For Cougars, it's lick wounds and move forward

ASHEBORO — The high school football season is an 11-week journey that for most teams will feature highs and lows. 

During those low times, if a team can learn from mistakes made and identify ways to improve, then an early-season loss can sometimes be beneficial.

Southwestern Randolph certainly hopes the old adage of teams improving the most from Week 1 to Week 2 comes to fruition as they prepare for North Moore this week after a 29-0 loss to Western Guilford to open the season last Friday night at Ivey B. Luck Stadium.

Not much meant right for the Cougars, who trailed 6-0 at halftime before the Hornets dominated the second half, taking advantage of short field position to score 23 more points.

“I know we have a lot of kids back, but they are in different positions and my fear a little bit was the lights, the bright lights,” SWR veteran coach Seth Baxter said. ‘The kids played hard, you know they are going to do that, but our mental focus at times wasn’t there. We lost (Owen Whelen and Kempton Reed) and had to move kids around. 

“I told them it was Week 1 and we are going to come back Monday ready to work. I need every one of you out there to join us. It’s like driving. You learn from your mistakes. You have to look forward, not backwards. We have to fix a few things.”

The Cougars were unable to sustain any type of offense as turnovers, the inability to take advantage of Western Guilford penalties (16 penalties for 115 yards) and missed connections in the passing game hurt throughout the game. 

There was also one area which really disappointed Baxter.

“I thought we had the advantage on the offensive and defensive lines and we got dominated on both sides of the ball,” Baxter said. “We got beat in all three phases. We didn’t get the job done. Our special teams hurt us. 

“But you have to keep going forward. It’s a tough non-conference schedule and we have to get better each week.”

One area that showed promise, although the Cougars could never really take full advantage of, was throwing the ball to Julian Mosley, a 6-foot-6, athletic wideout who was much taller than any cornerback on the field. He hauled in four receptions for 81 yards, with a couple of spectacular catches. But when it was most important as the Cougars drove to the WG 10 with under 30 seconds left in the first half, four straight attempts to get the ball to Mosley were unsuccessful.

“We had a few more chances to take advantage of Julian and we didn’t get the ball to him,” Baxter said. “He made some tremendous catches. If we go up 7-6 at halftime, they (WG) have not had a lot of success in the past and the mental part for us is OK. He’s a unique talent. We made some bad reads down here. But this is Game 1 and we’re still learning.”

North Moore will also be looking for improvement Friday night as the Mustangs dropped a 34-22 decision to Carver in its opener.

SWR will be inducting its second class into the Sports Hall of Fame that night as Kaila Craven-Brandenburg, Lauren LaPlant, Randy Miller, Mike Osborne, Donald Strider and Melissa Rogers Sutton will be enshrined at halftime.