By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — By the end of the Owego’s multi-team scrimmage at Chenango Forks Friday evening, River Hawks coach Patton Taylor walked away impressed with the overall effort of his players.
“I was very pleased with how physical we were on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Our line did a fantastic job getting off the ball and getting a push. We spent a lot of time in the off-season developing our line and I thought that showed tonight.
“In the passing game we dropped some balls we should have had, but overall I liked what we did when we did spread the field. Defensively I thought we were pretty disciplined for the most part, minus a few mistakes here and there.
“Overall I thought it was a good showing on both sides of the ball. We were physical and showed grit and hustle.
Owego was a little sluggish out of the gate against Vestal, but picked it up to score a rushing TD and passing TD against Corning.
“I thought we came out a little flat offensively,” Taylor said. “I think the speed of live gameplay kind of knocked us on our heels initially so replicating that in practice is a must do. Once we woke up we looked solid but once we get into our games we can’t afford to come out flat like that.
“We saw some different defensive fronts on the line tonight as well that caused a little bit of confusion at times on our line, so continuing to work with our line and expose them to different fronts in practice needs to happen.”
Taylor likes the camaraderie he’s been seeing among the players.
“They’re a pretty close-knit group and they did a good job of communicating and figuring things out, but there’s always room for improvement.” he said.
The coach was also pleased with several individual performances.
“We had quite a few guys that played very well tonight,” he noted. “Our entire defense was flying around and playing a really physical brand of football. Our offense, once we got going, looked sharp too.
“One player that really stood out to me was Billy Huddleston. He didn’t get a ton of reps, but when he did get in there he really seized the moment and had some nice runs. It’s nice knowing that we have that kind of speed so now it’s on myself and my staff to figure out how we can fit that into our overall scheme.
The competition was solid for Owego, which is hoping to challenge preseason favorite Maine-Endwell for the Section IV Class B title this season. Vestal is the defending Class A champion, Forks is always a Class C powerhouse and Class AA contender Corning is always in the hunt for a trip to states.
The River Hawks have until Sept. 13 to fine-tune their game plan as they head to Ty Cobb Stadium to open against Class A Union-Endicott.
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
