SJ-O football continues to show improvement
By FRED KRONER
Some perspective is needed for the St. Joseph-Ogden football team after the Spartans’ season record dropped to 0-3 following a Friday (Sept. 10) 34-28 loss at home to Prairie Central.
The first three SJ-O opponents have a combined 8-1 record.
“We haven’t played three teams that aren’t good, solid football teams,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “Through three games, we’ve seen improvement.
“We haven’t regressed.”
That progress has occurred even though a variety of SJ-O players have been missing – up to six for some games – during the first one-third of the season.
“We’re getting healthier every week,” Skinner said. “All of a sudden, the roster we anticipated having, in Week 4 potentially we will have our full arsenal of players.”
Against Prairie Central, Evan Ingram completed 15 of 23 passes for 203 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, two to Keaton Nolan and one to Griffin Roesch.
Nolan had 87 receiving yards and Roesch turned his receptions into gains of 81 yards.
Coby Miller had one rushing TD.
“There’s an awful lot of good things that our kids are doing,” Skinner said. “We found a way to throw the ball. We didn’t have a turnover for the second straight game and we had just five flags.”
Significantly, the four SJ-O touchdowns came on the team’s final four possessions.
“In our first two games, we scored early and as the game went on, we struggled to find ways to move the ball in the second half,” Skinner said.
Skinner credited assistant coach Dalton Walsh, who had a press box view of the game and “was seeing things that were open and calling the plays.”
After managing 16 total points through two games, SJ-O put up 28 in Week 3.
Defensively, the Spartans made it tough on the Hawks.
“They were 7-for-8 on fourth-down conversions,” Skinner said. “That’s not a negative reflection on what our kids did, but more a positive reflection on what Prairie Central did.
“Credit our kids for forcing those eight fourth downs. We made Prairie Central earn everything. They only had three splash plays, gains of 20 or more yards.”
SJ-O (0-3) returns to action on Friday (Sept. 17) at home against Chillicothe IVC (0-3).
“We’re home again and there’s a lot to be excited about,” Skinner said. “Everything we want to do is right in front of us.”
