Junior Tanner Printz (left) celebrates his touchdown with sophomore Lucas Howell (right).
Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
Junior Reed Wehr carries Preble Shawnee defenders with him to gain a few extra yards.
Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
NEW MADISON — In the battle between last year’s first and second place teams in the WOAC, Tri-Village lost to Preble Shawnee 26-21. Last season, it was at Preble Shawnee the Patriots fell. This year, it was at their home stadium.
The mix of turnovers and penalties the Patriots had made the game that much harder for the Patriots to win.
“You can’t have six turnovers and expect to beat anybody,” Head coach Matthew Hopkins said. “We let our emotions get the best of us, including the staff. We didn’t put the kids in a good position.”
Preble Shawnee is a team that made a deep run into the playoffs last season. Tri-Village was tied with them, 14-14, at halftime.
Preble Shawnee had the first possession of the second half and were stopped on fourth down at midfield. The Patriots scored on the drive after on a Braden Keating to Tanner Printz touchdown pass.
The team couldn’t get into a groove. The fifth turnover of the game came in the second half when Tri-Village fumbled on the one-yard line to go up eight. Preble Shawnee drove down and scored after the fumble.
Preble Shawnee had their share of penalties, but they only had one turnover. Their defense held the Patriots in check for most of the game.
Hopkins said Keating made some nice plays with his feet, but they couldn’t get any consistency on offense.
“You can’t rely on that. You have to get into a rhythm and get it going. We just didn’t tonight,” Hopkins said.
The same goes for the defense. They had great stops at times. But when it mattered the most, Preble Shawnee made the big play on offense to win this game.
The season isn’t over for the Patriots. They do need some help to claim a WOAC title, but there is still a lot of the season ahead.
Hopkins said this team has two choices after this game that could determine how the rest of their season goes.
“There’s two ways we can go right now. We can hang our heads and say the season is over and fold it up,” Hopkins said. “Or we can come back and want to get better Monday.”
Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]
