Mountain Home defense shines in opener - Baxter Bulletin
Second-year Mountain Home Bomber head coach Benji Mahan's early goal was to wake up 1-0 on Sept. 3.
The Bombers did just that with a 34-12 win over the Nettleton Raiders Friday at Raider Field in Jonesboro.
After a few days to digest film, Mahan was able to reflect on the positives and analyze areas of improvement.
The defense won kudos for its performance in the game. Mountain Home held Nettleton without a first down into the third quarter.
"I thought our defense really prepared themselves mentally in the game plan and read their keys very well," said Mahan. "They did an excellent job of running to the ball and tackled well. They gave the offense field position all night because they did those things, and that's probably the biggest highlight, the improvement of our defense."
The offense did its job too, scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions of the season for a quick 14-0 lead.
"I think our kids were comfortable in what we were doing. We've repped those plays hundreds of times over the last two months," said Mahan. "I think that is a lot of it and I think we've got a lot of people we can get the ball to, which keeps the defense on their toes a little bit.
"I was proud of our execution. We've said that from day one, we had to execute to be successful," he added. "Drake (Walker) started out 5 for 5 (passing), we caught it, ran it and blocked it. We did what we set out to do."
Mountain Home came out and scored to open the second half, but PAT kick attempt went awry off the snap and left the Bombers one point short of invoking the 35-point mercy rule.
The Bombers then began to sub on offense, and the unit failed to produce for the remainder of the contest. Failure to move the ball efficiently put the defense in position to surrender points.
"There are certain guys that we wanted to get off the field, but some others needed some work," said Mahan. "The thing I liked about the kids is that we talked before the game about finishing the game, talked at halftime about finishing and we never got them to the mercy rule. It was a missed extra point and that showed our kids how important points are. Every point is important.
"Our kids were disappointed at the end of the game, almost to the point that it was a loss," he added. "It wasn't and they understood that, but they had set a goal out to finish an opponent and we didn't do that."
Mahan was glad to see that disappointment.
"From a coach's standpoint, that's good. They didn't see it as, 'Oh we only gave up 12 points and didn't finish them off,' " he said. "They were disappointed in that and it can carry on, and it has this week in practice as well."
Heading into this week's practices for Harrison, finishing is the big area of emphasis.
"We have to finish, whether it's finishing blocks, catches or finishing runs. We put the ball on the ground twice and we got one of the back. We can't do that," said Mahan. "We have to finish on defense. We had some guys that thought they were getting tired late in the game, but it was more we're up 34 to whatever. I want us to finish that thing out.
"We're sitting here in the same spot we were last year, it's no different. We are 1-0 and we were 1-0 last year, now what are we going to do with it?" he added. "That's one of the things we've talked about, we're not going to lose nine straight again. We've got to win our nonconference season, and it starts this Friday."
The Bombers also came through the game without any injuries and have running back Ethan Britt back in practice.
"We came out really good and healthy, which is wonderful," said Mahan. "This time of year you deal with cramps and bumps and bruises. We came out healthy and we're excited about going into the Harrison game Friday."
07 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF3wpie54S7gu9ozGYyaSG1HF_z3A&url=http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20110907/SPORTS/109070327/Mountain-Home-defense-shines-opener
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
