The clock is always running.
That’s what Mexico football head coach Steve Haag said to his players after their 26-12 loss in Kirksville (3-7) in the Class 4 District 5 tournament. The Bulldogs …
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The clock is always running.
That’s what Mexico football head coach Steve Haag said to his players after their 26-12 loss in Kirksville (3-7) in the Class 4 District 5 tournament. The Bulldogs close the season with a six-game losing streak and a 3-7 record.
Head coach Steve Haag said Friday’s game is a microcosm of the season. The Bulldogs had good moments by rushing for 220 yards to outgain Kirksville on the ground but also had three fumbles – losing two – and seven penalties for 75 yards.
“You hate to go out on a loss,” Haag said. “The whole thing of the season was up and down. We play good games and we play bad games. Tonight was in the middle and mimicked our season. We played well at times, and then we didn’t play well.”
Haag said Mexico had mistakes at “inopportune times” like by not knowing how to line up out of a timeout and being forced to use another timeout in the drive before halftime that stayed at a 14-6 Kirksville lead. In the second, Mexico was supposed to receive the ball first, but Kirksville recovered an onside kick. The Bulldogs also ran into the punter to give Kirksville a first down, which would eventually turn into a touchdown and 26-12 lead, which was the “nail in the coffin.”
“Those things are just things where we have to be smarter football players,” Haag said. “Our kickoff team needs to know that ‘I’ve got to cover that ball,’ and we can’t run into the kicker. That’s knowledge-based stuff about the game of football that we have to get better at.”
Mexico had a younger team this year, but Haag also added that kids might not be watching as much football as they did 10 years ago. He said the Bulldogs need to learn these things to prevent snowballing mistakes and squandered scoring opportunities.
Marshall Ball led Mexico with 70 rushing yards on 13 carries and ran in a one-yard touchdown to make Mexico’s deficit 20-12 in the third quarter. Connor Fisher ran 52 yards on eight carries, Kyler Benne had 101 offensive yards, and James Matthews had all three catches for 52 yards. Matthews took a screen pass from Benne for 42 yards to score a touchdown and make Mexico’s deficit 7-6 in the first quarter.
Mexico looked like itself on its scoring drives of 11 and 14 plays, but Haag said other little mistakes kept other drives from having more longevity.
“Kyler makes a great read, takes off running and the guy goes across his body and we fumble it,” Haag said. “Now, it’s fourth and one instead of a first down. He doesn’t want to fumble it, but it’s those little things. Like the punt in the first half that goes down at the one-yard line. It’s hard to start on your one-yard line. That’s just being smart football players like ‘I’ve got to get in front of this ball and make sure I get a piece of it.’”
Kael Smith led Mexico with 16 tackles, Roman Kelly followed with 12 tackles, and John Kelly had five tackles in his final game as a Bulldog.
Kirksville quarterback Joel Feeney had 116 yards on 9-for-20 passing and 60 rushing yards for three total touchdowns. He connected on two passes downfield in or near the end zone for touchdowns. Blake Nesbitt had 87 yards and a touchdown on five catches.
“The problem is they lull you to sleep running the ball,” Haag said. “All of a sudden, all you have to do is look in the backfield and this guy is by you. They’ve got a couple big and good receivers, and they made plays.”
Mexico ran out of time for a comeback on Friday. That also meant the time had run out on the six seniors, who Haag said several of them were starters on both sides of the ball.
“Our senior class was small,” Haag said. “If you’re small, you make sure you’re impactful. All of those guys were tonight. You think that it’s not going to end, but it does. The clock is always on. It looks like it’s off now, but it’s not.”
The clock is ticking toward next season, too.
“We’ve got a good core group of guys,” Haag said. “We’re physical and want to play the game of football, but we’ve just got to become better students of it. We’ve got to get bigger, stronger and faster. There doesn’t need to be any excuses. We can’t make mistakes like this next year.”
