GaryEdmondson
10-05-2009, 09:26 PM
Shamokin Area falls to Danville
by dan burda (sports writer dan_b@newsitem.com)
Published: October 3, 2009
DANVILLE - Shamokin's season has been reduced to relearning the fundamentals.
After Friday night's 24-10 loss in the rain at Danville, where the Ironmen scored 17 of their points off Indians' turnovers, head coach Dan Foor was left dripping wet and looking for answers.
"It's frustrating," Foor said of his team which lost two fumbles in the opening four minutes and committed a total of nine penalties for 63 yards.
"I feel bad for those kids. I'm not frustrated for me. We're not frustrated as coaches. I'm not mad at them. I just wish we could help them someway eliminate these silly mistakes. That's what this season is about right now, just some simple fundamental mistakes and we want these kids to be successful, but they're hurting themselves. It's a shame because they're great kids."
Shamokin's Tim Bousson fumbled the opening kickoff, and while the Indians' defense stoned the Ironmen, sophomore placekicker Dylan Friday was able to connect on a 36-yard field goal to give Danville an early 3-0 lead.
Exactly two minutes later, Danville again took possession of ball following a Brent Forbes fumble near midfield.
This possession took the Ironmen a little bit longer to score, and finally did when Russell Heath bounced off tacklers on fourth-and-three from the Indians' 11 and scored around the right side to up the score to 10-0.
"We came out and you might as well have put on 10 points right off the bat because it was 10-0," Foor said. "We turned the ball over. ... And we can't do that. We can't spot anybody any points. We just can't do that.
"This was a tough loss. Up to this point, five games into the season, you look at this score tonight and you think we got dominated, Danville played well. We didn't get dominated, we gave them 10 points and the penalties again."
On Shamokin's ensuing drive, the Indians found success running to the left as Jared Haddock took a keeper for 25 yards to set up a 40-yard touchdown run by Forbes to give the Indians' some life with the score 10-7.
Shamokin tied the game immediately before the half on a 25-yard Forbes field goal, and the Indians seemed to be headed in the right direction.
Danville came out after the half and took the first possession 65 yards on six plays, again ending with a Heath touchdown run.
This one was from 32 yards out after it again looked as though the Indians' defense had him wrapped up for minimal gain.
Danville's last score came when Ross Litz picked off a Haddock pass and returned it 59 yards to the end zone with 4:14 left in the third quarter.
After that the clouds opened and the teams slopped around until the final whistle blew with Shamokin gaining very little offensively.
"To Danville's credit, they had a great gameplan," Foor said. "We've run the ball very well the last two weeks, but Danville had a very good defensive plan and they took us out of what we wanted to do. We had another formation ready, another offensive set. To our kids' credit, we came back and tied it 10-10."
Forbes gained 84 yards on the ground as the Indians' leading rusher, while the Ironmen's Heath led all ground gainers with 112 yards from scrimmage.
by dan burda (sports writer dan_b@newsitem.com)
Published: October 3, 2009
DANVILLE - Shamokin's season has been reduced to relearning the fundamentals.
After Friday night's 24-10 loss in the rain at Danville, where the Ironmen scored 17 of their points off Indians' turnovers, head coach Dan Foor was left dripping wet and looking for answers.
"It's frustrating," Foor said of his team which lost two fumbles in the opening four minutes and committed a total of nine penalties for 63 yards.
"I feel bad for those kids. I'm not frustrated for me. We're not frustrated as coaches. I'm not mad at them. I just wish we could help them someway eliminate these silly mistakes. That's what this season is about right now, just some simple fundamental mistakes and we want these kids to be successful, but they're hurting themselves. It's a shame because they're great kids."
Shamokin's Tim Bousson fumbled the opening kickoff, and while the Indians' defense stoned the Ironmen, sophomore placekicker Dylan Friday was able to connect on a 36-yard field goal to give Danville an early 3-0 lead.
Exactly two minutes later, Danville again took possession of ball following a Brent Forbes fumble near midfield.
This possession took the Ironmen a little bit longer to score, and finally did when Russell Heath bounced off tacklers on fourth-and-three from the Indians' 11 and scored around the right side to up the score to 10-0.
"We came out and you might as well have put on 10 points right off the bat because it was 10-0," Foor said. "We turned the ball over. ... And we can't do that. We can't spot anybody any points. We just can't do that.
"This was a tough loss. Up to this point, five games into the season, you look at this score tonight and you think we got dominated, Danville played well. We didn't get dominated, we gave them 10 points and the penalties again."
On Shamokin's ensuing drive, the Indians found success running to the left as Jared Haddock took a keeper for 25 yards to set up a 40-yard touchdown run by Forbes to give the Indians' some life with the score 10-7.
Shamokin tied the game immediately before the half on a 25-yard Forbes field goal, and the Indians seemed to be headed in the right direction.
Danville came out after the half and took the first possession 65 yards on six plays, again ending with a Heath touchdown run.
This one was from 32 yards out after it again looked as though the Indians' defense had him wrapped up for minimal gain.
Danville's last score came when Ross Litz picked off a Haddock pass and returned it 59 yards to the end zone with 4:14 left in the third quarter.
After that the clouds opened and the teams slopped around until the final whistle blew with Shamokin gaining very little offensively.
"To Danville's credit, they had a great gameplan," Foor said. "We've run the ball very well the last two weeks, but Danville had a very good defensive plan and they took us out of what we wanted to do. We had another formation ready, another offensive set. To our kids' credit, we came back and tied it 10-10."
Forbes gained 84 yards on the ground as the Indians' leading rusher, while the Ironmen's Heath led all ground gainers with 112 yards from scrimmage.