Sports

Jacks fall to Lions at homecoming, still searching for first win

By Tyler Ohmann

10/16/2012

The Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks were still searching for their first win of the season this past Saturday as they hosted the Trinity Bible College Lions for homecoming in Bottineau.
However, the Jacks’ quest for a win was not fulfilled as the Lions felled the Jacks 35-21.

“We went backwards,” said Jacks head coach Tim Pfeifer. “There were turnovers and dumb penalties, and it’s been the same story all year. It’s time for us to grow up and we just haven’t done it.”

DCB drove down the field on their first drive as Chris Price dove in from two-yards out to give the Jacks a 7-0 lead.

The Lions then took a two-score lead following back-to-back scores.

The Jacks drew to within one after a Mathis Thomas score late in the first half.

After falling behind further, the Jacks scored once more as quarterback Malcolm Hilliard hit Lance Jackson for a score in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough as interceptions and penalties hounded both the offense and defense all day.

“Defensively I thought it was our poorest defensive effort of the whole year,” Pfeifer said. “We’ve played better defense against much better teams, and it just didn’t click today on defense. I don’t know what it was.”

“We just need to make better reads on offense,” Pfeifer continued. “On defense it just seems whenever we don’t line up right they take advantage of it.”

“They got a couple touchdowns today because we didn’t line up right,” Pfeifer added.

Hilliard was a spark coming off the bench for the Jacks, though he did throw a pick in the second half.

“I felt all right,” Hilliard said. “I came into the game playing to win, but things didn’t go as planned.”

 “We had simple mistakes and they countered, and we turned the ball over a couple of times,” Hilliard added.

Hilliard replaced injured quarterback Jonathan Parks, who has been battling nagging hamstring and ankle injuries all season.

Hilliard hopes the Jacks can get a win in one of their final two games.

“We are just going to have to work harder, and play more as a team,” Hilliard said. “We need to stop arguing on the field, and fix simple mistakes that we let get to us.”

“We just need to play more as a team, just get more of a confidence boost,” Hilliard added.

Pfeifer hopes the Jacks can at least learn something for their next game against Trinity which will be in Ellendale on Oct. 27.

“Hopefully (we learned) what they did on defense, so we have a little better attack, and a little more patience on offense, because I thought we got a little impatient on offense,” Pfeifer said. “It was the same old story on offense, penalties and turnovers.”

DCB will also play on the road next week at 6 p.m. on Friday evening in Mayville against their junior varsity squad.

The Jacks are 0-6 on the season thus far, and the 14-point loss to the Lions was the closest they’ve come in a game all season.

“It’s just disappointing that it’s this time of year, and you’re still making those types of fundamental mistakes,” Pfeifer said about the loss.