The Presbyterian Christian Bobcats took a couple of steps forward last Friday night in a 34-14 loss to Columbia Academy, but they still have a long way to go.
After an abysmal season-opener at West Marion, PCS hung tough against the Cougars, even getting to within one score in the second half. The offense improved, the defense is still coming along, but there are still issues PCS coach Derek White wants to get cleaned up.
“We played better in spots,” White said. “We kind of figured out who we are a little bit, but we’re making mistakes and we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re just not explosive enough or not good enough to overcome those mistakes.”
A lot of the issues can be attributed to inexperience, plain and simple. The Bobcats moved the ball, but problems like bad snaps and fumbles ended a few drives early. For PCS, it has to minimize its mistakes, but it can’t afford to have too many mistakes while the young players get used to playing on a varsity level.
The offense isn’t explosive either, so the Bobcats are forced to put together long drives to put themselves in position to get points on the board.
“We have to grind it out, move the chains, and we’ll have a bad snap that will put us in a bad situation where we can’t come back,” White said. “We’ll have a second-and-7, then you snap it over his head and we’ll have a third-and-15. Things like that.”
A bad snap led to a missed field goal opportunity, and another fumble by the PCS offense was called incorrectly by the game’s referees, to list a few mistakes. When a PCS ran a jet sweep play, which is when a receiver starts his motion before the snap then receives the ball from the quarterback, instead of handing the ball off to the runner, the quarterback tosses the ball in the air slightly for the ball carrier to catch. That play is classified as a pass because of the pop pass, but when the ball was dropped, the referees ruled it a fumble instead of an incomplete pass.
The play led to Columbia Academy tying the game 7-7 before the Cougars added to the lead.
“We pop pass it so it’s an incomplete pass, but they called it a fumble and that’s why you don’t see our kids get on the ball,” White said. “We practice it every day. We pop it because in case that happens. That was unfortunate because we were up 7-0 and they ended up scoring on that drive.”
PCS started the season by rotating quarterbacks, but freshman Collin Necaise assumed full-time duties while junior Layton Pitts moved to receiver.
“We’re rolling with the freshman and he’s getting better every day,” White said. “We feel like if it’s not going in the right direction we’ll go back, but we feel like (Layton) gives us a threat a wideout. He’s such a fast guy and he’s had a great attitude. He wants to get better and all of our kids want to get better.”
This week’s opponent is Adams County Christian, which is coming off a 40-0 season-opening win over St. Aloysius (Vicksburg). The Rebels did not play a game in Week 1, and they benefited from another local private school closing its doors after the last school year by getting Trinity Episcopal Day School’s players.
“They’re very, very athletic,” White said. “They’re big and athletic. They have some guys who do a lot of stuff. They spread you out then they get in Ace (formation) and pound the rock. They’re pretty good at what they do. They had a big-time win Friday night.”
