that the loss, just like New Hope’s season-opening loss to Louisville, isn’t going to derail the team’s playoff chances. Pickle said he told his players Monday that no one gave the Trojans a trophy when they started 7-0 last season. The part of the season that really mattered came in Class 5A, Region 1 play, where New Hope finished second to Oxford. New Hope advanced to the second round of the playoffs before losing to Pearl and finishing 10-3.
This season, the sailing in region could be a little choppier, but Pickle liked the fact that he saw improvement from the Louisville game to the Aberdeen game. In the season opener, turnovers doomed the Trojans. Against Aberdeen, Pickle said New Hope moved the ball well, especially in the second half, but needs to become more consistent.
“I’d be worried if I wasn’t seeing improvement,” Pickle said. “But we did some things better on offense. Defensively, we took a step back a little bit. We played better on defense against Louisville. We need to learn to put a whole game together and clean up some stuff.”
Pickle has experience helping a team recover from a slow start. Prior to arriving at New Hope, Pickle was the head coach at Morton in 2013. Despite starting 0-4, Morton went on to win Class 3A, Region 6 with a 5-0 record and qualified for the playoffs. Pickle admits every situation is different, but his experience gives the players reason to believe there is hope, especially since the Trojans were “right there,” according to Pickle, in both losses.
“We could very easily be 2-0 right now,” Pickle said. “It is not like we’re getting blown out of the water and there is no hope and we’re getting beat 46-7. … I think you can take that and let that be your motivation that there is improvement, there is hope, there is a chance that you come out of this funk. Winning cures everything.”
To get that elusive first victory of the season, Pickle hopes the Trojans will be able to tackle better. He said there is no telling how many tackles New Hope missed against Aberdeen wide receiver Jerrick Orr and the rest of the Bulldogs. He said the Trojans won’t be able to rely on shoulder tackles against an opponent like Columbus that runs the ball as well as the Falcons do with Kylin Hill and Kendre Conner.
Pickle said Columbus’ size up front presents a challenge, but it is one New Hope faced and overcame last season, so he hopes it won’t be a problem Friday night.
“We have to play smart on defense, tackle, and play assignment football and not play for themselves,” Pickle said. “We talked about that a lot this week, not playing for themselves, but playing for each other and playing their responsibilities and being accountable for their own actions.”
NOTE: Andre Erby’s name was misspelled in the print edition of Sunday’s story.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 49 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.