It was a tough outing for the Golden Eagles this past Friday night as they suffered their first loss of the season in a 14-point loss to the high-powered Derby Panthers. DP: 35 > BC: 21

Breakdown:

Despite the hot start from the Golden Eagles this season, the defense seemed to suffer somewhat of a letdown against the Panthers, with the defense struggling to stop the impressive running game of the Derby Panthers. This was most likely due to the fact that the Derby Panthers have one of the most talented backfields that the Golden Eagles could potentially face all year in the duo of tailback Dylan Edwards and quarterback Lem Walsh.

Derby quarterback Lem Walsh had somewhat of a breakout performance this past Friday night, with the Senior quarterback being able to put up 260 total passing yards, along with 130 yards on the ground. Tailback Dylan Edwards also had a big game with 153 yards on the ground.

It was clear throughout the majority of Friday’s game that the Golden Eagles struggled mightily to stop the Derby offense. Whether it was the opposing running game, or Derby’s passing attack, the Derby offense seemed to consistently be one step ahead of the Golden Eagle defense. The consistent debacles from the defense was no doubt a major factor in the outcome of Friday’s game. 

The Golden Eagle offense seemed to struggle to get their running game going throughout the majority of the contest, with the Panther defense consistently being able to plug up the holes created by the stout Carroll offensive line. Despite a handful of late scores by the offense in an attempt to get them back in the game, it proved not to be enough with Derby being able to close the game with a 14 point lead on the Golden Eagles.

Adrian’s thoughts:

The Derby Panthers put on a relatively dominant performance, which no doubt was a humbling experience for the Golden Eagles. Despite the difficult outing, coach Trail was able to stay relatively positive in his post-game speech, stating that it’s not about what happened Friday night, but how players choose to respond in the face of adversity. Despite the tough and difficult outing, I do expect the defense to make a big-time bounce back this week due to inevitably great coaching from the likes of Coach Trail and Coach Nance. This will no doubt be the main focal point for the Golden Eagles as they look to respond to this tough loss and move on to the 1-3 Dodge City Demons in a game they should win.

Quotes of the week:

Hunter Trail on what the main attributing factor was to his team coming up short against the Derby Panthers:

“We didn’t play our brand of football and that’s just playing Carroll football. We went into the game thinking that we had to play perfect to beat them and we just needed to do our job and play how we like to play and the scoreboard would have reflected better for us if we did that.”

Hunter on how he believes his team will bounce back:

“I believe we will get back to perfecting the basics this week. We will do the basic things we like to do but really work on making those plays or formations as crisp as possible this week. If we can get the little things cleaned up I think it will help us not only this week but in the long run.”