Dalton falters on own mistakes in loss to No. 3 Harrison

Published 12:32 am Saturday, September 22, 2018

The Dalton High School Catamounts racked up a handful of costly mistakes Friday night, watching a possible win over No. 3 Harrison fall by the wayside, 38-17.

“I’ve been in this 26 years, and when you’ve been in it as long as I have you understand that there is a lot you can’t control,” Dalton coach Matt Land said. “But tonight, we did not control the things we could control — penalties, turnovers, you name it.”

Dalton (2-3, 0-3 in Region 6-6A) looked fairly steady to begin the game, with the first quarter ending scoreless. However, there was much the Catamounts could have capitalized on. 

On its third drive of the game, Dalton lost a potential opportunity to move to the red zone when a long pass to Jahmyr Gibbs from Landon Allen was called back on a flag for an ineligible receiver downfield. Just five plays later, Gibbs dropped a more than 50-yard pass that would have been a touchdown.

“Those are things you have to flush. You can’t dwell on them,” Land said. “I’ve seen a lot of players let that get to them for the rest of the game. But, it happens. They’re not going to do it right every single time. Even the guys they pay big money to don’t do it right all the time.”

Dalton was able to move on and was tied with Harrison 7-7 early in the second quarter. Unfortunately for the Catamounts, the hardships didn’t stop. 

Harrison took a 21-7 lead into halftime after a 20-yard score on a blocked punt and an interception to set up another score for the Hoyas. 

Dalton never could regain any momentum.

Allen ended with three interceptions for the Catamounts as the team had nine penalties for 65 yards, including another for an ineligible receiver downfield.

“These are the games that you have to go back to,” Land said. “You just have to regurgitate and learn from it. I’ve had teams that by the second or third game learn from it, check the box and move on but some don’t. You just have to keep working with them and be patient. It’ll click for us.”

Gibbs ended the game with 194 yards rushing on 25 carries and two touchdowns. Ivan Mora contributed with a 42-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

Though Land admits nobody on his team wants to see a losing score, he was still pleased with the effort from the Catamounts. 

Harrison (6-0, 4-0 in Region 6-6A) remains undefeated.

“That’s a very, very good team,” Land said. “We haven’t been beat by a bad team yet. The problem is that we have beat ourselves more times than other teams have beat us. That’s what we need to keep working on.”

Dalton travels to River Ridge next Friday for another region game.