INGALLS – Five hours is a long time to ride a bus to a high school football game. It seems even longer when you’re riding home after soundly defeated by your hosts.
That was the unfortunate experience Friday night for the Altoona-Midway High School football team, which made the long trek here only to fall 64-13 to the Ingalls Bulldogs in a 6-Man, non-division football matchup.
For the second straight game, Altoona-Midway was without the services of senior quarterback and two-way starter Jacob Meigs, who is recovering from a leg injury. The Jets, forced to move players around from their normal positions, suffered seven turnovers during the contest.
“We’re hoping to get healthy and have everyone back next week,” said AMHS head coach Randy Almond. “You can’t have six fumbles and an interception and expect to be able to compete on the scoreboard,” said AMHS head coach Randy Almond. “No excuses – Ingalls is a talented team. But some of those turnovers are the result of having to play people out of position.” Because of the seven turnovers, Altoona-Midway only snapped the ball from scrimmage 29 times in the contest.
Despite the limited number of snaps, two of them went the distance for Jet touchdowns. Both came on second-quarter passes from Kieran Foster to William Stackhouse. One connection was good for 50 yards while the other covered 25 yards. Foster finished 5-for-9 passing for 103 yards, gained 18 yards on the ground, and had one reception for 15 yards. Stackhouse, who now had 13 touchdowns on the season, garnered 99 receiving yards and 32 rushing on just three attempts. Blaine Collins had five yards rushing and Braxton Whitlake netted four receiving yards to round out the Jet offensive stats. Collins also toted the pigskin across the goal for a PAT to record the other AMHS point.
Defensively, Stackhouse had nine tackles, Collins had seven, Lane Poeverlein finished with six and Foster netted five. Also recording tackles were Joey Lamendola, Kage Beck and Whitlake with three each and Taj O’Connor with two.
Ingalls moved its season record to 4-1 on the year. The Bulldogs led 50-0 after one period and the game was called at halftime.
“Offensively, we to hang on to the ball and continue to work on blocking,” Almond said. “Defensively, again we struggled getting off their blocks and making the tackle.
“We have to get more aggressive and more physical,” Almond added. Altoona-Midway (0-5) not only stays on the road this week, but they have one less day to prepare.
The Jets travel to Peabody-Burns for a Thursday (Oct. 5) contest to finish off a three-game road trip. The game with the Warriors was moved up a day to a shortage of officials being available.