Last night, Manual’s football team easily defeated Fern Creek 14-0 in the first home game of the season.
The game started out very strong for the Crimsons, with most of the action happening in the first half.
Manual won the coin toss and decided to kick to Fern Creek. Manual’s first drive started at the 25 yard line. Fern Creek received a penalty which allowed the Crimsons to start with good field position.
Will Britt (17, 12) completed a clean pass to Matthew Motley (5, 12) as the Crimson’s fiercely pushed into the Tiger territory. Andre Teague (6, 12) had a pair of nice back to back runs and punched the ball even deeper onto Fern Creek’s side.
Just like last week at Central, Manual got a quick, early score in. Unfortunately for the Crimsons it was called back once more due to penalties on the play.
With the ball on the seven yard line, Teague bulldozed his way into the end zone with Fern Creek players clinging on to his back, making that the first touchdown of the game followed by a successful extra point kick by Nick Kopp (9, 11) with under five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Contrary to the previous game, the defense showed out as the offense struggled to get the ball moving down the field.
“One of the things we need to do is get our chemistry on offense better. We just were turning the ball over too much and we need to really trust each other,” said Cameron Stinnett (72, 11).
At the start of the second quarter, the Crimsons received the ball on the 32 yard line following a 15 yard penalty committed by Fern Creek.
With both teams desperately fighting for control of the ball, Manual managed to prevail and attempted at another touchdown.
Britt scrambled to the right finding Motley wide open and connected another pass his way, this allowed Motley to leisurely step into the end zone for the final touchdown of the night. With 5:37 left in the first half Kopp returned to the field to top off the score with another extra point.
Throughout the game, Manual’s defense held out impressively; not allowing any points to be scored by the Tigers.
“We kept it simple, we ran the ball down the field, we did what we had to do on defense and we shut the team out and our defense executed,” said Russell Thomas (14, 11).
With this 14-0 victory, Manual goes 2-0 on the season and is looking forward to see what happens next.
“We did good on our defense this game and next week I think we will [also] win,” said Marcis Floyd (11, #2).
The Crimsons take on Seneca next week at 7:30 for their second home game of the season.
