The Warriors celebrate a scoring drive earlier this season. The offensive unit, seen above, has seen fresh faces step in as needed.

The Warriors celebrate a scoring drive earlier this season. The offensive unit, seen above, has seen fresh faces step in as needed.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

The Goshen Warriors got their first win of the Ryan George era on Friday night, Sept. 19 in a 26-6 rout of Clermont Northeastern.

The Warriors have been mired by injuries to key players early in the season, which along with the implementation of Coach George’s new system, caused a lack of consistency throughout the first month.

“It’s good for our kids and for our morale to get a win,” George said. “We have a lot of young kids playing because of some injuries. (The win) puts a little bit more pep back into their step and we’re looking forward to winning some more games.”

After starting out 0-3 and only putting a total of 23 points on the scoreboard, the Warriors pounced on CNE and got up 14-0 through one quarter.

“It all starts up front and we had good line blocking,” the coach said. “That’s a position (unit) that we have some seniors up there — Hunter Hines, Max Glass — and Chase Bellamy, a junior. They got things done and that was a good confidence boost for them.”

The defense got in on the act as well, reversing a trend that saw Goshen give up an average of 31 points per game, only letting the Rockets get six points on Friday night.

“(Our defense) is a work-in-progress, but I think we’re getting better each week,” he said. “We did create some turnovers and that’s always a good thing.”

That “work-in-progress” moniker is something George has been warning about since the preseason as the new coach came to town from Tell City, Ind. Introducing a new style of play is never easy, but consistency is a key component to fast integration.

“The kids have adapted well to the new system,” George said. “Anytime you have injuries — and we have had quite a few — you have to plug another kid in there and go through the process again.”

Unfortunately for the Warriors, injuries have done an admirable job of making the consistency that the coach preaches tough to attain.

“We’ve had two of our starting quarterbacks go down,” George explained. “Senior Kyle Decker has stepped up into that spot, but he recently sustained a concussion and was out, so we started freshman Kyle Proffitt at quarterback (against CNE).

“We’re having to use some patchwork in different places, but we’re having young kids step up.

“I feel like we’re starting to get a little of that consistency. Some of the kids that are out, we know they’re not going to be able to return, so we can use the best of it to get consistent.”

Freshman safety Sebastian Abshire has been forced into duty as the quarterback of the defense when senior Jiles Munafo suffered a knee injury in the third preseason scrimmage. Andrew Arnold, another freshman, is starting on the line because of injuries as well.

“I’d prefer not to have to start freshmen,” George said, “but we’ve had to take stock of what we have and it gives them good experience. I feel like they’ve gotten better each week that they’ve played.”

An opportunity to continue getting better arrives every week; that’s the beauty of football season. This week’s opponent, Williamsburg, is coming off of their first win of the season as well.

“Williamsburg’s had some close games — games that I think they probably thought they had the opportunity to win except for some turnovers — but they’re a good team,” George said. “We want to improve upon on our win and keep running the ball. Defensively, we need to wrap up and hopefully, create some more turnovers.”

The Warriors will play host on Friday night at Jim Brown Stadium.

Kick off against Williamsburg is slated for 7:30 p.m.