Despite Loss, Triton Coach Pleased
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Coming off last week’s 28-0 home loss to Culver, Johns questioned the desire of his team, but following Friday night’s 34-13 home loss to the Bremen Lions, he didn’t have many complaints.
“I just told this team that in 23 years of coaching football, I’ve never been more proud of a group, that’s for sure,” he said. “They played their hearts out and did everything I asked them to do. We put a scheme in this week to kind of bang the ball, and that’s what we were planning on doing.”
Losing the game, dropping to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the Northern State Conference, Triton did pound out 235 yards on 43 carries, but sputtered inside the red zone.
In the opening half, Triton moved the ball inside the 20, but couldn’t break the goal line, turning the ball over on downs twice, the second actually being an interception on fourth down.
Even after those two miscues, Triton recovered a Bremen fumble 12 yards from the end zone with 30 seconds left in the half, but without any timeouts, ran out of the time, leaving the Trojans in a 15-0 hole at the half.
“We were moving the ball, then we’d get down into the red zone and make some mistakes,” Johns said.
Unable to capitalize on golden opportunities in the first half, Bremen opened the second with touchdowns on its first two possessions, pushing its lead to 28-0 with 5:01 remaining in the third quarter.
From there, Triton got a 1-yard TD run from junior Jeremy Jones in the third quarter, then a 67-yard score from Jones in the fourth, but by then, it was just window dressing.
Jones’ big run was an exclamation point on a nice rushing night for Triton, as he went for 137 yards on 25 carries and senior quarterback Grant Stichter tallied 87 on 15 carries.
“We’re just not clicking on defense yet,” Bremen coach Robert Holmes said of his team, which now sits at 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the NSC. “I don’t want to make excuses, because we don’t do that, but we’re still adjusting to kids coming back from suspensions and injuries. We just don’t have a lot of experience on the defensive side of the ball with our starters.”
Holmes also didn’t have a lot of experience at quarterback, as sophomore Damon Young was filling in for sophomore Matt Box, who injured his shoulder in last week’s 63-19 loss at New Prairie.
In his first start, Young managed the game, completing 2 of 5 passes for 71 yards and a score, while deferring to sophomore running back Grant Klockow and junior Brett Louderback.
Using the inside-out running scheme, Klockow used his quickness to rack up 198 yards and a score on the outside, while Louderback pounded out 96 yards and three scores.
“We had a very vanilla offensive scheme, compared to what we’re used to running,” Holmes said. “That kid is a backup sophomore quarterback and Damon Young did an outstanding job of leading this team to a victory. Everybody stepped up around him, but I thought he did very well.”
Klockow and Louderback were a handful for the Trojans, but Johns wasn’t too hard on his squad.
“I couldn’t ask for more – if we could just eliminate the mistakes and not give up a couple big plays,” he said.
Mired in a three-game losing streak, Triton travels to Class 3A John Glenn, which is coming off a 25-7 win over LaVille.
BREMEN 34, TRITON 13
B 7 8 13 6 — 34
T 0 0 7 7 — 13
B T
1st downs 16 11
Rushing yds 300 235
Passing yds 71 7
Comp-Att-Int 2-5-0 1-4-1
Total yds 371 242
Fumbles/lost 4/2 3/1
Penalties/yds 2/10 3/16.5
Punts/avg 2/33.5 4/33
First Quarter
B – Brett Louderback 1 run (Justin Baker kick) 7:30, 7-0.
Second Quarter
B – Grant Klockow 58 run (Klockow conversion run) 4:36, 15-0.
Third Quarter
B – Louderback 1 run (kick blocked) 8:16, 21-0.
B – Damon Young 50 pass to Ryan Topper (Baker kick) 5:01, 28-0.
T – Jeremy Jones 7 run (Nate Spangle kick) 1:33, 28-7.
Fourth Quarter
B – Louderback 1 run (kick blocked) 8:15, 34-7.
T – Jones 67 run (kick failed) 6:35, 34-13.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Bremen, Klockow 27-198, Louderback 20-96, Team 1-4, Young 2-2, Rom DePalma 1-0; Triton, Jones 25-137, Grant Stichter 15-87, Spangle 3-11.
Passing — Bremen, Young 2-5, 71 yds, TD; Triton, Stichter 1-4, 7 yds, INT.
