Westfield looks to rebound from opening loss

PERRY -- The Westfield Hornets were locked in a tightly contested ballgame a week ago in Valdosta before struggling late and eventually falling to Valwood 55-28.

If there is any good news to draw from a loss, the Hornets have been here before.

Westfield dropped early games the previous two seasons before going unbeaten the rest of the year on its way to back to back GISA Class AAA championships.

“We’ll get better,” Westfield head coach Ronnie Jones. “That’s what we’re here for is to coach them up and improve. That’s our plan is to try and get better each week before those region games get here.”

The Hornets led Valwood 28-27 with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter but were outscored 28-0 the rest of the contest, thanks to a combination of costly turnovers and fatigue.

“We’ve got a lot of people going both ways,” Jones said. “I don’t have very much depth, and then I’ve got three or four people on the sideline cramping up when we got into that fourth quarter, and we just had some things happen.

“We got behind by two scores and just could never really catch up after that.”

Westfield will look to rebound Friday as it welcomes Trinity Christian-Sharpsburg to Perry. The Lions evened their record at 1-1 last week with a 14-6 victory over Flint River.

Westfield rolled over Trinity 42-14 last season.

“(Trinity) had a quarterback who played the first week, and he’s quite an athlete, but he didn’t play the second week, so I don’t really know (what to expect),” Jones said. “We certainly have to contain him if he plays. They run a lot of different sets at you on offense that you don’t see very much anymore like the old Notre Dame box where they’re unbalanced with four different guys on one side of the ball in the backfield.”

Jones has attempted to refocus his team with a back-to-basics approach this week in practice. The long-time head coach has stressed a fundamentals and taking care of the football.

“After you go back and watch film, we’re doing a lot of things that aren’t very good,” Jones said. “We’ve got to do a better job of just the basics of tackling and being in the right position.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Westfield looks to rebound from opening loss ."