By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — Following a tough loss to Patoka Lake Athletic Confernence opponent Springs Valley in the previous week, Mitchell High School looked to bounce back on Friday. Once again, taking their home field to face a PLAC opponent, this time West Washington.
After losing in convincing fashion to the Blackhawks in the previous week, the Bluejackets looked to make big improvements in this matchup against the Senators, as they look to earn their first win of the season.
Though Mitchell did take some steps forward, it was not enough to topple West Washington, who were ultimately victorious 33-0.
Despite not finding the end zone, the Bluejackets’ offense had much more success moving the ball down field than they saw the previous week, racking up double digit first downs and close to 200 yards of total offense. Unfortunately for Mitchell, those strides were often offset by costly mistakes, primarily in the form of penalties and turnovers that set up the Senators with generous field position that resulting that led them to eventually score.
“I thought we fought. Like I told them, until we can become a disciplined football team, until we can know what formations we’re in and not jump back and forth because we go in the wrong formation. We mess up, we run the wrong play. Until we get that stuff fixed, it’s going to be tough to win ballgames,” said Mitchell head coach Zach See.
“I know they’re capable of fixing it, but like I told them, they’ve got to meet me halfway,” he continued. “We were sloppy.”
The Bluejackets started the game with a strong defensive stand that forced a three and out, their offensive took over and carried that momentum forward, earning a couple of first down conversions before ultimately turning it over on downs.
From that point, West Washington took control. They scored two early touchdowns, snagged an interception and later recovered a fumbled punt deep in Mitchell territory that led to their third touchdown of the half, putting them up 20-0 at the break.
It wasn’t until late in the third quarter that Mitchell found themselves once again threatening to score again, set up by a 46-yard carry from running back Kaden Mullis that put the Bluejackets near the red zone, before an interception on the next play ended the drive.
“I kind of got into them a little bit at halftime because I didn’t feel like we were driving up front on the line and I thought they responded well when we came out,” said See.
“But you don’t do that for one half of football. It’s hard to make up for it in another half and come back and win, which is just the part of being sloppy,” he added.
The Senators controlled the game through the air, with quarterback Gavin Hunt completing 8-13 throws for 150 yards and a touchdown. Jent Tankersley added four completions for 62 yards. Their top targets were Colton Brown and Hayden Morrow, who each caught six passes for 113 and 99 yards respectively.
For Mitchell, Mullis totaled 128 yards on 22 carries to lead the charge for them on offense.
See had noted mental toughness as an area in which he’d like to see an improvement from his team in previous weeks. On Friday, he felt his squad did a good job of competing through frustrating circumstances, though they still have a ways to go as the season continues.
“I saw some mental toughness, and like I said, I thought we battled, but that even goes under the sloppy section part. It’s stuff that we’ve worked since day one, talking and communicating,” he said. “We’re right there. We just got to keep chipping away, and we’ll get there.”
They’ll finish their three game home stand next Friday against Eastern Greene. See will look to see his team continue to improve, hoping to reach the higher standard of play they’ve been able to achieve at times throughout the season thus far, but unable to sustain.
“I feel like we’ve got to build off the things we did well tonight. We can’t dwell on it,” he said.
The work will continue for the Bluejackets in the week leading up to the game, as See said the team will continue to work on fundamentals to weed out mistakes that have cost them in their first three games.
“I think we’ll go back to the basics on a lot of stuff, run game and pass game-wise, and we’ll just go back to almost first day of practice stuff and just keep chipping away and get really our fundamentals and our scheme down pat to where we can execute consistently,” he continued.
