Not as bad as it appears

Ask anybody and they'll tell you a 34-0 loss is nothing less than a thumping; a real beat down. That was Eisenhower's end result against No. 4 Edmond North last Friday in their second District 6A-3 loss.

In the past two weeks the Eagles have been able to muster only seven points, those coming Week 4 in their district opener against a previously winless Yukon squad, 59-7.

Eagles head coach Boone Copeland was less than pleased with his team's effort against the Millers.

"I can take losing if we're competitive," Boone said the week after the Yukon game. "I don't like it (losing), but if we play as hard as we can I can accept losing."

Against the Millers the Eagles were anything but competitive so Copeland had a little heart-to-heart talk with his squad last week as the Eagles prepared for the talented Huskies. By looking at the score you'd think Copeland's speech went in one ear and out the other. After all, on the surface, a 34-0 loss makes it seem like the Ike players didn't pay the least bit of attention what the veteran coach said. But a lot more goes on during a football game that can't been seen on the scoreboard and that's effort.

"Absolutely we played a better game, gave much better effort," said Copeland. "We're right there in the game, trailing by just seven points against one of the best teams in the state. We're doing exactly what we wanted to do. We're playing good defense, we're playing hard, we're making some first downs on offense. They (Huskies) get that late score (in the first half) but we're still only 14 points down at the half.

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