Pontiac football looks to build on early effort despite losing opener to Central Catholic

Pontiac head football coach Zach Gadbury pointed out during the preseason that his club was young, even though there are a good number of players returning from last year. That's the reality with only 12 seniors on the roster. Making things worse was losing one of its explosive weapons for the season after an injury during the summer. Also missing on opening night was an all-conference returnee.

However, it’s not a matter of feeling the woes of what isn’t there.

For Pontiac, it’s a matter of moving forward with what is there. On Friday against Bloomington (Central Catholic), Pontiac did just that. It took a step forward, despite losing 42-7 in an Illini Prairie Conference contest at Williamson Field.

“We took a step forward, we just have to find a way to put four quarters together,” Gadbury said. “Our guys were ready to play, they had good focus, they had energy.”

It was the defense that took the first step. On third and long on the first possession of the game, Jackson Crawford beat his blocker and chased down BCC quarterback Matthew Brady for a sack. Although the Amerinds went three-and-out on their first possession, the defense came up big with a turnover to give the offense the ball at the BCC 46.

Led by the group of Crawford, Trent Blackwell, Elijah Hartke, Hector Garcia and Santi Pina, the offense began clicking. Running a variety of power and counterplays, Pontiac was able to move the ball and eat up clock.

“We’re five seniors on the line, we’ve been working together,” Blackwell said. “We know we can move the line, it’s just a matter of having communication.”

What it did was to allow Aiden Alcorn, Cesar Gutierrez, Riley Johnson and Brody Karr to pick up small chunks of yardage.

Alcorn a sophomore playing in his first varsity game, got Pontiac on the board with a 3-yard power run through the middle with 9:41 left in the second quarter. The drive covered 46 yards and took 7 minutes and 42 seconds off the clock. It also gave PTHS a 7-0 victory after Zack Legner’s point-after kick.

“Coach said just get four yards, four yards,” Alcorn said. “That’s all you can do.”

Pontiac put together another sustained drive later in the second period, but it stalled at the Saints’ 14.

The misfortune came on the defensive end when Central Catholic was able to rip off big gainers for a 14-7 halftime lead.

“We caught them off guard a little bit with our vertical run game,” Gadbury said.

“I was really proud of how we came out in the first half,” he added. “We created a turnover on defense and took advantage of it. We put some nice drives together.”

Bad field position hindered Pontiac’s second-half effort. Central Catholic (1-0) took advantage by scoring on drives of 25, 32, 5 and 26 yards.

“We just have to continue to build off the good things and improve day in and day out,” Gadbury said. “That was a confidence boost in the first half for our guys.”

Alcorn led Pontiac (0-1) in rushing with 50 yards. Johnson added 42 yards. PTHS will host Prairie Central (0-1) on Sept. 6 in a Week 2 matchup of Livingston County rivals.

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Pontiac football looks to build on early effort despite losing opener to Central Catholic