It was an exasperating night for Rising Sun football coach Rich Opp and his team. The frustrations of a winless season boiled over to certain extent as the Tigers uncharacteristically committed four personal foul penalties in a 35-0 loss to host Elkton Friday. Opp made it clear he does not condone the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. "Unacceptable," he said. "That's part of it. And I think it was frustration. I'm not justifying it."
Opp also understands that eight straight losses can wear on a team. "(The frustration) eventually comes out," he said. "I think we've done a very good job at being being pretty good sports. When you're not winning it's not fun. When you're not winning it's a lot easier for things to go kaploowie and start doing silly stuff. I think there was some back and forth talk and going into it there would be because of the rivalry. I'm not happy with the unsportsmanlikes on our kids, the penalties on our kids." Although the game wound up being lopsided, Opp believes things may have been different if the Tigers had been able to cash in on a first quarter opportunity when the game was still scoreless. Rising Sun had a first and goal from the five but could not convert. Two runs netted nothing then Rising Sun lost seven yards on a third down carry. On fourth down, an Elkton defender batted down a Noah Juergens pass. "Not scoring there in the first quarter hurt," Opp said. "I said to them at halftime that when we didn't score, 'pfffft' we didn't score and the air went out of the balloon. I thought that was the drive of the game right there." Elkton embarked on an 88-yard scoring drive to take the lead for good. Aziz White scored from eight yards out to give the hosts a 6-0 edge with 9:14 left in the second quarter. White had a 27-yard scamper on the drive. Things rapidly got worse for the Tigers. Elkton's Jeremy Husfelt recovered the ensuing squib kick to put the hosts back in business. C.J. Sewell had a 32-yard gain and quarterback Owen Null completed a 24-yard pass to Royce Ruffin to take the ball down to the one. On fourth and goal from the four, Null hit Sewell for a touchdown and senior lineman Brian Rolle rushed for a two-point conversion to make it 14-0. The backbreaker came 70 seconds before halftime when Null tossed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Snyder on fourth and 19. That enabled the Golden Elks to take a 21-cushion into intermission. Rising Sun had a chance to get on the board when Juergens blocked a punt but instead of having the ball on the Elks' 22, the Tigers started on the 37 because of a personal foul penalty. After a Tyler Durant interception, White added a 10-yard scoring scamper with 5:07 left in the third quarter and added a 14-yard TD with nine minutes left to invoke the mercy rule and start the running clock. Logan Luoto led the Tigers with 67 yards on 67 yards on 11 carries including a 45-yard gallop on the first quarter drive that came up just short. The Elks, who have won two in a row after dropping their first six, travel to Harford Tech Friday. Rising Sun hosts Wilmington Friends for Homecoming on Thursday night. Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
|