Savage Horsemen drops heartbreaker at Florence

Jamie Doran

Valley Press

The Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen suffered a heartbreaking loss this past Saturday against Florence.

The final score was 26-23, but that doesn’t even come close to showing how much work the Savage Horsemen put in to be able to pull within three of the Falcons.

“We just have to learn to start the game like we finish it,” Savage Horsemen Head Coach Seth Pettit said. “We got ourselves in a hole at the start and after the first quarter we won the game 23-13.”

Florence, a non-conference opponent, had a 20-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and was up 26-9 at halftime. After the half, the Savage Horsemen scored two touchdowns to get within three of the Falcons, but just couldn’t get past them.

The first touchdown for the Savage Horsemen was in the second quarter when Winebrenner threw a 13-yard pass to Trent Thomas, the point after touchdown was no good.

Before the half ended Carson Lilja kicked a 40-yard field goal to bring the Horsemen’s score to 9.

Quarterback Reiley Winebrenner connected with Kyle Steinbach on a 35-yard pass and Brian Green on an 18-yard pass in the second half, however it just wasn’t enough.

Pettit said that the biggest weakness for his team right now is protecting the ball. “This was the sloppiest game I’ve ever seen,” he said.

There were 17 total turnovers in the game, with 10 of which coming from Plains-Hot Springs.

“We have to work on protecting the ball,” he said.

While protecting the ball was a huge weakness, Pettit said there were a lot of positives in the game.

“Our defense was huge for us last year and this year they’re coming up again,” he said.

In addition to a strong defense, Pettit said he was really impressed with their perseverance of the team and their ability to not quit even when they were down.

“I like our ability to come back,” he said. “We didn’t quit and we kept fighting back, eventually those will fall our way.”

Pettit said that there were a whole list of standout players that really contributed a lot of the game.

Winebrenner rushed for 55-yards, blocked a punt, had an interception and threw two touchdown passes. “He just had an amazing game, despite his seven interceptions.”

Thomas rushed for 55-yards and had a touchdown. Lilja, in his limited experience as quarterback threw a touchdown pass.

Steinbach had a touchdown on his first catch of the season.

On the defensive side Carter Farrier had 14 tackles and deflected a ball that was picked up by Conor Ballantyne. Steven Reistroffer, who Pettit said hadn’t played much on defense, had a sack.

“All in all we were a different team the second half,” Pettit said. “We just have to be able to put it together.”

This Friday the Savage Horsemen will be away against Darby, another team who has started out their season 0-2.

“We feel good about this week’s game, but anything can happen,” he said. “We’re both 0-2 and we know that they’re going to play us hard. We have to come ready to fight.”

Pettit said that they went down and scouted them last week at Mission and they have a good idea of what they’re going to be up against. “The big thing is we’ve got to start out strong,” he said.

Pettit said that at both of their games this season the opposing coaches have come up to him afterwards to say “Man you hit hard.”

“That’s a real compliment,” he said. “If we keep fighting and keep working the results are going to change.”