WS Chronicle

For the first month of the junior varsity season, the East Forsyth Eagles seemed like a juggernaut in all phases of the game.  Last Thursday they ran into an equally tough team in the Reidsville Rams.  Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Rams walked away with a narrow 8-7 victory.

According to Eagle head coach Ronald Horton, whatever could have gone wrong did in their game against the Rams.  East Forsyth uncharacteristically turned the ball over a mind boggling seven times and still only lost by a point.

If not for a pick six by the Rams in the second half the Eagles may have wound up winning the game even with all of the errors that occurred.  It was not only the turnovers that bit the Eagles, they also had untimely penalties and missed assignments on offense that led to the defeat.

“I think our defense played a very dominate game and they did enough to win,” said Horton.  “The bottom line is they only gave up two points and had their backs against the wall several times in the red zone and they would not give.”

“We as an offense had 7 turnovers and we threw an interception that was run back to the house for six points which is how they got their score,” Horton continued.  “We lined up offsides on the extra point and they go for two and get it and the rest is history.”

Horton says that his offense was “bad” which was very unlikely going in as they have scored over 40 points a game each week prior.  He thought the effort was there but the execution was lacking.

“Every play there was nine or 10 guys doing what they were supposed to do but there was always one or two that was missing an assignment or not executing what they were supposed to be doing,” he said.  “Eventually it caught up with us and we were playing a good team, a championship caliber team that you can’t make those mistakes against and expect to win.”

Horton was extremely frustrated with the amount of turnovers his team had last week.  He says it was abnormal for his quarterback to miss certain reads that resulted in an interception along with having his receivers run the wrong route.  They also had balls stripped from receivers following receptions which, is also abnormal.

Horton credits the coaching and fundamentally sound play that Reidsville displayed last Thursday night.  He says even though the Rams played well there were opportunities that his team did not capitalize on.  

“I thought they were very physical but I thought we matched that physicality to a certain extent,” said Horton.  “But when it came down to it we had plenty of opportunities and we didn’t make the plays when we had to, mental mistakes killed us.”

For Horton he says he told his guys that he appreciated the emotion he saw from his team following the loss.  He went on to tell them that when they are playing a team with equal talent, desire and execution matters most.

Even though the Eagles were riding high coming into the game Horton doesn’t feel his team came into the game over confident.  He says he knows what the Rams reputation was coming in along with how they defeated the Demons of R.J. Reynolds two weeks earlier.  He said they expect excellence at East Forsyth so overconfidence is never an issue.

Horton fully expects his team to rebound well against Paige out of Greensboro.  He says they don’t have time to dwell on the defeat because “adversity reveals character.”