INDIANAPOLIS
Questions were answered about the Greenwood Christian football team Friday night; others, however,could take several more games to answer.
One question answered was yes, the Cougars are going to be a competitive football team for coach Andre Dobson.
Despite losing the “home” opener on the Beech Grove Middle School field 44-27 to Park Tudor, there was plenty to cheer about for the Cougars against a team that had beaten them 65-6 a year ago.
“I wasn’t sure how physical we would be,” Dobson said. “We wanted to show (Park Tudor) that we weren’t the same team as last year and I’m proud of the guys with how we played.”
Trey Dobson returned two kickoffs for touchdowns (80 and 91 yards) in the first half, both after Park Tudor scores, and threw for two touchdowns, while tossing for 180 yards and rushing for 93. Dobson also had an 80-yard punt return for a score nullified on a holding penalty in the first half.
But two huge Greenwood Christian question marks became exclamation points for Park Tudor during the game and contributed heavily to the Cougars losing a game they could have won — pass defense and penalties.
The Cougar secondary was beaten for six touchdown passes and 230 yards passing from freshman quarterback Chris Harris, who was just as dynamic as Trey Dobson was.
However, the most worrying detail for coach Dobson and his staff was the penalties. The Cougars were flagged 20 times for a staggering 180 yards. Most of those penalties were typical first-game jitter flags with false starts and delay of games, but the Cougars were hit with four unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and a personal foul.
Moreover, aside from the penalty that cost Trey Dobson what would have been his third special teams touchdown, a dropped pass by a wide-open receiver thwarted a potential score, and two missed opportunities on turnovers in Park Tudor territory were significant.
The Panthers (15 penalties for 140 yards) weren’t saints either, but theirs didn’t cost them as much.
“I don’t know anybody that can win a game with that many penalties,” Andre Dobson said. “We can’t do that and must do a lot better controlling ourselves. We’ll be talking about that, and we have to fix that.”
If the Panthers were thinking this contest was going to be a cakewalk like last season’s thrashing, they got an education after the first of Trey Dobson’s kick returns.
Park Tudor scored twice on its first three possessions, with Harris hitting Chase Sharp for a 26-yard score and then Landon Guerra for 20. Harris then had quite the second half with touchdown strikes to Grant Ludwig for 20 yards, M.J. Gaines twice for 32 and 9 yards, and Britton Thomas from 15 yards out.
Dobson threw to Zach Haynes for a 6-yard touchdown, then Isaiah Johnson for a 69-yard bomb, but that was it for the Cougars, who could only wonder what could have been without the penalties and other misfortunes.
“Our line is the best line we have had in three years, and they really stepped it up,” Andre Dobson said.
All told, the Cougars had 322 total yards, opening up in the second half after getting only 44 in the first half. Park Tudor had 384 total yards.
As for the new home field, despite being more than 14 miles away from the Greenwood Christian campus, Dobson was impressed with the facilities and was happy to find a new field to play on after his team lost its home from the past two years at Center Grove Middle School North.
“Beech Grove was super kind and open to having us, and we really appreciate that,” the coach said.
Greenwood Christian hosts Covenant Christian next Friday at 7 p.m.
