“We didn’t come out well enough at the start of the game,” Rye High School football Head Coach Connor Pigg summarized the 39-22 loss to Salida last Friday night on the road.
“Compounding our slow start,” continued Pigg, “was a bad injury to Codah Graber. We felt that we kind of rallied at half time and played much better the second half. The offense especially, began to move the ball very well.”
Rye outscored Salida 20-8 in the second and third quarter.
Dylan Hurne carried the ball 25 times and gained 157 yards and scored three touchdowns and one two-point conversion. That is his second three touchdown performance in a row.
Quarterback Nolan Schauer connected on 11 of 20 passes for 76 yards but was plagued by a pair of interceptions, including one in the first quarter that set up Salida’s initial score – a field goal.
Derick Bak caught eight of Schauer’s 11 completions for 29 yards. Bak also had a 30-yard kickoff return.
Bak, from his middle linebacker position, had a stellar night on defense with 14 tackles including four tackles for a loss. Josh George, from the cornerback position, had half a dozen tackles and an interception in the second quarter. Unfortunately, a subsequent fumble by the Thunderbolts was returned for a 57yard touchdown. Salida led at halftime 17-0.
Rye cut the Salida lead to eight points before the defense faltered and gave up two big touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
Salida is a 2A team that narrowly missed the playoffs last year. They are ranked #14 in 2A. “Our biggest focus in the next game and the following two is to play fundamentally sound football,” Pigg assessed. “We want to take the lessons from the loss to Salida so we don't repeat them. We need to take better care of the ball.
Our alignment needs to improve. We have to improve on special teams.
And we need to start games at full speed and full throttle.”
Rye travels to Center (0-3) on the 15th, for a 4:00p.m. game.