Carroll Academy football coach Bo Milton has had plenty of good memories at Tri-County Academy.
Thursday was not one of those days for Milton or the Carroll football team.
The Rebels saw starting quarterback Collin Hurst go down with a knee injury that will keep him out for the season.
“He was rolling out and took out on a run,” Milton said. “He was planting as he went out of bounds and tore ligaments in his knee. I feel for him, I really do. He’s a good kid, a hard worker and wants to win and do things the right way. You hate that for any kid but we will move forward with the other kids and now some of them have to step up.”
Milton said he will turn to Logan Upchurch to handle the quarterbacking duties now.
“Logan will go to quarterback and we have to grow up around him,” Milton said. “We have some other good players but we will miss Colin. But some of those other good players that to step up and carry a little heavier burden than normal. But I think they are up to the challenge.”
The Rebels played two 20-minute running halves on Thursday, falling 6-0 to Riverfield in the first game.
“I thought we saw some good things against Riverfield,” Milton said. “We haven’t looked at anybody in the I-formation or against a 4-man front. You have to scheme for what they do so they moved the ball against us. Defensively, we made some good plays and I thought they played really hard. I thought the effort was good. We were able to watch film on that and correct some of those mistakes.”
The Rebels then finished against Central Holmes where they won 16-0. Hurst scored the first touchdown and Nathan Matthews scored on the two-point conversion. Cohen Blaylock scored the other touchdown and also ran in the two-point conversion.
“I thought we picked the pace up and looked better against Central Holmes,” Milton said. “They were in a three-man front so we were a little more used to that. And they ran stuff that we had worked on defensively. I just thought we played better. We didn’t play bad against Riverfield but didn’t play great either. Riverfield will give people some matchup nightmares. We just have never looked good in jamborees. It’s basically another glorified practice. It’s good in way and not good in ways.”
Carroll will now kick off the regular season this week as they host Canton Academy, who beat Greenville Christian 33-30 in overtime on Friday in a week zero game. Last year, Canton won 35-0 and went on to go 8-4 before losing to eventual champions Madison St. Joseph 28-27 in the Class 3A playoffs.
“They are going to be good and hard to deal with,” Milton said of Canton. “We have worked on them all summer so I hope we are ready.”
