[colonel4life]

Apology accepted, I don't agree with Kanter either. Again, I don't condone the clip on Bryant but it was a kid reacting to a blow to the head. The blow may have come from him simply using his technique to get out of the situation he was in and even if it was an intentional blow to the head out of frustration that still does not excuse the clip. I have always taught my son to ignore punches or headslaps during the play because reacting can only hurt our team. That is why you wear a helmet, if you take a punch or blow to the head take the 15 yards that go with it but don't react and give them back out of selfishness. I can guarantee you however, that the Somerset staff does not teach our players to try and intentionally injure anyone. Somerset keeps 3 players near the punter to make sure and force the punt. Like I said before with Storm Wilson returning kicks these 3 don't just stand there and trot down the field--the block that they may make against the safety might be the one that leads to the touchdown. And let me ask you this: As hard of a time as we had dealing with Bryant all night would you have left one person to block him? If we had tried blocking him with one person on that play and he hadn't been clipped don't you think he'd have made the tackle? I do. That's why he was triple teamed--not to hurt him. The guys that blocked him had to wait to make sure the ball was punted then they were supposed to block the safety until the whistle--not clip him. That was a bad play on the Somerset player's part and again I don't condone it.

Bryant is a heck of a player and with our linebackers out we had a very difficult time dealing with him. Even when Whitley didn't score they were able to pick up first downs and keep Somerset's offense off of the field--just when the Jumpers had found their rhythm. What some of the Somerset fans are missing on here is that even with the 2 touchdowns called back on the final Jumper drive it was 3 just outstanding plays by Whitley that won the game. 1)The fingertip deflection by one of the Colonel DBs on 4th and goal stopped what was a sure touchdown pass to Wilson on a very well thrown ball by Lange. 2) The run on the reverse on 4th down was a great run and a great call by Coach Black. 3) The catch on the reverse pass was outstanding. The ball, receiver and defender all got there at the same time and the receiver had to go to the ground to make the catch. Great play.

The game was right there for Somerset to win. In the end the Colonels made 3 huge plays and the Briar Jumpers didn't. That is what cost us the game--not the calls. Although I still think we should have been up 8 instead of 1 on the last drive--but missed calls happen and we would have had a devil of a time stopping Bryant if it had went to overtime.

Good luck the rest of the way Colonels. If Whitley is supposed to be the 2nd or 3rd best team in District 8 then I feel like there is a decent chance for a sweep of District 7 in the playoffs and at worse a 3-1 record.

Norm you seem to be a very good Somerset fan who has posted on here with a lot of class.
In may opinion the Somerset players did not show that same class last night. I hope it was just a frustrated group of kids due to their recent struggles and took it out in the wrong way. There were several occasions were Somerset was hitting Bryant every play whether he was close to the action or not. There was one occasion (before the clipping incident) after Bryant was tackled the Somerset player put his hand on Bryant's throat and pushed off to get up. The ref talked to the player after the play (not sure why the flag wasn't thrown guess the ref was just warning the kid)

All that said, non of it matters anymore. Somerset and Whitley both have to move on to the games that really matter. I hope Somerset does well.