Following their first loss of the season last Friday, Parkers Chapel (2-1) head coach Elliot Jacobs said the team has had a strong week of practice. Rather than overreact to the game, Jacobs said the team is staying focused.
“Foreman was a really good team, but we felt we missed a couple of big plays and if we’d executed better, we’d have been in the game right at the end,” he said. “Our goal is to win our home conference games, and we’re going to take this loss as what not to do.”
In the 30-14 loss, the Trojans had to put up with a formidable rushing attack. Joe Bradley and Blake Caldwell led the team with 10 tackles while Kori Morris and Garrett Taylor added seven. Jacobs said he’s preparing for more of the same against Mayflower (1-1) tonight.
“I’m sure they’ve got a copy of the Foreman tape,” he said. “We’ve prepared well, but you can prepare all you want: you have to go out and execute. If you do that, and the other team does that and they beat you, you move on. But I don’t want Parkers Chapel beating Parkers Chapel.”
Jacobs said the team had two days of practice in pads in an effort to get more physicality out of the players tonight. Linebacker Tyler Martin, who has been out the past two games, will start again for the Trojans, and the defense should benefit from his return.
Caleb Jacobs had another strong game at quarterback, passing for 216 yards and a score and rushing for 73 yards, but coach Jacobs said he needs to avoid making bad reads against the Eagles. Caleb connected with Preston Stivender twice for 101 yards and a touchdown last week, Trace Shoup five times for 35 yards and Tyler Killingsworth twice for 37 yards. Edison Thompson added a touchdown on the ground.
“We’re not going to change what we do,” the head coach said. “These kinds of games always take a whole team effort. They run the ball well, so we expect them to line up and try to run it down our throat.”