Timberland Stuck in Mud Against Francis Howell

 couldn't get a firm footing on a soggy Friday night against Francis Howell. And the weather was far from the only reason.

Timberland (1-2) was dominated by Howell (3-0) from the opening whistle and suffered a 49-6 loss in a game that was ultimately decided by halftime. The Timberwolves trailed 42-0 at half time, at which point Howell pulled their starters.

The tone was set for the game on Timberland’s opening drive. On third down, senior quarterback Ryan Bainbridge attempted a pass and had it picked off by sophomore linebacker A.J. Jones, who returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. Just 46 seconds into the game after Timberland received the opening kickoff, it was already 7-0 Howell.

“We couldn’t find a way to establish drives,” Head Coach Craig Collins said.  “We had a tough time finding matchups that we could win tonight.”

Timberland couldn’t capitalize on their biggest chance of the first half, as they were stopped on fourth and three at the Vikings’ 22-yardline late in the first quarter. The Timberwolves found the end zone just once, late in the second half, largely as a result of not being able to establish a running game.

"It was tough to run the ball, their front side moves around a lot,” senior safety Tyler Shumaker said. “it’s tough to tell who you’re blocking.”

The Timberwolves had trouble on the defensive side of the ball as well on Friday. They only managed to stop the Vikings on one of their seven first half drives. The other six yielded Howell touchdowns. The Vikings’ dynamic passing attack was led by senior quarterback Eric Siebenshuh who threw for 217 yards, completing 15/20 passes with one touchdown. The touchdown strike had another senior on the receiving end in wide out Corey King, who finished with 104 receiving yards in addition to the touchdown.

”Offensively we were just outmatched,” Shumaker said. “They dinked and dunked us all night and we just didn’t make tackles, so we need to come back next week and tackle better.”

Shumaker is keeping a positive attitude as he looks ahead to Parkway North next week.

“I’m very proud of the fact that our secondary never gave up a deep ball and we got some pressure on the quarterback a couple of times,” he said. “Defensively, we played hard, you know, they’re just a great offense.”

Timberland is in another rebuilding year which can be gathered from looking at the team’s roster. They only have a group of 13 seniors on a 74 player roster. Left tackle Natan Christo explained that roster age wasn’t the only growing pain the Timberwolves were going through this season.

 “Everyone’s pretty young on the team,” he said. “We moved to a bigger conference this year.“

Although the team is going through some adversity, Christo has seen progress in this year’s team.

“We’re closer than last year, we just have to bring it together [and] mesh,” he said.  

Coach Collins is also proud of his team’s effort and is optimistic about the remainder of the young season.

“Our guys didn’t quit,” he said. “We have a chance to be pretty good at the end of the year.“

Looking ahead to next week when the Timberwolves visit Parkway North, Collins has an idea of what his squad needs to fix.

“We have to stay on blocks better and handle pressure [defense] because they’re going to bring the same things at us,” he said.

The task with North won’t be much easier for the young Timberwolves next Friday, as the Vikings entered the season ranked among the area’s top ten teams.