Week 2: West (0-1) @ Portsmouth (1-0)

[A Trojan Confluence]

Good Luck Trojans!

[PTrojan59]

This game was close during the first half, second half Portsmouth dominated. Passing game was much better tonight, granted West has a pretty bad secondary. But it was just nice to see Portsmouth even attempting to throw the ball. You think Heiland doesn’t have a big game and then he rips off a couple of 25+ yard TD runs with beautiful cuts. Thought the offense as whole was really good, showed they can score and move the ball without being Heiland dimensional.

Defense was good again, gave up more rushing yards to Parker than they did to McNeil last week, but just 1 TD, secondary was really solid.

Feels good to beat West after a rough few years. 2-0 headed across the river to take on a pretty good Greenup County team. Should be a good game, that 25th year senior QB they have is a stud. Good luck to West the rest of the season.

[FIDO]

The Trojans, by record, is the best team in Scioto County, to-date! Congrats!!

[BuckeyeBlood]

West is pretty bad this year. They can’t throw the ball to save their lives, and their defense had some speed, but wasn’t very good. I know Fairland did it the week before, and Portsmouth did it last night. Pulling starters out early, both scores against West probably would’ve been worse.

[trojandave]

Much improved performance from Week 1's 15-12 win over Valley to a 41-7 dominating win over Portsmouth West. Good to see the passing game make some significant plays. Has to help going forward.

[Beergogglebluez]

Great game by Portsmouth. I was very surprised by the score and the west team. They might be in for a long year. But I liked the play calling last night it was a mix of pass and run.

[VetteMan]

Congrats Trojans on your victory. SOC takes a big hit from the OVC.

[art_vandelay]

West may be the most surprising team in the area, and not in a good way. To be fair to them though, they just played the top 2 teams in the OVC on the road. I just thought they'd be competitive in both games.*

[SiderSammy]

Same old song and dance for west. Still just as predictable on both sides and was out schemed from start to finish. You would think at some point someone would tell them this or more importantly they would figure it out themselves? The second half of this game was pathetic all around. It is very hard to watch. I turned it off in the fourth quarter. Is it ignorance? Lack of preparation? Lack of knowledge? Lack of discipline? Lack of conditioning? I don’t think anyone has an answer. I know it is not their style but I hope the younger boys start getting some time to be prepared for the future. It doesn’t get any easier this week.

[greygoose]

West may be the most surprising team in the area, and not in a good way. To be fair to them though, they just played the top 2 teams in the OVC on the road. I just thought they'd be competitive in both games.*

My concern for West going into the season was QB play, and I had westsiders arguing with me left and right that they'd be "fine" at the QB spot even after seeing them in a 7-7. I think you hit the nail on the head though it's not a real shocker they lost especially to Fairland but the shocker is 100% on the beatdowns they've taken after the first 2 weeks. To score 7 points total in high school football with that line and the 2 stud RBs they have is absolutely unexplainable. Defense they've never been a big pass coverage team but I thought it was said they made a DC switch and they were hoping to improve that well so far after 2 weeks that's been an epic fail as well. We know Fairland can air it out but it looks like Portsmouth was able to hit some big passes as well. Not sure what West has going on but there's too much talent with than front line and those RBs to only produce 1 td in 2 games.

[SiderSammy]

The rumor about the dc change was unfortunately not true. I figured that would be obvious. The defensive scheme has been poor the past few years. Poor tackling has been a problem for years as well as the secondary. The offense scheme has been lackluster and a huge disappointment. one dimensional running, even when down big and only throwing on obvious downs is not a recipe for success.

[greygoose]

The rumor about the dc change was unfortunately not true. I figured that would be obvious. The defensive scheme has been poor the past few years. Poor tackling has been a problem for years as well as the secondary. The offense scheme has been lackluster and a huge disappointment. one dimensional running, even when down big and only throwing on obvious downs is not a recipe for success.

Dang, thanks for clearing that one up Sammy on the DC that explains a lot as I haven't seen West this year but seen them over the last few years and it's a struggle to cover the pass for whatever reason. Offensive scheme, the coach said going in he was going to run it 95% of the time problem he's got by saying that is what happens if you can't run it nonstop and you get behind?? Like you said throwing in obvious throwing situations and a running team getting behind early is a recipe for disaster as shown by the first 2 weeks.

[Archer221]

The rumor about the dc change was unfortunately not true. I figured that would be obvious. The defensive scheme has been poor the past few years. Poor tackling has been a problem for years as well as the secondary. The offense scheme has been lackluster and a huge disappointment. one dimensional running, even when down big and only throwing on obvious downs is not a recipe for success.

West attempted to throw the ball 20 times. Threw on all 3 downs with play action, deep shots, quick game, and screens. Plenty of times I witnessed players running downfield wide open. To say they threw the ball on obvious downs is not true. Run game they were able to get a handful of chunk plays. But shot themselves in the foot with false start penalties and missed receivers. Defensively they had blown coverages as well as an abundance of missed open field tackles but did get a handful of 3rd and 4th down stops. The kids are playing hard and the coaches are evidently trying to mix up play calling and defense in comparison to week 1. IMO this is an obviously young team.

To say the results are based on scheme is a huge stretch. Its not about X’s and O’s its Jimmy’s and Joe’s. West only has
3-4 senior starters on both sides of the ball. The results of the past two weeks can be contributed to inexperience and a multitude of first year starters. These first year guys will only continue to mature and progress. The expectations for this team were too high simply because of the 5 returning starters while forgetting the majority of other positions are first year guys. West will struggle this year with the difficult schedule and inexperience.