Rising Northeast set to take on rebuilding Rutland

As heartbreaking as a missed extra point at the end of a game can be, Northeast head coach Bruce Mullen is seeing all sorts of positive signs around his program.

After winning the final two games of the regular season last year to make the playoffs as a 2-8 team, the Raiders have continued to build. While the way Northeast lost 14-13 to Lamar County stung, the fact that it was a one-point game is a marked improvement from each of the two previous seasons, when the teams were paired in the same region.

“Last year, it was 29-0, and (in 2013) they put 50 on us,” Mullen said. “I was pleased with the effort. They just kept fighting to the end.

“The kids didn’t quit. They played hard.”

Northeast gets another chance to build on that work Friday when it takes on another 0-1 team, Rutland, at Thompson Stadium.

The Raiders turned in a strong defensive performance against Lamar County, holding the Trojans to 171 yards of total offense. Two players, Terrynn Lyons and Timothy Green, each had 10 or more tackles.

Northeast’s rushing offense, meanwhile, had 209 yards on 39 carries, spreading the load across five ballcarriers.

“We’ve got the kids believing in each other,” Mullen said. “That’s the key thing, players doing what the coaches ask them to do. Last year we didn’t start going until late, and this time we got to start at the jump and are playing a lot better.”

Rutland opened with a 35-14 loss to Perry in Mark Daniel’s debut as head coach. Facing a major rebuilding process following a 1-9 season, Daniel took the opener as the first step in a development process.

The Hurricanes’ only victory last year was a 34-28, double-overtime win over Northeast.

“The kids never quit,” Daniel said. “They played hard, and that’s a real positive to see that. It’s really easy to give up in a game like that (against Perry), but they didn’t.”

Perry’s victory over Rutland didn’t become one-sided until the second half. Rutland limited its penalties in the first half, and Daniel liked the development he saw up front from offensive linemen like Desmond King and Jamaal Smith, as well as wingback Landon Miller.

Daniel has kept Rutland in a wing-T set, although he and his staff have changed some of the elements of the offense.

“We had a chance to be in that game and win against a much more talented team,” Daniel said. “We just have to correct some things.”

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Rising Northeast set to take on rebuilding Rutland."