Don’t look ahead.
You can hear the caution in Kris Pickle’s voice. It’s natural for Pickle to be cautiously optimistic about how his New Hope High School football team has started the season. New Hope improved to 6-0 and 2-0 in Class 5A, Region 1 last Friday with a 53-35 victory against Center Hill. The victory helped push New Hope to No. 4 in The Associated Press Class 5A rankings. The win also extended the Trojans’ best start to a season in at least 20 years.
But Pickle knows that start won’t mean anything if the Trojans don’t take care of their business and position themselves in the top four in the region to earn the program’s first trip to the playoffs since 2010.
“I guess football coaches are probably the least content people,” Pickle said. “There is always something to get better at. We go back and evaluate film and see what we did wrong, and no matter if we score 50 or 18 or we give up 40 or shut them out, there is always something you can do differently.
“We didn’t run the ball like we have been in the past. We thought going into the game that we would have some chances in the passing game based on the way they played on defense. We had a couple ‘shot plays’ on our play sheet that we possibly could hit on, and we hit on all of them.
“It was a weird game. We threw the ball 12 times and (senior quarterback Stone Sisson) completed 9 of 12, and six of them were for touchdowns.”
Pickle said the Trojans had more then 400 yards on offense, but they committed three turnovers, so it was far from the team’s best offensive game despite the final score.
Pickle started the season saying the defense was going to have to lead the way until the offense found its rhythm. Led by junior running back Brenton Spann, New Hope has had a solid running game this season. Pickle said Spann had more than 100 yards total offense against Center Hill, even though he didn’t rush for more than 100. The latest game gives him confidence that the offense can develop that balance between the run and the pass.
“It is a positive thing to see us be able to throw the ball with that much success because now people just can’t sit in on the run because we can throw the ball, too,” Pickle said.
Pickle said Center Hill put a lot of pressure on their cornerbacks and safeties to cover New Hope’s passing game. Spann capitalized on New Hope’s ability to throw the ball by catching two touchdown passes. He said Center Hill kept six, seven, and eight people in the box, but that move allowed New Hope to score on its first two possessions. He felt those scores set the tone.
“Being able to shock them at the beginning of the game and score the quick two touchdowns (made a big difference),” Pickle said. “They made a stop on defense and scored to make it 14-7 and then we had a punt return to make it 21-7. It was a good game, but there was a lot to improve on.”
Pickle said he has been pleased how the offense has picked up the defense and how the defense has supported the offense when one or the other hasn’t clicked. He said that is a mark of a good team. While he feels the Trojans are getting there, he said the goal is to get both groups playing consistently so they can hit their stride at the same time. That’s why he doesn’t want his team to get ahead of itself because it is undefeated or that it will play host to Lake Cormorant (0-6, 0-2 region) at 7 p.m. Friday. As a football coach, Pickle said it is in his nature to find an area his team needs to improve.
“Whenever you play people like West Point and Oxford and the upper tier of 5A football in the North, you have to be spot on,” Pickle said. “You can’t fumble the ball three times. You can’t give up a kickoff return. You have to be good and win in those areas if you’re going to have a chance to compete with them because they are going to do that. That is one of the reasons they are as good as they are year in and year out because they don’t beat themselves as much.”
Pickle likes how his team has limited its mistakes to this point, but he knows things will get tougher, which is why he reiterated no one is going to remember New Hope started the season 6-0 and 2-0. He feels there is work to be done this week and next week against Lewisburg to get to 4-0 in the district so the games against Oxford, West Point, and Saltillo will give New Hope a chance to realize its goal and win the district title.
Pickle said he has tried to remain focused on that goal by not paying attention to the polls. If he has to remind his players, all Pickle has to do is tell them Lake Cormorant beat New Hope last season. But Pickle said the Trojans have responded well to the start of the season and aren’t satisfied.
“It seems to me they answer the bell every Friday,” Pickle said. “They know what time it is. They know it is time to get ready to play a football game. They know that somebody is going to come in take what is theirs. I feel we are a mature enough football team — a senior-heavy football team — that they know they have to get ready to go every Friday if they want to go to the playoffs. They know it is right there in their grasp and they can’t have a letdown game.
“We’re all in it together. We don’t want to let something take something away that we have worked so hard to get to because all it takes is one loss and the next thing you know it everything you have done up until this point is moot.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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