(Guthrie Center) ACGC came up short against Earlham 31-28 in Week 1. The Chargers will try to bounce back against 1-0 Central Decatur Friday night.
Coach Cody Matthewson says his team did a lot of good things in Week 1, but made too many mistakes to top a good Earlham program. “It was one of those games where you tell the kids when you talk to them that they didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves. When you really break down the game and talk to the kids after the game there were a lot of strides forward from our scrimmage to Friday night.”
Central Decatur is coming off of a 42-6 win over Wayne. The Cardinals posted 178 passing yards and 146 rushing yards in their Week 1 victory. “It’s a very similar offensive style to us, it’s just a different formation and a little bit different style scheme, but I would say all in all they want to be a run heavy team and try to get you asleep behind the wheel in the pass game. If we do our job and we are disciplined, just like any other game I feel we have the ability to come out on top. But if we make the same mistakes we did on Friday night obviously the scoreboard probably will not be in our favor.”
One of the most encouraging things he’s seen from his team early in the season is their fight. “Just the mentality of the kids after being down 16. They didn’t hang their heads on that, they battled back and we scored two unanswered scores. The first couple of years if that happened to us it was automatic heads down and it would just snowball. To see that right out of the gates is exciting.”
Some of the bright spots statistically for ACGC in Week 1 included Charlie Crawford going for 140 yards and two scores on 11 carries, Gavin Cornelison led the defense with 11.5 tackles, and Austin Kunkle returned a kickoff 52 yards for a touchdown.
