Kosciusko is idle this week, but head coach Kelly Causey is not using the downtime to take any breaks. Instead, he and his coaching staff will work with their players on ways to snap out of a recent lull that has seen the Whippets drop their last three contests.
Choctaw County cruised to a 48-7 home win last Friday to send Kosciusko to 1-4 on the season.
“We have a lot of things we have to correct,” Causey said. “We need to get a lot better at blocking. We have to get a lot better at getting off blocks and making tackles. The good thing is we do have this off week. We have to get a little more tougher. We’re going to use this off week to do all those things.”
Kosciusko in its first two losses of the season dropped those contests by a combined 11 points. The Whippets in consecutive weeks now have been outscored 97-17.
Choctaw County led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter Friday and pushed its lead to 34-0 at halftime. The Chargers tallied another 14 points in the third quarter.
Kosciusko for the first three quarters was without starting quarterback Ethan Wood. Freshman Lee Wade played in Wood’s absence and was 10 of 18 for 76 yards with two interceptions.
“When you have a replacement like that, you need your offensive line and your other guys to step it up a notch to overcome so of the inexperience he has at that position, and we just didn’t do that,” Causey said.
Causey said his freshman’s poise in a less-than-ideal situation left a positive impact on him and the coaching staff.
“I thought Lee did as well as he could, considering the lack of experience that he has,” Causey said. “He did the things that we asked him to do. We just didn’t step up as an offensive team to help him in many ways.”
The Whippets finished with 142 yards of offense — 44 rushing and 98 rushing.
Kentaveus Washington had 17 carries for 80 yards and one touchdown. He posted Kosciusko’s lone score with 4:42 remaining in the fourth quarter. Will Carter added the extra-point kick.
Davion Roby’s 43 yards paced Kosciusko’s receiving unit. Roby pulled in four catches. Antonio Harmon accumulated 22 yards receiving on four receptions.
Choctaw County’s Dicenzo Miller had touchdown runs of 37 and 18 yards. Tylan Carter added scoring runs of 81 and 65 yards. Carter also threw touchdown passes of 12 and 56 yards to Kendall Coleman and Preston Payne, respectively. Conner Jewel tossed a 22-yard touchdown strike to Ques McNeal.
“Even if (our) offense is going three-and-out, we still have to go out there and do our job (defensively), and we’re just not doing that,” Causey said. “Missed tackles and missed assignments are killing us right now… We have to get a little more physical and be a little more disciplined in what we’re doing.”
