North Crawford tops Heights

Uncharacteristic mistakes. Self-inflicted wounds. Abnormal gaffes. Wisconsin Heights’ football team had them all last Friday in a 26-12 loss to North Crawford, the state’s No. 7 team in 8-man football. The Vanguards fell to 1-1, while North Crawford improved to 2-0. Afterwards, Vanguards coach Connor Herrling was most frustrated by the fact Heights hurt itself as much as North Crawford did. “After Friday’s loss I gave it to them plain and simple,” Herrling said. “We shot ourselves in the foot. From snaps over the head, interceptions, wrong blocking assignments. That right there just gets me wanting to run through a wall.” Heights led, 6-0, after the first quarter, but trailed, 14-6 at halftime. The Vanguards scored early in the third quarter and pulled within 14-12, but North Crawford finished the night with 12 unanswered points. “The thing that really hurt us was the blocking,” Herrling said. “Too many errors on blocking and not driving until the whistle. We need to finish our blocks better. We need to get to the next level so the linebackers can’t get hands on us so fast.  “Defensively it wasn’t a terrible game. We had some blown assignments that led to them scoring. It was a hard fought battle that we should have one. We move forward.” That will be Herrling’s message to his team as they get ready to host Kickapoo/LaFarge Friday at 7 p.m. “The team has nothing to be ashamed of. They played their hearts out and left it out there,” Herrling said. “We keep moving forward. If we look back on what happened in the past then that’s all you want to think about. Move on and conquer the next day.  “You never can learn if you don’t lose. People that never lose in life are the ones who get things handed to and don’t know hard work. We don’t hand things out on this football team. It’s all hard work.”