For the Daily Journal
Although Edinburgh coach Tyler DeSpain’s team scored first against South Decatur, that didn’t seem to provide much momentum.
“Once they scored that first touchdown and drove down easily, our kids kind of just gave up,” DeSpain said.
The visiting Cougars reeled off 41 unanswered points in a 41-15 victory over the Lancers Saturday night in Mid-Indiana Football Conference play.
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Edinburgh (1-4, 1-2) was coming off its first victory and had been competitive in two of its other three games.
“I don’t think it’s a step back, but I think it’s more of an embarrassment for the kids,” DeSpain said. “It was just a very bad game for us.”
DeSpain said they keep emphasizing one victory is not enough.
“When people see we are competitive in all our games, teams are not going to take it easy,” DeSpain said. “Our kids need to understand they can’t get embarrassed like this.”
Cougars quarterback Wyatt Gatewood ran for three touchdowns, a pair of 2-yard TD runs and one from 4 yards out. Clayton McNealy ran for more than 150 yards with touchdown runs of 19 and 15 yards.
“The run game is one of our biggest weaknesses on defense,” DeSpain said.
Edinburgh had scored first on junior Riley Palmeter’s 35-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Caleb Dewey. After the Cougars were called for roughing the kicker, Palmeter and Dewey hooked up for two-point conversion pass to give the Lancers an 8-0 lead with 7:15 left in the first quarter. The Lancers did not score again until Palmeter’s 14-yard TD pass to junior Landen Burton with 43 seconds left.
Edinburgh led 8-6 after one quarter, but South Decatur moved into a 28-8 lead by halftime.
DeSpain said his team had a bad week of practice.
“Sometimes kids think they have switches they can turn on whenever they want,” DeSpain said. “They have to be ready to play right off the bat.”
DeSpain said South Decatur coach Rick Zimmerman did a great job preparing for the game.
“I’m sure he had multiple films on us,” he said. “It kind of sucks when we play a team that hasn’t played in four weeks and they get possibly three or four weeks’ films and we get one. That helped them a little bit, but they played a great game. They schemed well and hit our weaknesses.”
The Cougars (1-1, 1-1) hadn’t played since an opening loss to North Decatur Aug. 21. Three games were canceled due to some COVID-19 concerns.
“Our kids were excited about playing,” Zimmerman said. “(The Lancers) are a good football team and I’m not looking forward to playing them next year. I have 12 seniors. They have a couple good seniors, but for the most part they’re young. They’re talented and we knew we had. The game was won up front, and I was pleased with that part because I had one starter back on played on the offensive and defensive line.”
