High School Junior Varsity Football
Home Team: Piqua Indians
Visiting Team: Troy Trojans
Venue: Alexander Stadium
Game Time: 10:00 a.m.
Fellow Attendees: Mom, Dad
In all my years of following high school football, this is the first time I've gone to a junior varsity game. My nephew is a sophomore linebacker who played in this game, and, being the last JV game of the year, my brother called and asked me to go. So I went.
Oh...did I mention that my nephew is a linebacker for Piqua? And that, as an alumnus of Troy, I've spent the bulk of my life cultivating a seething hatred for Piqua? Needless to say, that put me in a strange situation for this game. I wanted to see Brandon do well individually, but actually cheering for Piqua's team to win the game...well, that was a little beyond me. Had the game been against anyone but Troy I could have pulled it off, but not this one. So I just sat there (on the home side of Piqua's stadium, I might add, another bizarre element for me) and watched the game in silence, not actively rooting for either team.
I'm glad to say that Brandon did play well. He played every snap on defense, I think, and was in on quite a few tackles. He was almost always where he needed to be and looked to be pretty solid. So that's good. As for the game, well...Piqua won. Or, more accurately, Troy lost. They were up 12-0 at halftime and had quite a bit more talent than the Indians. They seemed to come unglued after the break, though, and absolutely gave the game away with penalties and turnovers.
Still, as a spectator, especially for this game, I was more interested to see what each team had than in the actual outcome. Troy had a couple of guys that looked to be pretty talented, although they'll need to buckle down and get those penalties and turnovers under control if they want to contribute on the varsity level next year. As for Piqua, their QB was a decent dual threat in the mold of most of their recent quarterbacks, but other than that it didn't look to me like they had too much, at least on the offensive side. Defensively Piqua will always be solid, talent or no, because that's their calling card. Overall, though, I didn't see anything from them to indicate that their varsity team will be getting back to their glory days anytime soon.
