SENECA — Eating back-to-back losses, the Chanute Blue Comets fell on the road to the Nemaha Central Thunder, 28-14, on Friday night in Week 4.
“They’re a darn good team that does things the right way,” Chanute head coach Clete Frazell said. “We handled them pretty well. We played good defense and played aggressive and that’s what we needed to see. It’s something we hadn’t done all year.”
With the score knotted at 7-7 at halftime, Nemaha Central scored 21 points in the second half to put Chanute away.
“You saw some panic on their side. But then in the second half, we threw an interception where the receiver ran the wrong route and that one turnover really hurt us,” Frazell said. “You just can’t have that happen against great teams. We still got ourselves right back in it.”
Despite missing Jalen Duncan in the backfield, Chanute’s offense outgained the Thunder, 320-281. However, the Blue Comets were just 1-of-10 on third downs and 2-of-5 on fourth downs.
“We had some drives going and just didn’t finish,” Frazell said. “They wore us down and we started missing some tackles. That let Nemaha put some finishing touches on the game. We outgained them on offense, we just didn’t capitalize. A lot of it was self-inflicted mistakes. We’ve got to keep polishing those things up. If we can get out of our own way that causes us to stall out, we can be a really good team.”
Jordan Patterson racked up 114 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries while Kris Harding II was 11-of-22 passing for 119 yards, a score and an interception.
“We didn’t have Jalen and the other two backs stepped up and played really good football,” Frazell said. “They ran the ball physically and just did a great job. And our offensive line had one of their best games of the year. We knew they’d have to play that way for us to have a chance.”
While the Blue Comets’ loss was their second in a row, Chanute showed a more positive trajectory after a blowout loss at McPherson in Week 3.
“We saw a ton of improvement,” Frazell said. “We saw some hard-nosed football, and that was something we were lacking. On film, there were a ton of mistakes that we highlighted. We had some miscues. Not having Jalen messed with our alignment at times. Sometimes, guys were trying to do their own thing. We were playing as individuals instead of as a team. We’ll see that on film.”
Up next
Chanute, now 2-2 overall, comes back for its final home game of the regular season in Week 5 against the Independence Bulldogs in SEK League play.
“Watching their film, they have some athletes that can hurt you,” Frazell said. “We’ve just played the two toughest opponents we have on paper. We always learn more and things stick more when you lose games. It sucks to lose games. But now, we just lost a game where we were in it. The kids realize how important it is to get right and play like we’re capable. If we do that, we’ll win the game pretty soundly.”
