By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL – Friday night marked the begining of a new era for Mitchell High School football, as the team’s first matchuip under the direction of new head coach, Zach See.
See, who is an MHS graduate and former player and assistant coach within the program, led the Bluejackets out to battle a familiar opponent in Edgewood.
Since 2015, Mitchell has opened each season with a faceoff against the Mustangs, in what has proved to be a difficult matchup for them, with the Bluejackets posting a 3-6 record in those games.
Mitchell last bested them in 2021 in a tight 28-26 win and hoped for a similar result this time around.
Unfortunately for the Bluejackets, Edgewood had other plans, as the Mustangs flew out of the gate to an early lead and never looked back, eventually heading home with a 41-6 win.
The Mustangs’ first scoring play came on their first possession when a short carry from quarterback Michael Law breached the goalline just two plays after the team recovered a blocked punt on Mitchell’s three-yard line.
They went on to score three more unanswered touchdowns to end the first half, heading to the locker room with a 27-0 lead.
To that point Law had been the standout of the evening, accounting for all four of Edgewood’s TDs in one way or another, carrying two in from short distance and adding two through the air to receiver Nehemiah Strunk.
Though it didn’t lead to any points for the Bluejackets, there were some promising signs sprinkled into an otherwise slow first half for their offense.
A couple of big kickoff returns from sophomore Malakai Goodman provided Mitchell with solid field position on a few drives, eventually leading to what had been their best stretch offensively on their final drive of the half, which saw them earn back-to-back first downs thanks to some solid efforts to run the ball from halfback Gavin Robinson.
Despite those glimmers, it was more of the same to start the third period, with the Mustangs extending their lead some more on the first play of the second half, a 79 yard kick-off return by Strunk.
Later in the third, Strunk found the endzone yet again, this time while playing defense, taking back a fumble 30 yards to the endzone to extend Edgewood’s lead beyond the 35-point threshold to initiate a running clock for the remainder of play.
Heading into doom in the fourth, facing a 40-plus point deficit and the ever-ticking away game clock, Mitchell continued to battle.
In the fourth, their defense forced a fumble, which was pounced on by sophmore lineback Kaden Mullis and, on a later possession, scored their first and only touchdown of the night courtesy of a 74-yard connection from quarterback Cam Gilstrap to Goodman.
See witnessed his team battle until the final play of the game, quite literally as Goodman’s touchdown and the subsequent extra point came just before the final whistle was blown.
That effort was exactly what he was looking for on the night from his young squad, who he felt had a reputation of giving up in previous years.
“I know that doesn’t really change the game, that last play, but I was proud of that last play,” said See. “Mitchell is the team that’s going to lay down, they’re going to quit. They’re going to quit. Get up on them two scores, they’ll quit. We’re down 40 points right there, and our play, our guys are out there to lead block. There were about four key blocks there to make that play open up and get us to the end zone. I think in years past we would have laid down, and they would not give us any effort. They wouldn’t have ran that play full speed.”
That effort and attitude, not just in the face of defeat, but throughtout the entire game was something See was looking for as they opened the season.
Now, they will look to build on that as See and his roster of largely underclassmen players look ahead at the rest of their season.
“We’re young. I knew we were young. We know we’re young. What I asked out of them every day, day in, day out; effort, attitude and be coachable. Things didn’t go our way tonight. I didn’t see any attitudes change. I didn’t see any attitude problems. Were we mad? Yeah, we were mad. We were frustrated. I’ll always be frustrated. It’ll always be frustrating when we’re losing. That’s just a competitor thing, but at the end of the day, they were coachable. They played hard, they gave effort, and their attitude is good. We can build off things like that,” he said.
“We’ve just got to keep building on the things that we can build on, things that we think we’ve been stressing this year, is just being positive no matter what, because in every negative there’s a positive, and that’s what we’re going to continue to tip our hat on. We’re going to continue to be positive. We’re just going to continue to build.”
Next up for the Bluejackets is another familiar opponent in Springs Valley.
Their upcoming matchup with the Blackhawks will be both their first road game of the season, begining a streak of three straight away from Terry Cole Field, as well as their opening matchup of Patoka Lake Athletic Conference play.
Mitchell has struggled in recent years in the matchup, having lost their last four against Springs Valley.
See commened the Blackhawk’s coaching staff and the team’s ability, noting the matchup is one he expects to be difficult, though it’s also one he hopes can serve as a bounce back game for his group following their loss in the opener.
“They’re a good football team, but at the end of the day, you play the games for a reason. Everybody’s beatable. You play the games for a reason, there’s a reason that the games aren’t just put on paper. So, we’ve got to come out and battle. It won’t be easy, because they’re going to come out wanting to fight. They’re going to come out wanting to test us. They’re going to come out and see if we’re the same Mitchell that we always have been and I think that our kids are going to respond well after this. I think they’re mad, I think they’re frustrated. I think they’re ready to get back at it and prove that they’re better than this, because they are,” See said.
