| The Dino football squad prepares for the season during the blue and white game held at Carbon High Aug. 16. This past weekend, the team kicked off the regular season on the road against Payson. The Dinos fell to Payson 17-7. |
After several weeks of preparation, the Carbon High Dino football team took to the field to kick off the regular season. Their first game was contested this past Friday as the Dinos traveled to Payson to take on the Lions.
For the Dinos, this was the first game the team has played all year excluding the annual blue and white game which pits Dino vs Dino. This would be a game which players and coaches alike would come to know the strengths and weaknesses of this years Dino team.
Unfortunately for the Dinos, more weaknesses were discovered than strengths. According to coach Jeff Jorgensen, the Dinos struggled to make sparks fly during their opening game of the regular season.
“The kids just didn’t play the way they have been coached. There were several coaching errors as well. We just need to clean up our errors and the team needs to play the way they’ve been taught,” explained Jorgensen.
The mistakes made by Carbon ultimately cost the team their first win of the season. As the Dinos struggled through the game, the team found themselves trailing behind the Lions 17-7 at the conclusion of the contest.
Jorgensen feels that the overall effort of the team was weak. Jorgensen did however explain that Tyson O’Neil did step up and gave his best effort during the game in Payson.
O’Neil was a dominant force for the Dinos explained Jorgensen. After being injured early on in the ball game, O’Neil returned to compete strong.
The defense gave the Dinos a boost however, many mistakes were made and many improvements must take place before Friday’s game.
“We need to step up. We did not play well in Payson and these errors must be corrected. We do have a young team. In fact, only five seniors started in Payson. Regardless, we need to improve and just play Carbon football” commented Jorgensen.
Carbon will play their first home game of the season this Friday. The team hopes to break in their new field with a victory against Uintah as action kicks off at 7 p.m.
The Dinos will use their first loss to their advantage as the team works out the bugs in their game plan. With experience comes knowledge, and the Dinos hope to have learned from their first season loss this year.
“We can beat Uintah. We will be playing before a packed house of Dino fans for the first time on this new field. In order to win we must play a lot better than we did last week. If we improve our game, we will win,” concluded Jorgensen.