Friday night the Industrial Cobras took on the Goliad Tigers in the Snake Pit, marking the first home game of the season for the Cobras. Plagued by turnovers early in the game, the Cobras fought hard but came up short, losing 2114.
To start the game, Goliad won the coin toss and chose to receive. Seniors Donovan Perry, Lamont Franklin and Cord Zamzow had a strong showing on offense. However, the Cobra defense— led by senior player of the week Colt Charbula—held strong, with no touchdowns in the first quarter.
“This week, our defense improved on doing our jobs and playing hard,” Charbula said. “I think as a whole team, we need to trust one another more and more. When that happens, we will be an unstoppable unit of a team.”
The team seemed unstoppable during the second quarter when junior Easton Larew brought home a touchdown, giving the team its first lead of the season.
“This week we did a better job of starting faster,” Cobra Head Football Coach Matthew Luddeke said. “The last few weeks we started the games off with mistakes and put ourselves behind, so this is the first week we led a game for the first time.”
In addition, junior Bryce Sykes felt the team keeps building on their throwing game. Quarterback Cooper Francis went eight for 13, throwing for 144 yards with one touchdown. Riddle, Larew, Kurtz and Sykes were all key players on the Cobra offense, moving the ball down the field several times.
“I think we’re improving day by day,” Sykes said. “At the beginning of the season, we couldn’t even run the ball. We couldn’t throw the ball.
We’ve been working on it, and now we can really do it all.”
Though they have shown growth, the main problem for the Cobras this week was their mistakes.
“We had a better offensive and defensive game, but we are still hurting ourselves with mistakes and being disciplined,” Luddeke said. “We had 85 yards in penalties. I think that was really the difference in the game.”
Looking forward to the next game, the team is preparing to correct those mistakes, and the Cobra defense will be hard at work to stop Shiner—a physical team.
“One thing we need to improve as a defense this week is our alignment,” Charbula said. “If we are in our gaps and doing our 1:11, then it will be a very good game.”
On Friday, the Cobras (0-3) will return to the Snake Pit for a showdown against the Shiner Comanches (3-0). Kickoff is set for 7:30.
