Greencastle struggles continue against Tigers

Saturday, September 12, 2009

GREENCASTLE -- Sometimes you have to take it with a grain salt, and that's what Mike Meyer and the Tiger Cubs have had to do this season.

Greencastle dropped its fourth straight game Friday night, as it lost to Triton Central 28-0.

"It's a hard one to swallow," Meyer said. "They're a good football team and played four solid quarters."

Greencastle had two chances to avoid the shutout, one in the second quarter and the other in the last minutes of the fourth quarter, but failed both times to punch it in the end zone.

Greencastle turned the ball over on downs its first attempt in the second quarter and Jesse Ford fumbled the ball on a drive up the middle in the fourth quarter.

This is Greencastle's third shutout of the season and coach Meyer made it quite clear what it is going to take for the Tiger Cubs to be successful.

"It's going to take us going the extra mile, the extra foot," Meyer said. "We just didn't make anything happen on offense.

"Our defense played very, very hard and unfortunately they got a couple big hits on us," Meyer added.

Triton Central scored its first touchdown of the night with little under five minutes to go in the first quarter, when Luke Stephenson connected with Paul Stites for a 10-yard TD pass ,capping off a seven play, 22-yard drive.

In the second quarter, Triton Central tacked on 14 more points with Stephenson connecting for two more touchdown passes. The first one was to Dillion Daniel for 12-yards and the second one was to Cody Donella for 61-yards.

At the half Greencastle was down by 21, but 17 seconds after the third quarter started, they were down 28-0 when Donella ran back a 93-yard kick return for the touchdown.

"We're a young football team and we will get better," Meyer said. 'We will get better."

Offensively the Tiger Cubs were led by Ford who had 111 yards on 19 carries and had a total of 166 yards offensively, while Triton Central had 431 total offensive yards, 273 of them coming from the air, courtesy of Stephenson.

Greencastle is back in action on Friday when they travel to South Putnam for a 7 p.m. West Central Conference showdown.

At Greencastle

Greencastle 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Triton Central 7 14 7 0 -- 28

First Quarter

TC -- Stephenson 10yd pass to Stites 4:41 (Sullivan kick)

Second Quarter

TC -- Stephenson 12yd pass to Daniel 11:12 (Sullivan kick)

TC -- Stephenson 61yd pass to Donella 17:40 (Sullivan kick)

Third Quarter

TC -- Donnella 93yd kick return 11:43

Individual Statistics

Greencastle

Rushing -- Lenihan 6-27-0-0, Ford 19-111-0-1, Hickam 7-17-0-0, Remsburg 2-(-7), Vermillion 2-9

Receiving -- Remsburg 1-9

Passing -- Hickam 1-9-0-0

Triton Central

Rushing -- Mohr 14-80-0-0, Donella 1-93-1-0, Stephenson 6-(-17)-0-0

Passing -- Stephenson 15-24-273-3-0

Receiving -- Stites 4-40-1, Donella 2-76-1, Purvis 2-36-0, Daniel 2-14-1, Sprinkle 1-19-0, Wendling 4-88-0

Next Game -- Greencastle is back in action on Friday when they travel to South Putnam for a 7 p.m. West Central Conference showdown.