Youth abounds in Fredericktown’s tough loss to Scots

FREDERICKTOWN – Fredericktown Coach Will Hartley saw hope in his team Friday despite a 35-0 loss to Highland.

“We’re a young group this year,” Hartley said. “We’re starting a lot of kids for the first time. We battled a good team for, for two and a half quarters. We battled them pretty tough. We started to give up some big plays there in the middle of the third quarter and through the fourth quarter.

“Which, that was disappointing to see.”

The Freddies lost running back Teegan Ruhl, a Division VI All-Ohio second-team pick, to graduation. Ruhl led the KMAC with 1,739 yards and 23 touchdowns.

In total, 14 seniors departed from last season. The Freddies’ are working with seven seniors this season.

Fredericktown’s starting quarterback Blake Sipes is a sophomore, too.

Highland took full advantage of the scenario as explosive senior running back Dane Nauman had his way.

Highland moved in front of Fredericktown 7-0 to begin the second quarter. The Fighting Scots fought to a 21-0 intermission margin at the Freddies’ expense. Highland pulled to a 28-0 lead heading into the final quarter with a final score of 35-0.

“I think the other disappointing thing to see is we didn’t finish drives,” Hartley said. “We did some nice things, between the thirties, but we weren’t able to finish drives and we need to do better than that.

“We showed all the characteristics of a young team that’s not making an excuse, that’s just reality of it. We’ve gotta continue to teach, teach, teach, and coach, coach, coach, and the kids have gotta do a better job and they gotta take ownership of that process.”

The characteristics of a young team

The Freddies suffered a couple of turnovers that hurt their cause, too.

“We had some missed assignments, you know, where just kids — the mental part of the game and the excitement of being out there on Friday night,” the coach said. “It got the best of ’em a little bit. We did settle down in the third quarter. We put together a nice drive, but again, we weren’t able to finish it.”

Staying locked in was a phrase being spread repeatedly throughout the Fredericktown’s bench on the unusually cold August evening– a reminder to stay focused on the objective ahead.

“We said tonight this is Chapter 1 of a 10-chapter season. And that’s one positive thing about a young team is hopefully we start to see progress and we start to see development as we move through this (season,)” Hartley said.