MILTON — Chafan Marsh, head coach of the Milton High School Panther football team, expects his team to be prepared for Booker T. Washington High School next Friday.
The MHS Panthers are looking to rebound after Thursday night’s 28-0 Kickoff Classic loss to Murphy High School.
GALLERY: Photos from the 2016 kickoff classic at Milton High School>
“We made too many mistakes to play a team like Murphy,” Marsh said. “They are one of the better teams in the state of Alabama.”
Marsh said he wanted to test his team early in the season, but results were not favorable.
“We had too many busted assignments and had too many turnovers offensively,” Marsh said.
While underclassmen played for the first quarter, the varsity squads for both Panther teams took the field at the beginning of the second quarter.
While Milton’s defense struggled to contain Murphy’s offense from moving the ball, they did keep Murphy to only one touchdown going into halftime.
However, things got worse for Milton early in the third quarter, when the Panther offense fumbled the ball twice. Murphy’s offense capitalized on those turnovers with touchdowns on offense.
On offense, Milton was unable to reach the end zone, and their defense struggled with Murphy’s offensive ground and passing game. Milton’s defense did manage to recover a fumble early in the fourth quarter.
While Milton was shut out during their kickoff classic and started the 2016 season with a loss, Coach Marsh has high expectations for this year’s football team.
“Murphy is going to win a lot of football games this year — and so are we,” he said. “We are going to rebound, we are going to get better and we are going to be just fine.”
Marsh said he was pleased to see how his team reacted to the loss.
“The main thing I was happy about was our poise and our composure and we kept fighting until the end,” he said.
Milton is expected to have both Aubrey Williams at quarterback and Desmone Knight at running back next week. Both players were sidelined with minor injuries against Murphy.
The Milton Panthers are scheduled to play at Washington on Friday; game time is 7:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Panthers' goal: correct mistakes following Murphy loss (VIDEO, PHOTOS)