By By Tim Cottrell
A rebuilding project is never easy, even if it may appear to be for a while.
After starting off the season 3-0 following last year's 0-7 campaign, the Northview Chiefs have dropped two consecutive games. They followed last week's loss to Holmes County with a 21-0 loss to Marianna Friday night.
The Chiefs turned the ball over six times in the loss, and had three red zone scoring opportunities slip away with no points.
Northview head coach Cody Keene felt the step up in competition the last two weeks had more to do with the Chiefs' struggles than anything else.
"I think a lot of it has to do with the competition getting better," Keene said. "Marianna and Bonifay (Holmes County) have good ball teams. We're just not executing. We've got to work harder on our execution. Last night we had the ball in the red zone a couple of times and didn't score. We returned a kickoff to the 28-yard line. We didn't make plays when we had to. We've got to execute and do what we're supposed to be doing."
Following the loss to Holmes County, Keene and his coaching staff made wholesale changes throughout the Chiefs' starting lineup, particularly with the linebacking corps. Keene said that some of the new starters, while they played hard, might not have fully prepared for their first start.
"We had some kids that had their first opportunity to start," Keene said. "Two or three of them responded. They all played real hard. We've got to go back and simplify what we're trying to do offensively. I think we're trying to do too much. We've got to go back and focus on what works for us offensively."
Despite the tough two-week stretch, Keene wasn't discouraged.
"I feel like if we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot and stop turning the ball over we'll be fine," he said. "We've still got an opportunity to win the district. That's our goal. We've got a tough opponent this week in Wewahitchka; I think they're 3-1. That's what we're going to focus on. Next week's homecoming and we finally get to play at home again."
The Chiefs will host Wewahitchka for homecoming at 7:30 p.m. Friday night in Bratt.