Behind by two scores or more for the majority of he season, the winless Arlington High School football team played a four-quarter game Friday night against Schuyler.
Senior Kaden Pittman appreciated his team's effort against the Warriors, but the Eagles and he wanted more out of their homecoming game.
“We were hoping to come in and win this one,” he said.
The Eagles (0-7 overall) lost 10-0 at home, unable to score a point against a 1-6 team surrendering more than 39 per game entering the matchup.
“Run was just inconsistent and penalties held us back quite a bit,” Pittman said.
Senior Weston Wollberg had his own take, too.
“Penalties, for sure, and not being able to string big plays together,” he said. “We shot ourselves in the foot a lot.”
Schuyler, meanwhile, took a 3-0 lead less than 2 minutes into Friday's game when Brayan Romero kicked and made a 28-yard field goal. The lead held until the beginning of the second quarter when Romero pushed it to 10-0 with a 37-yard rushing touchdown.
From there, though, Arlington's defense earned stops. Jacob Beans notched four first-half sacks, while Wollberg finished with 14 total tackles from his position along the defensive line.
Kyle Quinn added eight tackles for AHS, while Kieryn Grothe intercepted a first-half pass and Dalton Newcomer recovered a late Schuyler fumble.
“I think it's the fact that we were completing our assignments and just not trying to do more than our job,” Wollberg said, assessing the Eagles' success defensively.
The key was teamwork.
“Just trusting in our teammates,” Wollberg explained. “We kind of built that trust up slowly through the game and, by the start of the second half, we were fully invested.”
Still, though, the Eagles couldn't draw any closer with their offensive inconsistencies. Sophomore quarterback Cooper Staats completed some third-down passes to Pittman for first downs, and watched Jacob Beans and Pittman run to move the chains, but it wasn't enough.
Still down 10 points, Arlington's offense possessed the ball just once more as the Warriors milked the clock during the fourth quarter. The Eagles' only drive started at the 18-yard-line and ended with 5:02 left as Arlington coach Colter Mattson and his staff opted to punt.
AHS never saw the ball again as Schuyler converted first downs and ran out the clock. The Eagles next play Friday at Columbus Lakeview.
