Sports 24 September 2020

So dang close once again

In one way, it was heartbreaking; in another way, it showed just how dangerous the New Hampton football team is.
Playing without their leading rusher and one of their defensive leaders, the Chickasaws couldn’t hold a 21-7 lead and fell to North Fayette Valley 28-27 in a Class 2A, District 4 game Friday night. That dropped New Hampton to 1-3, but the Chickasaws, their quarterback will tell you, aren’t ready to panic.
“We’re two or three plays from being 3-1,” Conner Rochford said, “and you know, we just have to go harder in practice, clean up the mistakes and we’re going to have a good football team. It’s frustrating, yeah, but we know we’re way better than 1-3.”
This one stung, however.
A Rochford-to-Drake Wemark 24-yard touchdown pass, a Rochford 2-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak and a Rochford 43-yard fumble return, thanks to a tackle for loss by Ryan Pickar, gave New Hampton a 21-7 lead a little more than a minute into the second half.
“We did a lot of things right,” said New Hampton coach Scott Frerichs, whose team was without the services of injured running back/linebacker Carter Ferrie, “and then it kind of went south on us. … I think one of the things we have to do is be better at putting mistakes behind us. We can’t let it affect the next play, much less then next two or three series.”
— For more on this story, see the Sept. 22 Tribune

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