The season opener didn’t quite go as planned for the Leavenworth football team on Friday at Lawrence. The Pioneers couldn’t get much going offensively early, and struggled to stop the Lions as well, falling 40-6 to extend their skid to 16 straight games.
First-year head coach Kevin Kopecky said his squad didn’t do themselves any favors in the loss.
“We really have a lot of work to do,” Kopecky said. “I’m not discouraged and we’ll hang together as a team, but we really didn’t play anywhere near our capability. We hurt ourselves. Give Lawrence their credit, but we didn’t execute. We played like deer in the headlights.”
While the overall wasn’t there, Kopecky said there were bright spots.
“I think our O-line played well tonight,” the Pioneers’ coach said. “Our defense struggled, they ran stuff we weren’t quite ready for so we were kind of scrambling all night to catch up with their offense.”
Playing with the ball, he added, Leavenworth just didn’t make the plays they needed to.
“Our offense just didn’t execute,” Kopecky said. “We didn’t play like I thought we’d play.”
After taking a 33-0 hole into halftime, the Pioneers showed a flash of offense to start the third quarter. In their first offense drive of the second half Leavenworth drove the ball all the way to the one-yard line, but couldn’t find a way to push it into the endzone.
“We went for it on 4th-and-1 and didn’t convert,” Kopecky said. “When we get chances like that, we have to convert.”
It was a long run by freshman Jason Randall that finally got Leavenworth on the board in the third quarter.
“It was probably 60 yards at least,” Kopecky said. “It was a good run.”
With their home opener looming next week, and Lawrence Free State coming to town, Kopecky said his team will take a lot from Friday’s loss as they move forward.
“I know as coaches we learned a lot, hopefully the kids learned a lot too,” he said.
Leavenworth will unveil Pioneer Stadium for Friday’s contest, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
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The season opener didn’t quite go as planned for the Leavenworth football team on Friday at Lawrence. The Pioneers couldn’t get much going offensively early, and struggled to stop the Lions as well, falling 40-6 to extend their skid to 16 straight games.
First-year head coach Kevin Kopecky said his squad didn’t do themselves any favors in the loss.
“We really have a lot of work to do,” Kopecky said. “I’m not discouraged and we’ll hang together as a team, but we really didn’t play anywhere near our capability. We hurt ourselves. Give Lawrence their credit, but we didn’t execute. We played like deer in the headlights.”
While the overall wasn’t there, Kopecky said there were bright spots.
“I think our O-line played well tonight,” the Pioneers’ coach said. “Our defense struggled, they ran stuff we weren’t quite ready for so we were kind of scrambling all night to catch up with their offense.”
Playing with the ball, he added, Leavenworth just didn’t make the plays they needed to.
“Our offense just didn’t execute,” Kopecky said. “We didn’t play like I thought we’d play.”
After taking a 33-0 hole into halftime, the Pioneers showed a flash of offense to start the third quarter. In their first offense drive of the second half Leavenworth drove the ball all the way to the one-yard line, but couldn’t find a way to push it into the endzone.
“We went for it on 4th-and-1 and didn’t convert,” Kopecky said. “When we get chances like that, we have to convert.”
It was a long run by freshman Jason Randall that finally got Leavenworth on the board in the third quarter.
“It was probably 60 yards at least,” Kopecky said. “It was a good run.”
With their home opener looming next week, and Lawrence Free State coming to town, Kopecky said his team will take a lot from Friday’s loss as they move forward.
“I know as coaches we learned a lot, hopefully the kids learned a lot too,” he said.
Leavenworth will unveil Pioneer Stadium for Friday’s contest, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
