Not to say Blanchester would have won the game but they were right there with Waynesville last week before things started to unravel in the third quarter.
“Our center sustained a knee injury,” BHS coach Jon Mulvihill said. “During the injury timeout, the refs got to stare into the distance to see lightning, 50 miles away according to the technology on the field, and we went to a 30-minute delay.”
When the teams returned to the field, the Wildcats weren’t the same.
“When we returned to play, we had two bad snaps that we didn’t recover, inside our own 30,” Mulvihill said. “Then we threw a pick-six from our own 10. Just like that, we go from down 8 to down 30.”
The Spartans may be a pretty good team when all things are said and done.
However, we know Clinton-Massie is a good team and that’s who Blanchester faces this week at Frank Irelan Field. If they commit the same mistakes, the Wildcats will be looking at a similar — or worse — deficit against the Falcons.
“We have to get better at staying mentally tough and disciplined when things don’t go our way,” the BHS coach said. “We had numerous missed assignments throughout the night and especially in that second half.”
Blanchester went toe-to-toe against Clinton-Massie in 2016, losing 33-29 in a game weather forced the teams to play two days.
“Clinton-Massie is a great football program. We’re working to try to compete with them,” said Mulvihill, adding Massie is “physical, strong, fast in every phase of the game.”
According to stats on the SBAAC website, Blanchester has run the ball on 118 of 131 plays. Massie has rushed the ball 142 times out of 150 plays.
Mulvihill said Gage Huston has started the season strong for the Wildcats.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked of him,” the coach said. “Plays middle linebacker on defense, started out the season as backup fullback on offense, then he was a guard, and now he’s a starting halfback. He doesn’t complain. He works hard, plays hard, and loves the game.”
