Archie nearly rallies from slow start at Bishop LeBlond

By Jimmy Gillispie

Archie coach Drew Smith said his team has moved on from last week’s four-point road loss and is focused on its homecoming contest against Appleton City tonight.

Archie (3-2) welcomes Appleton City (4-1) to town for a critical WEMO Conference outing. Both teams lost to Lockwood earlier this fall, but Appleton City has won four-straight since the opening week home defeat.

Although the Bulldogs enter the game with a better record, the Whirlwinds have owned the rivalry. The Whirlwinds have won all 10 matchups in 8-man football.

“I think they are excited for Appleton City,” Smith said of his players. “They are talking about how it’s a big game, they know it’s a big game and they are ready to prove themselves. They still have the right mindset.”

Archie suffered a 48-44 loss at Bishop LeBlond last Friday, losing to the Golden Eagles for the first time since dropping down to 8-man football in 2020. 

It was the first time Archie has lost a second regular season game since 2019 – the last time it played 11-man football. Smith said he and his team were thrown for a whirlwind on the defensive side of the ball in the first half of the contest.

“We came in with a defensive game plan in mind and they came out with a completely different offensive scheme than what they had been doing the previous two weeks,” Smith said. “They came into the game about 70 percent run and 30 percent pass, but they said screw it and went 2x2 wide and threw the ball 56 times against us. 

“So, we had to adapt and come up with a completely different defensive game plan, and we weren’t able to fully do that until halftime. Once we were able to get to halftime and have time to think for a second and get to a whiteboard, we were able to make adjustments.”

Smith did give credit to the Golden Eagles’ quarterback after the loss.

“Their quarterback played lights out,” Smith said. “He was 40 of 56 for seven touchdowns and 400 yards. He was money all night. He did a good job of spreading the ball around. They turned into a west coast dink and dunk offense, but also sprinkled in some deep bombs, and they were able to hit on almost every single deep bomb.”

Once the Whirlwinds were able to adjust to the Bishop LeBlond’s scheme, they allowed only six points in the second half. 

Meanwhile, Archie’s offense rallied from the halftime deficit. It slowly chipped away despite a couple of costly turnovers.

The final turnover came units last offensive play of the game. On fourth down from the LeBlond 15 yard line, Archie threw an interception, sealing the game for the Golden Eagles.

“We had four turnovers, but you could take one off the board. We threw an interception on the last play of the game,” Smith said. “But, we had two fumbles and (LeBlond) had onside kick recovery that bounced off of our facemark. It was a bad night.”