DANVILLE — Reality has a way of slapping you in the face when its really needed.
The Danville Vikings football team found this out the hard way on Saturday afternoon when the Bloomington Purple Raiders left the renovated Ned V. Whitesell Field with a 41-14 victory in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted,’’ said Danville senior Tayvion Diltz. “We made a lot of errors on both sides.’’
Danville coach Marcus Forrest is hopeful that this outcome serves a wake-up call as he and the other coaches for the Vikings were not pleased with their team’s preparation.
“That was explained to them, prior to and after the game,’’ Forrest said. “You can’t be surprised if this is how you attempt to practice. There comes a point where we can schematically get you in the right places, but we can’t have 10 people do a job and one person take a play off.
“That’s what we had at times. One person taking a play off. One person not going all out. One person not doing his job. Once we are able to corral that, get them on one page, everyone at one time, playing hard. I think we will do well.’’
The Vikings inability to be on the same page as a group resulted in 14 penalties for 92 yards, including two penalties that wiped out an 80-yard touchdown run and an 62-yard interception return for a score — both in the first quarter.
Additionally, Danville ran just nine offensive plays for 3 yards in the first quarter, while committing two of its three offensive turnovers and having a punt blocked. Bloomington, on the other hand, ran 23 plays for 129 yards and scored four touchdowns to take a 27-7 lead.
“Anytime, you have anything close to that, you know that things are not going to go well,’’ Forrest said. “It’s definitely not a formula for success.
“But, it’s what we knew could happen with new kids in new areas, young kids playing for the first time and even some older kids that had not played in over a year. It was a lot of inexperience that gave up points at times and took away points at times.’’
For Forrest, it’s a perfect opportunity to teach this team.
“The best way to get their attention is something like this, is coming out and taking a tough loss at home. I think it stings a little more,’’ he said. “This is something we can learn from. I don’t want them to be dejected about it — I wanted them to understand what happened. You can’t just turn it on and turn it off when you want. You have to be focused all of the time.
“There were times that we lacked focus. It’s my job to make sure that I get their attention all of the time so that we can continue to get better.’’
Not everything on Saturday went wrong for Danville.
Senior Diddy Robinson had a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter and senior quarterback Darius Jay capped a third-quarter scoring drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.
“I felt like we picked it up in the second half,’’ said Diltz, as Bloomington gained just 62 yards on 18 plays in the final two quarters. “But, we need to be a four-quarter team.
“We need to change our mentality. We have to be ready to fight in the first quarter and become more mentally prepared.’’
While Forrest acknowledges both sides of the football need improvement, he was particularly concerned with Danville being held to 88 rushing yards on 21 carries.
“We have to find a way to run the ball better,’’ he said. “I have to do a better job of putting us in a position to establish a better running game.
“We knew it was going to be a struggle with the inexperience but we need to find the guys that can do the job.’’
Bloomington senior running back Rob Lanier really enjoyed playing on the new turf surface at Whitesell Field as he had five touchdowns — four rushing and one receiving.
Forrest also noted that Saturday was just the first of a nine-game regular season. Next up for the Vikings is a road game at Urbana on Friday.
“This is going to be a tough film to watch, but it will be a great film to learn from,’’ he said. “We have a long season. We are going to get better.’’