Wilmington High School football coach Scott Killen is blunt about the possible outcome of Friday night’s game at Minford.
“If I can’t figure out how to get our kids to play hard for four quarters, then we will have the same result as last week,” he said.
Wilmington lost to Butler 57-29 last Friday night.
“This is not going to be a game about the Xs and Os (gameplan) but simply about the Jimmys and Joes (the players),” Killen said.
Minford may be a Division V team but they’re playing well right now, said Killen. The Falcons quarterback, Elijah Vogelsong-Lewis, is the best Wilmington has seen through four games, Killen said.
In a 45-27 win last week over Greenup Co. (Ky.), Minford lined up and simply ran over their opponents. Vogelsong-Lewis had 266 yards on 23 attempts and Ty Wiget ran for 144 yards on 20 carries.
Minford had 41 yards rushing on 43 attempts.
The disheartening aspect of last week’s 28-point loss to Butler was a gutty comeback performance was all but forgotten. The Hurricane trailed 21-0 late in the first quarter then scored 29 of the next 36 points to take a 29-28 lead early in the third.
Malik Scott had a TD run then Carter Huffman caught a touchdown pass from Coomer, who later returned back-to-back kickoffs for touchdowns and Alumni Field was buzzing.
“After we took the lead, for whatever reason, we just stopped doing the things we did to get back into it,” said Killen. “The players worked hard to get back into the game but the frustrating part is that we didn’t maintain that energy and Butler capitalized on it. We are going to find guys that want to do the right thing all the time and we are going to continue to work on things to get better.”
The versatile and talented Coomer has two rushing touchdowns, a receiving touchdown, two passing scores and two kick returns for touchdowns this season.
Killen said, despite the poor start to the season, he has been pleased with the attitude and efforts of Chris Custis and Conner Mitchell.
“They both play both ways and are on most of the special teams,” he said. “They are both captains of the team and are great leaders and are doing whatever they can to help the team. Unfortunately, the scoreboard didn’t show it but Conner played a great game at defensive end last week and had several tackles for loss and a safety. Chris is leading our team in sacks.”
