Rochester comes out blazing
BY AARON OTTIS
SPORTS EDITOR
ROCHESTER – Rochester scored four touchdowns in the first quarter and held Jersey to only one touchdown in the final minutes on their way to a 42-7 non-conference victory Friday.

For the Panthers, it was a long road trip that got off on the wrong foot. For the second game in a row, Jersey looked “flat” at the start of the game, and their opponents jumped at the opportunity to score early points.

“They didn’t make any mistakes,” Jersey head coach Gary Carter said of the Rockets offense. “We came out flat, and it is easy to see the result. We allowed 28 points in the first quarter. I could see it in pregame. How we can go from hot to cold…we have to be more consistent.”

Carter said the Panthers have to regain their focus this week before heading into Bethalto to face Civic Memorial in the Mississippi Valley Conference opener. Chalk up some of the issue to the distractions of modern technology.

“Obviously, Rochester was able to take advantage of it,” Carter continued. “Whether it was the bus ride up or the immaturity of our kids in not knowing how to handle a road trip…we are going to make changes. We are going take cell phones away before kids get on the bus this week. We’re putting them in a bag and the kids can have them back when we get on the bus after the game. I don’t mind if the kids want to text on the way home, but we can’t have kids texting anyone on the way to the game. They need to be thinking about the game. We’ve got to get the focus back. We have to be able to play hard for four quarters.”

After a 0-3 start, Carter is trying to get his team to put the previous games behind them and concentrate on beating Civic Memorial. It will be no easy task, as the Eagles are also 0-3, and will have home field advantage.

“We’ve got to be able to stop people. Our offense has to help the defense by getting first downs and giving them a chance to get off the field,” Carter said. “We’ve got to tackle better. That is something we work on daily. We have to drive through people. That is the reason we do squats and power clings in the weight room. We have to get better eventually because we keep working on it every day. We have to make the mental connections during the game.”

Frankly, Carter wants to see some results from his players this week.

“Talk is cheap. I want to see four quarters Friday night,” Carter said. “I want to have people say ‘That team was ready to play.’ I don’t want to win pregame. I don’t care about the rest of it; I don’t want to win pregame. I don’t want to clap louder than the other team or yell louder than them. I want to play well. If we play well, we will win the game.”