SALEM –– It will go down in the record books as a 29-point loss. But Houston High School football coach Billy O’Neil says there is much more to the story.
Despite a 35-6 season-opening loss Saturday –– the program’s 21st defeat in a row and 32nd straight to Salem –– O’Neil was encouraged by his team’s performance.
There were plenty of positives, he said.
––Houston ran 18 more plays and had four more first downs than Salem.
––Salem’s 233 rushing yards were the fewest allowed by a Houston team since O’Neil joined the staff nine years ago.
––The Tigers forced five fumbles and recovered three.
––The halftime score was 14-0 before a messy third quarter.
O’Neil said he didn’t measure his team’s success in points. He measured it in effort and competitiveness.
“We stuck them,” O’Neil said. “They were excited and confident, and I thought it showed. We weren’t intimidated. We fired out and met them man for man.
“That’s the first time in quite some time Salem has been hit like that by a Houston team.”
O’Neil has instituted a culture change at HHS (0-1, 0-1 South Central Association) since he was named head coach. He brought back the double wing –– the offense that took the Tigers to consecutive state semifinals in the mid-2000s –– and has emphasized aggressiveness and energy.
Houston’s lone score –– a 6-yard pass from Weston Walker to Austin Keeney with 1 minute, 25 seconds remaining –– showed O’Neil this year’s version of the Tigers won’t quit. It wasn’t a cheap score, either. The Salem first-team defense never left the field.
“We competed the entire game,” he said. “Even when it was 35-0, you saw kids competing. I can’t fault them on that.”
Houston controlled the ball and tempo of the game with its double wing. Drake Bell had team-highs of 11 carries and 46 yards as the Tigers gained 126 yards on the ground. HHS also had 64 passing yards –– 59 from senior Weston Walker on 7-of-15 passing.
The Tigers’ issue was turnovers. Houston lost three fumbles and Walker threw an interception. All four miscues led to Salem touchdowns.
Salem (1-0, 1-0 SCA) averaged 7.3 yards per rush with its vintage wishbone attack under coach Bill Schchuardt, who won his 250th career game. Schchuardt has never lost to the Tigers.
A big chunk of Salem’s rushing yards were gained by quarterback Brady Floyd. He had nine carries for 118 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“We went for the fake on the veer, and Floyd did a great job of hiding the ball and pulling it,” said O’Neil, who was a player on the last HHS team to beat Salem. “They’ve been running that offense since before our players were born. Hopefully 10 years from now, they’ll be saying the same thing about us and the double wing.”
The game was pushed back a day due to the sudden death Monday of HHS social studies teacher Gale Wright. A moment of silence was held prior to the game.
O’Neil scripted the opening drive of the game. He said he was confident if Houston didn’t win the toss, Schchuardt would defer to the second half. HHS won and elected to receive.
Beginning on the 20-yard line, the Tigers covered 75 yards in 12 plays as they marched toward the end zone. They were aided by two 15-yard Salem facemask penalties.
On fourth-and-13 from the Salem 18, Walker hit Bell in the flat with a short pass. He shed a tackle and dove toward the first-down marker. Bell fell a foot short, ending a promising opening drive.
“I was playing on the kids’ emotions,” O’Neil said of receiving the ball. “I knew the kids were excited. I also knew Salem was taking us lightly. They were up 40-0 at half last year, and they thought it was going to be the same type of Houston team.”
Floyd scooted 39 yards into the end zone with 2:29 left in the first quarter to make it 7-0. Salem’s next score –– an 11-yard run by Austin Rogers midway through the second quarter –– was set up by the first of the Tigers’ three fumbles.
Things quickly unraveled for HHS in the third quarter.
Nine plays after Salem pounced on a fumble, Floyd scored from 18 yards out for a 21-0 lead. Two plays after Walker was intercepted, Rogers darted 10 yards up the middle for his second score.
On the Tigers’ next play, Nathaniel Alkire was unable to handle a pitch in the backfield. He and several Salem players kicked and grabbed at the ball as it rolled 15 yards backwards toward the end zone. Jesse Dodd fell on the ball for a touchdown to cap Salem’s third score in a span of 2 minutes, 55 seconds.
“Our fumbles weren’t caused by the Salem defense,” O’Neil said. “They were mishandled by us, and those are fixable.”
Senior Curtis Woolsey forced his third fumble and Walker recovered his second on the Salem 28 to set up Houston’s lone score. After marching to the 6-yard line, Walker stayed alive in the pocket on fourth down and made an off-balance throw that Keeney caught in front of a defender and just inside the goal line.
O’Neil said there were corrections to address leading into the second game. Specifically, he will change blocking assignments that allowed Salem’s defensive ends to crash down the line of scrimmage and make tackles from behind the play.
Combined with his team’s performance in the opener, O’Neil says it’s only a matter of time until the program’s losing skid is snapped.
“I’m confident it’s going to end,” O’Neil said. “I’m not going to say it’s going to end this week or next week, but it will end sooner than expected. We can play with any team we come across, and I think we proved that.”