Receiving — Bremen, Topper 2-71; Triton, Tristan Hunsberger 1-7.[[In-content Ad]]
Coming off last week’s 28-0 home loss to Culver, Johns questioned the desire of his team, but following Friday night’s 34-13 home loss to the Bremen Lions, he didn’t have many complaints.
“I just told this team that in 23 years of coaching football, I’ve never been more proud of a group, that’s for sure,” he said. “They played their hearts out and did everything I asked them to do. We put a scheme in this week to kind of bang the ball, and that’s what we were planning on doing.”
Losing the game, dropping to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the Northern State Conference, Triton did pound out 235 yards on 43 carries, but sputtered inside the red zone.
In the opening half, Triton moved the ball inside the 20, but couldn’t break the goal line, turning the ball over on downs twice, the second actually being an interception on fourth down.
Even after those two miscues, Triton recovered a Bremen fumble 12 yards from the end zone with 30 seconds left in the half, but without any timeouts, ran out of the time, leaving the Trojans in a 15-0 hole at the half.
“We were moving the ball, then we’d get down into the red zone and make some mistakes,” Johns said.
Unable to capitalize on golden opportunities in the first half, Bremen opened the second with touchdowns on its first two possessions, pushing its lead to 28-0 with 5:01 remaining in the third quarter.
From there, Triton got a 1-yard TD run from junior Jeremy Jones in the third quarter, then a 67-yard score from Jones in the fourth, but by then, it was just window dressing.
Jones’ big run was an exclamation point on a nice rushing night for Triton, as he went for 137 yards on 25 carries and senior quarterback Grant Stichter tallied 87 on 15 carries.
“We’re just not clicking on defense yet,” Bremen coach Robert Holmes said of his team, which now sits at 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the NSC. “I don’t want to make excuses, because we don’t do that, but we’re still adjusting to kids coming back from suspensions and injuries. We just don’t have a lot of experience on the defensive side of the ball with our starters.”
Holmes also didn’t have a lot of experience at quarterback, as sophomore Damon Young was filling in for sophomore Matt Box, who injured his shoulder in last week’s 63-19 loss at New Prairie.
In his first start, Young managed the game, completing 2 of 5 passes for 71 yards and a score, while deferring to sophomore running back Grant Klockow and junior Brett Louderback.
Using the inside-out running scheme, Klockow used his quickness to rack up 198 yards and a score on the outside, while Louderback pounded out 96 yards and three scores.
“We had a very vanilla offensive scheme, compared to what we’re used to running,” Holmes said. “That kid is a backup sophomore quarterback and Damon Young did an outstanding job of leading this team to a victory. Everybody stepped up around him, but I thought he did very well.”
Klockow and Louderback were a handful for the Trojans, but Johns wasn’t too hard on his squad.
“I couldn’t ask for more – if we could just eliminate the mistakes and not give up a couple big plays,” he said.
Mired in a three-game losing streak, Triton travels to Class 3A John Glenn, which is coming off a 25-7 win over LaVille.
BREMEN 34, TRITON 13
B 7 8 13 6 — 34
T 0 0 7 7 — 13
B T
1st downs 16 11
Rushing yds 300 235
Passing yds 71 7
Comp-Att-Int 2-5-0 1-4-1
Total yds 371 242
Fumbles/lost 4/2 3/1
Penalties/yds 2/10 3/16.5
Punts/avg 2/33.5 4/33
First Quarter
B – Brett Louderback 1 run (Justin Baker kick) 7:30, 7-0.
Second Quarter
B – Grant Klockow 58 run (Klockow conversion run) 4:36, 15-0.
Third Quarter
B – Louderback 1 run (kick blocked) 8:16, 21-0.
B – Damon Young 50 pass to Ryan Topper (Baker kick) 5:01, 28-0.
T – Jeremy Jones 7 run (Nate Spangle kick) 1:33, 28-7.
Fourth Quarter
B – Louderback 1 run (kick blocked) 8:15, 34-7.
T – Jones 67 run (kick failed) 6:35, 34-13.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Bremen, Klockow 27-198, Louderback 20-96, Team 1-4, Young 2-2, Rom DePalma 1-0; Triton, Jones 25-137, Grant Stichter 15-87, Spangle 3-11.
Passing — Bremen, Young 2-5, 71 yds, TD; Triton, Stichter 1-4, 7 yds, INT.
Receiving — Bremen, Topper 2-71; Triton, Tristan Hunsberger 1-7.[[In-content Ad]]
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