Cougars Spread Attack Fizzles Against Watterson

Beechcroft has long prided itself on hard-nosed, aggressive defense, so to allow a team to march up and down the field, controlling the clock and scoring 30 points is about as painful as it can get.

The Cougars were dominated every which way by visiting Bishop Watterson in a 30-6 loss, giving up four touchdowns in the first half and failing to make stops when they had to. Conversely, the Eagles limited Beechcroft to just 107 yards of offense, and after allowing a first down on the Cougars first pass of the game didn't allow another until midway through the third quarter.

"As a defensive guy I've got to hand it to Watterson," Beechcroft coach Bruce Ward said. "They just fly to the ball and free up each other to make plays. That's a very, very disciplined team that shut us down."

Watterson's defense wasn't the only reason the Cougars struggled, however.

Beechcroft receivers dropped at least five passes, and the offense looked out of sync most of the night as it adapts from more of a traditional look to a spread attack. The Cougars routinely went four and five wide, but had minimal success as Watterson's three-man front got enough push and the linebackers found gaps in the protection to rattle quarterback Sheldon Akin. The senior finished just 6 of 14 for 35 yards and tossed three interceptions.

"We didn't execute," Ward said. "We just couldn't get anything going. This is the first year we've gone full bore with this spread, and obviously we've got a long way to go trying to perfect it."

While Beechcroft has changed its attack, Watterson went with its traditional Wing-T offense, which has been a staple for decades. The power attack helped Matt Redfield ramble for 95 yards and two scores, including a 47-yarder right up the gut to open the scoring in the first quarter. Erik Oman also had a big night for the Eagles, picking off two passes and catching a pretty 42-yard scoring pass from Patrick Rhomberg that put the Eagles up 27-0 at intermission.

Watterson didn't do anything exotic to stop the Cougars offense, opting for discipline and aggressiveness.

 "Our front three guys were responsible for getting some pressure on the quarterback, freeing up the linebackers and DBs to just cover their guys.," Redfield said. "Our game plan actually was pretty basic tonight."

 Beechcroft won't be going back to the drawing board completely, but will need to tighten some things up. The poor showing comes on the heels of a banner opening week that saw the Cougars score 42 points, with Akin making plays all over the field.

 "It takes time to get consistency with an offense when you're doing something new," Ward said. "We knew we would have some growing pains, but I expected a little more tonight. Watterson is a very sound team and stayed with its responsibilities. We got off our game a little bit, and the credit goes to them for that. I think some guys on our side got frustrated, and that can lead to mistakes. We made enough of them tonight, I know that."

One thing Ward was optimistic about was his team's effort. Watterson scored only a field goal after halftime, and Beechcroft got on the board when Kevin Chapple returned a fumble for a score in the game's final minute. That was more like the team that posted a school-record five shutouts last season.

"Our guys kept playing," Ward said. "That wasn't an issue. I think we played hard all night. We didn't always play smart, but we played hard. Effort is something you can control, so from that aspect I'm pleased. The mistakes we made are correctable, so I would hope we get those figured out before our next game.

"You never like to be on the losing end of these things, especially when the other guys really take it to you. But sometimes you learn from games like this. We'll see what we learn when we get out there next week."