Panthers play tough, but lose

The Saratoga Panther High School football team faced the Niobrara Tigers and played extremely tough throughout the game until the 4th quarter where some tough breaks had the Tigers jump ahead 14 more points to be at 20 with eight minutes left in the game.

Saratoga still did not give up.

The Panthers could not pull off a rally, but one player was heard shouting to his teammates, "Come on, there is still eight minutes left; the game is not over."

But try as they did, the score would end up 20-0 in favor of the Tigers.

Penalties were a problem for the Panthers and probably cost the Panthers the game according head football coach, Logan Wright.

"We gave up two big plays on defense, but the rest of the game was really solid," Wright said. "Offensively we got too many penalties and we were not getting very many plays with everything coming together."

Wright said what was not working was fixable.

"That is good news," Wright said. "The bad news is this past week it cost us the game."

Another problem for the Panthers according to Wright, the team was not able to establish themselves against the Tigers.

"Our passing wasn't really going anywhere," Wright said. "And our defense had to be putting out stops until our offense could figure out a way to score. It didn't happen."

Wright said the Niobrara team had a good game plan and it eventually worked.

The Panthers had more yards Wright pointed out.

'But they had the most important thing at the end," Wright said. "They had more points and that is what wins the game.

Because Wright feels the Panthers were in the running to beat the Tigers for most of the game, he wants to make the practice this week focuses on where the team had penalties.

"It is a team sport and we lost as a team, specifically on offense," Wright said. "I think we should also establish a running game a little better."

Wright also felt the game was unusual for all the penalties, because the Panthers don't usually have them.

"I think we will get all this all better," Wright said. "Better to be fixing this all in the beginning of the season than at the end of the season."

The next game is against Guernsey-Sunrise for the Panthers on Saturday in Guernsey.