DAVID BARBER

davidb@vanzandtnews.com

A long trip south to Madisonville got even longer quickly as the Van Vandals were dominated by the Madisonville Mustangs, 49-7, Oct. 16.

Coach Jared Moffatt’s Vandals are now 3-4 overall and 0-2 in district play.

Vandal senior quarterback Rawly Hinch completed 12 out of 25 passes for 110 yards, no touchdowns and one interception, in addition to gaining 75 yards rushing on four carries and one fumble lost.

Running back Jalyn Robinson led Van on the ground with 104 yards rushing on 15 carries and one TD.

Other RB totals for the Vandals included Tim Jones with 54 yards rushing on nine carries and one lost fumble followed by Parker Rainey with 36 yards rushing on nine carries.

Cash Walker led the Vandal receivers with five receptions for 55 yards followed by Aydan Kindle and Braxton Bass with two receptions each for 24 yards each.

“There is not good to say about that game,” summarized Moffatt. “That is about as bad as we can play, especially in the first half, on both sides of the ball. The only bright spots we had were a couple of special teams’ plays. Cash Walker had two pretty good returns, and Rawly Hinch punted the ball to the one-yard line on one of his punts. Despite how we played, we did have our opportunities. They made the plays on third down and we did not. We played poorly on both sides of the ball. It was really unfortunate. It was a bad night. “

Moffatt addressed how the team is moving forward after a disappointing performance at Madisonville.

“It’s never about what happened,” emphasized Moffatt. “It is what do you do now. How are we going to respond? That is the message this week. We can’t do one thing about the last game, but we can do something about the next game. I have a lot of confidence in our players. They have proven in the past that they can play well. I believe in our team. We just have to go out Thursday night and execute well against Brownsboro.”

Moffatt addressed whether the loss to Van Zandt County rival Canton had any carryover effect on their performance at Madisonville.

“That is a valid question,” pointed out Moffatt. “You can’t discount that by any means. Just look at what has happened in college football recently. Alabama and Georgia both lost after playing each other. Same thing with Texas and Oklahoma. I don’t know really if that was a factor in our performance at Madisonville or not. It happens at every level. We have to be on guard against that as players and coaches. That was an emotional loss we had against Canton. Regardless, we have to play better than we did at Madisonville and we fully expect to play better against Brownsboro.”

Moffatt credited Madisonville on their performance against the Vandals. “They have a good team with a lot of athletic ability, and we knew that going into the game,” recalled Moffatt. “I don’t want to take anything away from their performance. It was just disappointing to see how we played against them. We expected to perform better than we did. Madisonville has a good football team.”