GEORGETOWN — Mistakes are bound to happen and high school football coaches know that, but seeing their team learn from its miscues and more important, correct those problems is the goal of every team.
Oakwood coach Cameron Lee felt that way on Saturday afternoon.
The Comets worked through some first half struggles to score 36 second-half points on their way to a 62-20 victory over the Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman Buffaloes in a Vermilion Valley Conference football game on Saturday afternoon in Georgetown.
“I saw a team that was able to bounce back,’’ Lee said. “We made some mistakes early on, but we made some adjustments. We talked about what we needed to fix and came out in the second half and really fixed them.
“We got our run game going a little bit and we got our passing game going. We know that we have the athletes to make big plays and we thought today would be a good opportunity to test ourselves. I like a lot of what we saw.’’
Senior quarterback Jackson Dudley directed the Oakwood offense to eight scores in the first three quarters as he was 14-of-20 passing for 236 yards and four touchdowns.
“We had a pretty slow start,’’ Dudley admitted as the Comets led 6-0 after the first quarter. “It wasn’t anything more than us locking in and staying focused.’’
Despite trailing 26-12 at halftime, the Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman Buffaloes had a little momentum from a 42-yard touchdown run by Caiden Burris to end the second quarter and the Buffaloes were getting the ball to start the second half.
“We could have let things get away from us there,’’ Lee said. “I think the guys handled the halftime break really well. We got on them. We coached them and got after them about the things we needed to fix.
“I was really impressed with the way we handled that. I think the maturity is getting there.’’
The Comets (1-1) not only turned the Buffaloes (0-2) away on its first drive in the second half, but a couple of second-half turnovers were converted into scores as Oakwood scored 28 unanswered points in the game’s final 18 minutes.
“Those are the things that win football games,’’ said Dudley about converting turnovers into points. “There are still definitely some things that need to work on, but we looked a lot better in the second half.’’
Burris, who also scored on a 40-yard run in the second half for Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman, is just a sophomore, while William Runyan, who had the Buffaloes first touchdown on a 23-yard pass from sophomore Deven Vice, is just a junior.
“We are doing the things that we are supposed to do, we just have do do it for a whole game and not just glimpses at times,’’ first-year coach Ryan Dieu said. “We have improved a lot, already. I would like to see it transfer into some wins, but we have to do the little things well for a whole game and not just for quarters.’’
Oakwood will look for its second straight win this Friday at Watseka, while Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman will host Clifton Central at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
At Georgetown Oakwood 62, Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman 0
Oakwood 6 20 28 8 — 62
Geo-RF/C 0 12 8 0 — 20
First quarter
Oakwood — Kyler Johnson 5-yard run (run failed), 9:02.
Second quarter
Oakwood — Chase Harrison 5-yard pass from Jackson Dudley (pass failed), 9:53.
Geo-RF/C — William Runyan 23-yard pass from Deven Vice (kick failed), 3:22.
Oakwood — Jaethan Perez 5-yard pass from Dudley (pass failed), 1:15.
Oakwood — Johnson 5-yard run (Brandt Hobick pass from Dudley), 0:32.
Geo-RF/C — Caiden Burris 42-yard run (run failed), 0:14.
Third quarter
Oakwood — Johnson 16-yard run (Harrison pass from Dudley), 8:13.
Geo-RF/C — Burris 40-yard run (Vice run), 7:59.
Oakwood — Johnson 1-yard run (pass failed), 6:07.
Oakwood — Hobick 3-yard pass from Dudley (pass failed), 2:55.
Oakwood — Harrison 48-yard pass from Dudley (Perez pass from Dudley), 0:49.
Fourth quarter
Oakwood — Tyler Huchel 41-yard run (Frankie Resendez run), 8:41.