Veterans making progress, still seeking first win

Veterans enters Friday night’s GHSA non-region contest against Worth County still looking for its first win of 2016.

While the winless stretch matches last season’s 0-2 start, Veterans has been much more competitive. The Warhawks battled 2015 Class 5A semifinalist Northgate to late in the fourth quarter in their opener and fell by one point last week at Dublin when troubles in the kicking game kept a potential five points off of the scoreboard.

Despite the pair of tough losses, Veterans head coach David Bruce has noticed an improved belief in his players.

“I do like the fact that we were disappointed that we didn’t win,” Bruce said. “I’m trying so hard to build that mentality of expecting to win. Lord knows that we work them hard. They put the work in, and I always tell them that when you put the work in you should expect to be successful. Getting that mindset is so important here.”

Worth County (1-1), a playoff team from a year ago, returns home after splitting a pair of road games against Thomas County Central and Turner County to begin its season.

The Rams rushed for more than 4,000 yards as a team a season ago and return leading rusher Chris McDaniel. He had 12 carries for 91 yards against Turner County, but the ground output of Worth County’s offense has fallen dramatically to begin this season. The Rams are averaging less than 200 yards per game after rushing for 340 a contest in 2015.

“They’re hard-nosed,” Bruce said. “They’re a wing-T team on offense, and they get it after it pretty good. Defensively they fly around. It’s going to be an uphill battle. They’ve got a lot of good football players, and they’re well-coached.”

After stumbling through its own offensive woes and being shut out at Northgate, the Warhawks’ attack showed signs of life against Dublin due in large part to the progression of quarterback Leyton Pinckney. The junior, who is committed to the Mercer baseball program as a catcher, has excellent size and a great arm.

Pinckney completed just 38 percent of his passes against Northgate, but he connected on 13-of-21 for 184 yards against the Irish.

“He went a million miles in one week,” Bruce said. “He was way more comfortable in the pocket. Coach (Stacey) Harden works with him, and he was just much more comfortable and he knew his reads better. Coach kind of pared down the offense and just left the things that he knew he could be successful doing, and it was night and day.”

Veterans also rushed for 173 yards as a team against Dublin, giving its offense a formidable balance that must be respected by opposing defenses.

“I’m very happy with the way our offense is coming along,” Bruce said. “The first game we couldn’t hardly do anything right, and then (against Dublin) we executed so much better and just cleaned up a lot of stuff that we had not done correctly in the first game. I’m excited about that.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Veterans making progress, still seeking first win."