BY AARON PATTERSON
Commercial-News
GEORGETOWN —
When a coaching change is made, excitement typically spreads throughout the program. It happens in any sport.
But when the lights come on, the real story is usually told on the field. If the team finds itself dropping games, especially early in the season, the honeymoon period might be cut short.
First year Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman head coach Josh Cavanaugh didn’t exactly have as much time as he would have liked to help prepare the Buffaloes for the 2010 football season. For many, cramming too much information into a short time period might spell disaster.
Fortunately for Cavanaugh, his new squad quickly bought into his philosophy, and the results have so far indicated the Buffaloes might be on a different path than previous seasons.
For the first time since 2004, the Buffaloes started the season 2-0 after dominating East Central 47-8 on Friday.
“It feels really good,” junior Korie Vire said. “I really like him as a coach and what he’s doing. Only 14 days of practice, we came out, we listened to him, he talked to us for a little bit, we got to know each other. He said this is what we’re going to do, and this is how it’s going to happen. That’s what happened.”
Vire scored three touchdowns for the Buffaloes, all in the first half and all on runs of 10 yards or more. GRFC led 34-0 at halftime, and quickly went up 41-0 on the first play from scrimmage in the second half when Derrick McCormick ran 30 yards for the score.
Influencing much of the team’s success was special teams and defense. The Buffaloes started five of their nine drives in Panthers territory, and on their final scoring play, watched George Foehrer sprint 77 yards up the right sideline on a kick return for a touchdown.
While that play capped an impressive performance, junior Matt Hay, who is playing football for the first time in his high school career, set the tone for the game when he returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown just 1 minute, 4 seconds into the game.
“I’ve learned from some coaches that are a lot better coaches than me, that special teams are huge,” Cavanaugh said. “We practice them a lot. Field position is crucial. If we get a short field, that’s huge. And scoring on defense, scoring on the first play of the quarter and things like that, we really stress those times with our kids.”
The Buffaloes had four scoring drives last 24 seconds or less. Two of them lasted only four seconds on Vire’s 12-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and another 10-yard run by Vire in the second quarter.
GRFC held East Central to just 21 yards of total offense in the first half, and 119 in the game. The Buffaloes also grabbed three interceptions. In addition to Hay, Vire and Ryan Berry also had picks.
Though he found the end zone only once, McCormick ran for 101 yards, marking his second consecutive 100-yard game.
The win puts GRFC only one win away from last season’s total with Vermilion Valley Conference play beginning next week against Hoopeston Area. Excitement has already quickly spreading throughout the program, and a 2-0 start will likely only create more buzz.
But Cavanaugh is making sure his team doesn’t get too high prior to seeing conference action.
“We’re really excited,” Vire said. “You can’t get too excited yet because that wasn’t our conference, but we’ve got our conference coming up. We’ve got to buckle down and go to practice. We’re going to do our thing and get better. There’s always room for improvement.”
