Manual football defeated Eastern 43–13 and took the field for the final time in the regular season last Friday, Oct. 31, the night of Halloween. Captains Jake Rist (12, #7) and Damien Smith (12, #14) led the game and Manual scored a touchdown within the first five minutes.
The temperature dropped throughout the game, and it began to snow around halftime. This did not stop Manual from defeating Eastern and winning their final game of the regular season after losing three consecutive games to Trinity, St. X, and Male.
“We slopped around the first half and didn’t really play championship ball.” Head Coach Oliver Lucas said. “We can do much better than what we showed.
Manual began to play better when it started snowing.
“The weather has no bearing on how you play,” Lucas said. “Great teams will go ahead and play well even in the snow or rain. It wasn’t just snowing on us, it was snowing on them as well. We began to play the type of ball that we needed to play.”
As Manual gears up for the playoffs, they will try to fix all the little things that plagued them throughout the season.
“We expect to do well,” Lucas said. “We aren’t just going to go and show up, we want to win it.”
The Crimsons’ defense will be a major part in Manual’s first game in round one of the playoffs.
“We came out horrible tonight,” middle linebacker Daylen Eichenberger (12, #81) said. “We tried to input new things for our game tonight, and it just messed us up, we will be prepared for the playoffs. As long as we play like we should, if we capitalize on picks and stop the runs, then we will win state.”
Manual will face McCracken County in round one of the playoffs at McCracken County on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to Friday’s game being the last of the regular season for football, the Crimson Sound marching band performed for the last time and held their senior night:
