Carvers Bay starts slow once again, falls to C.E. Murray

Starting slow has become a trend for the Carvers Bay football team.

Starting with a clean slate is what Bears coach Nate Thompson hopes helps his team end that trend.

Carvers Bay got down early Friday night, which proved to be a difference maker in a 21-10 loss to C.E. Murray.

“It seems like that’s our M.O.,” Thompson said. “We play hard, but we don’t finish right now. We haven’t learned to finish yet. We let people get out on us and we fight back. But we’re waiting too late [to get going]. We’ve got a young team that just hasn’t put it together yet.”

The coming week would be a perfect time to correct that as the Bears open up region play at Creek Bridge next Friday.

“The good thing is the new season starts this week,” Thompson said. “I’m hoping that with the experiences we’ve had that we’ve learned [from them], and that some of the things we’re trying to teach come through for the next week and we can take it one game at a time. We’ll concentrate on Creek Bridge and go from there.”

And while Carvers Bay is usually a strong contender in Region VIII-A, Thompson isn’t taking anything for granted.

“In conference everybody’s good,” he said. “And the ones you think are not good, those are the ones who will catch you off guard. That’s why you have to take it one game at a time.”

While Thompson is taking a patient approach with a young team, he lamented some his team’s weaknesses that were exposed Friday night.

“We were inconsistent on offense. We moved the ball, then we shoot ourselves in the foot somehow,” he said. “Defensively, we didn’t do good in the first half of the game. Our kids got beat to the punch. In the second half, they kind of [shored] up and did better.”

That gave the Bears a fighting chance, and that’s all Thompson’s asking for.

“I think it’s kind of been ingrained in them: If they don’t give up, they’ll be OK,” Thompson said. “We’re trying to get them to the point now that if they can play, they know they can play. We need to cut down on our mistakes and start believing in each other and it will start working.

“If you’ve got a young crowd, this is what you’re going to get.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 12:50 AM with the headline "Carvers Bay starts slow once again, falls to C.E. Murray."