by Geoff Fox
The Hancock Panthers fell to 0-2 on the young football season after being shut out last Friday, September 12, by Southern Garrett 49-0 in their home opener and Senior Night at Paul Imphong Field.
Head Coach Greg Cartrette said the game was a fight as the team only has 16 players. Three of those are freshman who are playing for the first time.
To compound the shortage, the Panthers had an offensive lineman go down, putting the team down to one offensive lineman.
Cartrette said they were using a player who had never played on the offensive line.
“It was struggle for us when we started having injuries,” the coach said.
He didn’t want to take anything away from Southern Garrett who showed up to play, but Hancock played their hearts out.
When you’re losing linemen and putting players in who haven’t played there just to have numbers, Cartrette said it’s tough.
After the opening game against Berkeley Springs, there were a few players that were banged up, but Cartrette said they were still healthy enough to play against Southern Garrett.
“We still had some issues, but we were able to show up and play,” he said adding most of the players had recuperated and recovered.
Cartrette wanted to recognize the whole team for their heart and not quitting, just continuing to play even though they were at a disadvantage.
“They just continued to play their hearts out,” he said.
Cartrette didn’t have any stats available, but said the Panthers only had 51 yards of total offense for the game.
While there were positive plays of 15 to 20 yards on offense, being tackled for a loss cuts into those totals.
Coach Cartrette said there were improvements on the defense from game one to game two.
“The score doesn’t show it, but our guys are in position to make the play, we just got to do a better job of executing,” he said.
He said the players are in position and know what’s coming, as well as coming together on the field.
“We are seeing improvement,” he said. “It’s slow improvement, but yeah, absolutely we’re seeing improvement.”
Cartrette said the players are working their tails off making those improvements and doing the best they can.
“That’s all I can ask for at this point,” he added.
Hancock travels to Northern Garrett tomorrow night, Thursday, September 18, to take on the Huskies at 7 p.m.
Cartrette says if the team can stay healthy, there’s a good chance Hancock could hang with the Huskies.
The team met on Monday and went over the game plan over the short week.
However, if the injury bug strikes again, it’s going to be tough for the Panthers.
“If we can survive and stay healthy, I think we have a shot to be there,” he said.
Cartrette said he’d be looking forward to the Gatorade bath after that first win.
During the game last week, the Panthers honored the three seniors on the team – Landyn Clark, Ethan Hill, and Tyler Clingerman.
Cartrette said the crowd was very supportive and was loud in the fourth quarter when the team had couple “nice runs” cheering.
“That’s all we can ask,” he said.
