Osbourn needs work after losing to Brooke Point

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: September 4, 2008

STAFFORD — Osbourn has a week until its Cedar Run District opener against Culpeper, and head coach Steve Schultze knows that areas of the Eagles’ game need work.
In Thursday night’s 24-7 non-district loss to Brooke Point, Osbourn’s defense had trouble slowing down running back Chase Barnett; he ran for 191 yards, averaging 6.6 yards per carry.
The Eagles’ offense had 258 yards, though a fair chunk of that came on a handful of big plays: an 80-yard touchdown reception by Timmy Keith being the most notable. The Eagles held the ball for long stretches — they opened the game with a 12-play drive and had other drives of 11 and seven plays — but Keith’s reception began and ended a one-play drive for Osbourn’s only score.
“I think that we’ve got to be able to move the football offensively and be able to stop the run,” Schultze said. “It’s all the execution things that, as a coach when you get beat like this and play sloppy football, that you’ve got to evaluate and get the right guys at the right point. Not change schemes, not do anything crazy. We’ve got to close our offense up, tighten our offense up, and we’ll be fine.”
Stopping the run proved difficult for Osbourn, especially when it came to chasing down the small-but-quick Barnett. Several times he was able to break free of Osbourn’s initial attempt to tackle him; when he was in the open field, he was able to make more defenders miss.
He set up Brooke Point’s first scoring drive, carrying on the final five plays, the last of which was a 2-yard plunge to tie the game. He helped them on an insurance score, carrying the ball six times on a seven-play drive that ended with a 9-yard scoring run.
“They give me a cutback lane,” Barnett said, “you better believe I’m going to take that cutback lane and try to get back to full speed.”
Osbourn (0-1) rotated three quarterbacks during the game. Usual starter Jerrell McFadden opened the game, running for 30 yards and throwing for 91 more, including Keith’s touchdown. Thomas Keith also saw significant action under center, but completed only four passes in 13 attempts with two interceptions. His highlight was a 35-yard scramble that got the Eagles to the Black-Hawk 22; two plays later, however, a fumble turned the ball over to Brooke Point (1-0).
“We’ve been rotating those guys. They’re great skill kids,” Schultze said. “We’re not going into a quarterback controversy type of thing, we just want to get all of those guys touches on the ball and they’re all key ingredients to our team and its success in the future.”