When the Head Coach of the Oshawa Hawkeyes Coach T woke up Saturday morning one of the first things he most likely noticed was the weather. What he probably didn’t know is that the worst was still to come in terms of Thunder.
The Hawkeyes were crushed by Toronto on Saturday losing 43-7 at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough. The Hawkeyes hadn’t played a game since their week one victory over Brantford, due to weather conditions last weekend which postponed their game to a future date. Did the longer than anticipated layoff have to do with the overall team’s lack of production? “I’m not sure that the week off affected us mentally but rather it affected us physically. We were/are one game down relative to every team that played that week in terms of gaining reps against an opponent other than ourselves” said Hawkeyes Head Coach Sean Thomas.
Offensively the Hawkeyes were only able to score one touchdown which isn’t too surprising as the Toronto Thunder have allowed just one major each week and have allowed only 21 points all season. The touchdown came when QB Harrison Quinlan ran the ball for a QB keeper. However after that the offense was unable to move the ball effectively gaining only a total of 153 yards offensively. The offence did do some good things however; as Quinlan didn’t throw any picks and there are no stats showing they fumbled the ball away even once
As was the case last year for the Varsity Hawkeyes, when the offence fails to continually move the ball the defence is on the field for a majority of the game. Eventually that will take its toll on a team and the points will just add up. However, not to put all the blame on the offense for this game, as the defence failed to get to the QB once or turn the ball over. Something they did with ease in week 1. The Hawkeyes were very solid on special teams again, something Coach T likes to emphasize. Jordan Duncan had five returns for almost a hundred yards and Quinlan who is also the team’s punter booted 4 punts for 80 yards.
The big task now is for Coach T and his staff to keep the morale of the team high. Coach T’s efforts to keep his team on track is illustrated by his statement “a win or loss is never as good or never as bad as it seems.” Coach T has his players focusing on the small things that make up a game rather then winning itself. After the game Coach T told his players that he hoped they were disappointed and that they “should be disappointed”. Coach T finished on a positive note saying “but now we know what we need to work on and emphasize in practice”. Its obvious Coach T and his staff have a good grasp on this team and I expect the Hawkeyes to bounce back with a win this weekend over Cumberland 28-13.
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