Pleasant Hill improves in Week 2, falls at Maryville

By Jimmy Gillispie

Although it was another loss on the season, Pleasant Hill coach Justin Hamilton was a lot happier about his team’s performance than he was following the season-opening shutout loss.

His Roosters fell 41-20 at Maryville, falling to 0-2 on the season. Yet, Hamilton felt much better about the loss. He knew his team would have a tough opening two weeks, playing top-five teams in Class 3 and 4.

“I felt completely different as the coach of this team after this game than I was Week 1,” Hamilton said. “I was very encouraged.”

The two teams were tied 7-7 midway through the second quarter before things went downhill for Pleasant Hill. The Roosters turned the ball over and eventually found themselves down 35-14 at halftime.

Pleasant Hill scored its second touchdown on its opening possession of the second half. But, another drive ended on a failed fourth down conversion inside the Maryville 20 yard line.

“We made a lot of growth from Week 1 to Week 2,” Hamilton said. “Our kids played hard. They fought through the spiral of things. Again, whoever made the most mistakes lost and that was us. If we can eliminate some mistakes, I think we’re going to be OK. I was proud of them.”

The Roosters failed to score a touchdown and struggled to even move the ball in the opener against Savannah. On Friday night, their offense put up more than 300 yards of offense.

“We didn’t make many changes,” Hamilton said. “We simplified a bit. Throughout practice during the week, we said we need to simplify things incorrect a few small things. We finally got our drone copy of the game against Savannah and we watched it with the kids, and we were just so close and it energized me a bit. We were so close on some of those plays in Week 1, and this week we didn’t make as many of those mistakes.”

Pleasant Hill is back home this week to play Benton (1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday for the first of three-straight home games. The Roosters haven’t played Benton since 2021.

“They are well coached and you can see it on film,” Hamilton said. “We are going to have to prepare and get ready to go, because the fact of the matter is we are 0-2.”