Noah Allen runs the ball for the Athenians.
LEBANON — The goal for the Lebanon football team Friday night in its match-up with Crawfordsville was to eliminate some of the self-inflicted mistakes that had cost them in a couple games this season.
And while it still wasn’t perfect, the Tigers took a big step in the right direction Friday night in a 50-0 win against Crawfordsville that improved the Tigers record to 3-4 on the season.
“Through six weeks, we have proven ourselves at times to be an undisciplined football team,” Lebanon head coach Jeff Smock said. “So we could either prove people right that we are that, or make a conscious effort to prove them wrong. I was so proud of them tonight. We had some penalties here and there, but that will happen, but guys were engaged, focused on their jobs and we focused on the fundamentals.”
Lebanon opened the scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run by Trevor Winkles, that was set up in part by two personal foul penalties on the Athenians on the same play, giving the Tigers 30 yards.
On the ensuing Crawfordsville possession they were forced to punt, and snapped the ball over the punter’s head for a loss of 31 yards, setting Lebanon up for a 1-yard touchdown run by Brayton Bowen.
Those types of errors are something that Athenians have to continue to try and eliminate, head coach Kurt Schlicher said.
“We had a couple chances there in the first half to stop them on fourth down, and you just have to give Lebanon credit for making a big play,” Schlicher said. “We made couple of mistakes, and they made a couple of plays off it. Lebanon has a very talented team, we knew that coming over here. We are disappointed in our execution and we have to be better moving forward.”
The Tigers continued to pour it on in the first half.
Garrett Harker (10 of 15, 236 yards, three touchdowns) found Michael Reese for a 26-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-18, and on the first play of the Tigers’ next possession, Harker connected with J.C. Reese for a 64-yard touchdown.
The junior classmates added another long touchdown — of 55 yards — in the second quarter, and connected five times for 166 yards in the game.
“Garrett and J.C. are pretty darn good,” Smock said. “The reason that J.C. was able to get in the end zone a couple of times was because of blocks by Jarrett French and Michael Reese. They were blocking their butts off on the edge and being selfless. Garrett and J.C. earn all the success they have because they worked hard together for a long time.”
Winkles added a second touchdown in the second quarter, and Lebanon capped its first half scoring on a pick-6 from defensive end Hunter Crew.
The Tigers defense held the Athenians to negative-30 yards of offense in the first half, and pitched their second shutout of the season while forcing three turnovers.
“The defense did a great job,” Smock said. “They were dialed in. We have spent a lot of time with our secondary, and we have a lot of faith in those guys, but there are just a couple plays in games that cost us. We went back to the basics, focused on our keys and the secondary - and defense as a whole - did a great job.”
The Tigers capped the scoring in the third quarter on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Landon Fouts to Jack Reynolds.
While it didn’t result in points in the second half, the Athenians put together their two best drives of the game in the second half.
The Athenians are 0-7, but a hoping the better effort they showed in the second half leads to their first win of the year next week at Tri-West.
“I told the kids at halftime, that when you play a football game, it isn’t just about winning and losing,” Schlicher said. “You are playing for the community, you are playing for the school and are playing for each other most importantly. We did that in the second half and I am proud of the guys for that. We are still searching for that first win and we are going to keep working hard for it. We worked hard this week, it just didn’t happen.”
