NORTH MANCHESTER – Four letters are where Manchester High School head coach Greg Miller kept his thoughts Friday night.
Team.
“You guys have to have each other's backs … it’s that simple,” he spoke above the Squires gathered in the west end zone at MHS Field following a 33-0 setback at the hands of Class 1A No. 14 Southwood. “You need to understand … that’s still a great [Southwood] team.
“They’ve made deep runs in the playoffs several seasons, so even though they lost a lot of big-name players from last year, they still have that experience. They exposed some things we need to work on, but we’ll watch it on film tomorrow and move into next week.”
Miller had reasons to smile despite the season-opening defeat. The Squires kept the high-octane Knights’ running attack to just six points until the waning moments of the first half. Manchester corralled opposing signal caller Alex Farr three times for sacks, turned them over twice on downs and got in on a takeaway with a fumble recovery.
“There’s no doubt we played with all of our heart and passion for the game,” Miller said. “We got down early after an interception and hung in there, but turnovers hurt us, and Southwood took advantage of that.”
The Knights finally managed to subdue their stubborn hosts with a late first half touchdown and a 21-point second half barrage. Southwood’s offense was mostly gained on the ground, as junior running back Gabe Lloyd rushed for 186 yards on 26 carries with two scores as part of a 301-yard juggernaut.
Manchester did pick up 76 yards on the ground and 72 through the air, as senior running back Delton Moore proved tough to bring down at times, and junior quarterback Devin Marcum, in his first start, gained confidence hitting on eight passes.
“[Devin] got comfortable late in the game,” Miller said. “It’s a different speed to him, as he hadn’t have this kind of an opportunity before … going the entire way against a tough team.
“It’s just Game 1 though. We’ll make some corrections and move forward.”
Manchester hosts Bluffton Friday in Week 2. Southwood raises the curtain on its home calendar against Oak Hill.
