St. Joseph-Ogden football falls to Charleston
By FRED KRONER
After falling behind 42-0 at halftime of Thursday’s non-conference football game at Charleston, St. Joseph-Ogden played the Trojans on even terms in the second half before dropping a 56-14 decision.
“I liked how we competed in the second half,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “It would have been easy for us to roll over, but we did not do that. We continued to fight and work on things we needed to do to improve. I was very pleased with that from our kids. We had moments where we looked really, really good.
“It was an uphill battle from the beginning all night. Now we go to work and get better for next week.”
Spartan sophomore Tyler Burch ran for a season-high 121 yards and scored one of the Spartans’ touchdowns. Keaton Nolan gained 98 yards on the ground and scored the team’s other TD.
Evan Ingram completed 6 of 12 passes, hitting a different receiver with each completion. SJ-O gained 39 yards through the air, but wound up with 209 yards rushing.
“They were just substantially bigger, faster and stronger than us,” Skinner said. “Going into the game, we were aware we had to play a really clean game and minimize any mistakes that we could.
“Unfortunately, we threw a pick six early in the first quarter and then we had a 3-yard punt that gave them really good field position.
“So, we just had too many errors turnover-wise and special teams-wise that enabled them to have easy field position and easy scores. It was going to be hard enough anyway, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot multiple times.”
SJ-O (1-2) returns to action on Friday (April 9) at Tolono Unity.
