Rosewood seeking consistency on gridiron

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on September 19, 2012 1:48 PM

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How did we get here? is a simple question that coaches often ask themselves at the midpoint of the season.

The quandary may be more baffling than in previous seasons for Rosewood head football coach Robert Britt. The Eagles are 1-4 overall and have not shown the kind of consistency that the coaching staff was looking for entering 2012.

Good games and bad games happen to every team, but at Rosewood the inconsistency has come half by half and sometimes even quarter by quarter.

"We were hoping by this point to be a little more consistent for sure," Rosewood head coach Robert Britt said. "It seems like when we are playing well that everything fits and things go our way. The flip side of that is that when things start to go wrong they tend to go wrong in a hurry and we can't get it stopped."

In the Eagles' opener against Class 3-A foe Charles B. Aycock, it was a shaky first half that put the team in a hole. After falling behind 20-0, Rosewood's defense stiffened and only allowed one scoring drive in the second half.

The second week was the same story with a different result.

Rosewood struggled through a choppy first half against Wake Christian before playing like gangbusters after the intermission. The Eagles scored 20 unanswered points in the third quarter and rolled to a 39-13 win.

"We have shown the ability to move the ball and score points," Britt said. "Going forward we have to look at the defense and get some of those guys healthy, and maybe move some guys around where they can be more effective."

Last Friday against Lejeune the Eagles once again wound up on the wrong end of a tale of two halves.

Rosewood controlled the pace of play early, limited the Devilpups' ground game and scored a pair of early touchdowns which led to a 15-7 lead at halftime. The second half was all Lejeune, which scored 34 unanswered points and turned the contest into a decisive victory.

"We simply did not tackle well against Lejeune," Britt said. "You hate to make it sound that simple, but that is really what it was. In the second half they made big plays in the ground game because we didn't wrap guys up. We had some defensive guys injured and some cramping issues, and it all culminated in big plays in their favor."

Rosewood is off this week and opens Carolina 1-A Conference play against defending league champion Ayden-Grifton on Sept. 28.

"We tell the kids, 'Special things happen all the time, but in order for it to happen you have to believe in it'," Britt said. "We will put the game plan together and try to execute it. We just have to figure out how to make good things happen and then keep them going."