Sports
Turnovers and Injury Plague Portsmouth Trojans
By: Seth Austin
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In Portsmouth’s last attempt to remove the zero from their wins column before kicking off SEOAL play, the Trojans welcomed the Wheelersburg Pirates. But turnovers plagued the Trojan offense enabling Wheelersburg to take the match 28-19.
The Trojan defense came out firing on all cylinders forcing a fumble on Wheelersburg’s first drive of the game giving them great field position for their offense. But on Portsmouth’s second play from scrimmage, Mason Jordan’s first pass of the game ended up in a Wheelersburg defender’s hands.
From there, the Pirates marched down the field only to be intercepted again, this time by Zaide Whitley. Unfortunately the turnover could not spark the Trojan’s offense into action and they would punt the ball back to Wheelersburg. The Pirates took advantage of short field position and punched the ball in from the one yard.
Portsmouth would be quick to respond when Whitley took the ensuing kick up the middle, bounced to the left and then reversed the field to go 79 yards to the house. At this point the Trojans had yet to gain a yard on offense. Offense remained a problem for Portsmouth with only 219 total yards in the game. Action stalled until late in the third when the Pirates did it on the ground to add another score behind Brett Hood and Mark O’Brien.
O’Brien would finish the game with 86 yards on 22 carries. The Pirates totaled 301 yards on the night. Injury kept Trojan quarterback sidelined to be replaced by sophomore Cody Stapleton, and on his first pass of the game, Hood would pick him off and return it for six. Portsmouth would add a few scores at the end of the game, but the early turnovers were too much to overcome keeping the Trojans winless heading into their next week’s matchup with Warren.