By Jay Sowers
Selma Times-Journal

Every head coach and offensive coordinator in the game of football, from peewee league to the NFL, dreams of having a balanced attack on offense.

It’s so much easier said than done.

During Friday night’s season opener against Pike Liberal Arts, the Morgan Academy varsity offense was just that; balanced.

Balanced and nearly unstoppable.

The Senators racked up 425 yards of total offense over the Patriots defense, with 215 coming through the air, and 210 through a bruising rushing attack the hit their opponents all night long.

After racing out to a 42-0 lead at halftime, the Senators would score only once in the second half, but there was no point in keeping up the pace.

Head coach Bob Taylor said that his players had lived up to his expectations and had obviously heard his cries throughout summer camp that they need to play at a higher tempo.

“In the first half,” Taylor said. “Our tempo offensively was just outstanding. I was just overly pleased with the way we executed both on both the offense and defense.”

Despite the dominating victory to start the season, Taylor was quick to point out the work that lies ahead for his players.

“In the second half it got sloppy, both sides, just everybody got sloppy for us,” Taylor said. “We had way too many penalties tonight. But it’s the first game, so we’ll take it and move on.”

Patriots head coach Gene Allen told his players that Friday’s loss falls at the feet of each player on the team, not one player or another.

“This is a team loss,” Allen said to the huddled players shortly after the game concluded. “It doesn’t matter if ten people are blocking and one person isn’t. If we lose five yards, the team loses five yards.”

“This goes from top to bottom,” Allen said.

Allen added that the players and coaches would be watching game film together on Monday, not to dwell on what went wrong, but rather, learn from those mistakes.

“The big eye in the sky doesn’t lie,” Allen said. “And I’m going to point out what you did wrong, because the only way you’ll get better is to do wrong and correct what we screwed up.”

“We have a lot of things to correct.”