Ethel football coach Adam Smith says his offense has moved the football on everyone they have played this year.
It’s the defense that’s the problem and that was the case on Friday night.
The Tigers gave up 568 yards on 33 plays as Hamilton pulled away in the second half and took a 62-24 win over the Tigers.
The Tigers fall to 4-3 on the season and will host Sebastopol on Friday night in another District 3-1A contest.
Smith said his team moved the football but couldn’t keep pace in the second half.
“They have a good football team but it was a ball game at halftime,” Smith said. “It was kind of like last week against FrenchCamp. It was a ball game at the half and we were within a score. If we had converted our two points conversions, we would have been leading. But then they score to start the second half and got an onside kick and it just snowballed on us. Our biggest problems is we really young on defense and have had some injuries. The youth is killing us on defense and have to play with inexperienced guys. It’s just tough right now.”
The Tigers held their won in the first half. In the first quarter, Marcus Jones scored on a 5-yard touchdown run.
The Tigers added two scores in the second quarter as Bobo Hubbert scored on a 4-yard run while Jones added a 7-yard run and trailed 22-18 at the half.
But the Lions got rolling in the second half as they outscored Ethel 40-6 to pull away and take the win. Ethel’s only score of the second half was a 36-yard run by Jones in the third quarter.
“We ran the ball pretty well and can move the ball on anybody with our offense and we did that in the first half,” Smith said. “The offensive line is pretty experienced and we have some seniors up there. We were having a good game but then had some penalties and got behind the chains and that’s hard for us to make up."
Hamilton had their way on offense and were 6-of-9 passing for 192 yards. The Lions had 376 yards rushing on 24 carries for 568 yards of total offense on just 33 plays, an average of almost 18 yards a play.
“From the first whistle, we feel like we can compete with anybody,” Smith said. “We are having trouble stopping folks right now. Our offense is hard to deal with. We haven’t passed it well but can move it up and down the field and score some points. But we are really young on defense and have had some injuries. We are having to play with some inexperienced players and that’s tough.”
This week’s game
The Tigers will try to get back on track against Sebastopol this week.
The Bobcats are 5-2 on the season. They have wins over McAdams (40-0), Lake (18-6), Pisgah (22-6), West Lowndes (29-0) and Noxapater (37-16). Their losses are to Clarkdale (42-6) and Vardaman (27-6).
“It’s not going to get any easier and just going to get harder as we go,” Smith said. “They are a good football team and all we can do is coach them up. We just want to continue to get better learn how to play better. But I know Sebastopol has a lot of players back from last year and a really good running back. They will be a challenge to stop.”
