A Great Game….A Tougher Loss
Friday night was the culminating event of a fun and exciting week as we prepared our team for battle against local river Little Miami. This year marked the inaugural presentation on the “Battle for the Paddle” rotating trophy. This rivalry game marks its 45th season with a dead even record, 21-21-2! The Knights have not lost to the Panthers since 1995. But on this night, on their senior night, the Knights win streak would be stopped in an overtime thriller that left no real high school football fan disappointed.
Senior Quarterback Kyle Cook showed why he is the overall passing leader in all of Cincinnati. But when it really counted, he made plays with his legs and the young Kings defense could not contain him.
After watching this game on Sunday morning, it quickly registered in my mind that regardless what we did Friday night, it was just not meant to be for us to come out on top. We did not lose the game on this night, Little Miami simply won it. But as I sat on the bench after the game counting the missed opportunities, I did not come to this same conclusion. I was hurting mostly for our seniors who left it all on the field Friday night. All of our players from the seniors down to the freshman on our roster got full exposure of just what this game means and how well you have to play in order to come out on top.
This Friday, only 50% of the seniors across the state of Ohio get to play their last high school football game in their home stadium. This is important and I am hoping that by the time Friday comes around, these seniors realize that their high school careers are coming to a close. I am also hoping that the underclassmen give them a great send off via a “Champion’s Effort”!
See you at the game!
Coach Olds
GO KNIGHTS!!!