Trojans focused on Southwood

Story courtesy of the Pilot News.

BOURBON — Taking one on the chin at North Miami a week ago hasn’t left a good taste in the mouth of Triton’s Trojans.
“They came out ready to play, and we did not match that in the first half,” said Triton coach Rodney Younis. “You put yourself in a hole with a good team, and you aren’t going to get yourself out of it. We made a game out of it in the second half, but the bottom line is that against a good team, you have to play four quarters, and we played two.”
“It was a great way for us to watch it on film on Saturday and say this is what you have to correct if you want to beat a good team.”
It also allows the Trojans to reflect on how they get better to make a deep playoff run.
“To be honest, this whole season, we’ve had spurts where we don’t play as well as we should,” said Younis. “You can get by with it sometimes, but when you play quality teams, you can’t have those lulls. If we want an opportunity to win our sectional and move on, that’s something that we have to correct.”
One thing Younis did like about last Friday, bodes well for the coming weeks.
“I like our grit,” he said. “The second half, our kids could have easily folded, but they didn’t. We were down 21 and got it back to 21-13 and were inside the 10-yard line with a chance to tie it up. Two penalties later, we were out of that field position, but we battled. Those are good teaching moments, but we’ve turned that page and moved on.”
Moving on means focusing on Southwood who will come to Bourbon on Friday to open sectional play.
“It’s been a few years since we’ve been able to host a first-round sectional game,” said Younis. “We are happy we get to host this one and give our seniors at least one more opportunity to play at home.”
Focus becomes doubly important as the Knights come in at 0-9 but present the classic “trap game” in the tournament round, where you are one game away from going home for the year.
“It’s not too hard to keep these guys focused,” said Younis of his team. “You watch film, and they (Southwood) do some really good things, they play some tough competition, but they have some quality players. They do something offensively that we haven’t seen this year, and that’s run the spread offense.”
“It makes it a challenge for our defense,” said Younis. “They’ve been focused. They focus in film, they go out to the practice field and continue that focus.”
The focus for the team is on things that will be important every Friday for the tournament run.
“We want to string four quarters together and focus on moving our feet and not putting ourselves in bad positions,” said Younis. “We need to have positive plays and not put ourselves behind the sticks.”