By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
SOMERSET – Zoran Milich realizes there is still plenty of the season left for his Montgomery High football team.
But the head coach of the Cougars also knows the importance of getting the first victory of the season, especially with a young team.
“We work so hard in the offseason to make sure we don’t go 0-2,” said Milich, whose team fell to 0-2 with a 42-12 loss at Franklin last Friday night. “That can be crushing for a team. But I have also had teams that have come back and won three in a row. Our backs are against the wall, but we can only take one game at a time. Hopefully we will tackle a lot better. It was disappointing. But there was a lot of good to take out of this game.”
Big plays by the Franklin offense made the difference last week in the Cougars’ loss. Three times the Warriors scored on plays of 65 or more yards, while they also ran the kickoff back for a touchdown to open the second half. As Montgomery looks to build with young players, Milich knows that giving up big plays can make all the difference in the world.”
“We’re 0-2 right now,” Milich lamented. “But if you take five or six plays out of the game, really it is a different ballgame. On those five or six plays, we just looked so poor. We missed some tackles and they bounced out of tackles. I thought we played pretty well. We just went Keystone Cop on a few plays where we let them run wild. Their quarterback got free on a couple of plays. Due to injuries, we had some younger guys out there.
“The thing that hurts is the down and yards were bad for them. The thing you work for is to get to those down and distance and you should capitalize on that.”
Montgomery forced Franklin into a third-and-12 play on the Warriors’ first possession and Antonio Scott connected with Claybourne Fields on a 66-yard touchdown pass. A Montgomery turnover led to a first-and-goal situation for Franklin, which resulted in another Scott to Fields touchdown pass.
Still, the Cougars had a shot late in the first quarter to draw even. Montgomery was trailing, 14-6, when it advanced the ball inside the Franklin 20-yard line. But the Cougars came away empty.
“We were going on to try and possibly tie the game,” said Milich, whose team is back in action against Hunterdon Central tonight at 7. “We lost six yards on first down and had second and 16 and never recovered. We were motoring and I felt like we had them tired. We had momentum going. But we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Franklin would score on a 65-yard touchdown pass from Scott to Tykey Reinberry and also on a Scott to Tayo Badru 67-yard touchdown pass. Toss in an 87-yard kickoff return to open the second half and big plays were crucial blows to Montgomery.
Injuries also hurt the Cougars, who saw running back Damian Bland unable to play in the second half due to injury after he had rushed for 89 yards and a touchdown in the first half.
“He played his tail off in the first half,” Milich said of Bland. “He gave us everything he had. Josh Perera came in and did a great job in the second half. Some of the guys had baptism by fire. Our motto around here is next man up. Some of the younger guys got some valuable playing time and they might be playing next week. We lost two captains and our big running back with injuries.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Cougars in the coming weeks, as Hunterdon Central and Bridgewater-Raritan are the next two teams on the docket. The Cougars are on the road in Flemington against Hunterdon Central and then they will be home to Bridgewater-Raritan on Sept. 28.
“We have (Hunterdon) Central and Bridgewater coming down the pike so it doesn’t get any easier,” Milich said. “You can only focus on one game at a time. Right now our focus is on seeing our mistakes. The thing I told the kids was I was proud of them on a lot of things. I thought they came out in the second half and played hard. Tackling is a desire. We work on it. You have to either want to do it or you don’t. Some of the younger guys don’t have the reps. They are going to get them now.”
“That’s the hard thing about it. We played so well on first and second down and then on third down we give up a big play on third down. We have a lot of new faces out here. And even some of the guys who are seniors are in new positions.”
Also on the gridiron last weekend, Princeton fell to 0-3 with a 53-18 loss to Hightstown. The Little Tigers are off this week and will play at Lawrence on Sept. 28.
The Hun School improved to 2-0 with a 48-0 victory over Stellar Prep of California. Patrick Holly threw for 415 yards and five touchdown passes to spark the Raiders.
