For the McLoud Redskins, who already have suffered injuries to several key plays this year, it didn’t get any better during a close 34-27 homecoming loss to Mount St. Mary’s last week.
McLoud Coach Rusty Hall said, “Our top wide receiver, Rylan Hall-Norton, tore up a knee, probably an ACL, that would put him out for the season.”
Hall noted that Hall-Norton, a senior, is also his nephew.
He said of St. Mary’s, “They’re ok. They’re improved from last year, but we gave up two long touchdowns. They returned a kickoff about 70 yards for a TD and recovered a fumble and ran it back around 70 yards for a touchdown.”
Hall commented that Clint Campbell, a junior, and his top running back, hasn’t seen action yet after suffering a broken arm during a pre-season scrimmage.
“He may not play the entire year. They put a short cast on him, but last week put him back in a long cast and said it’s at least three more weeks before he can play.”
The coach said the Redskins did get their big lineman Tryce Lewis back this past week.
However, running back Kaiden Cue was injured in the early going of the Harrah game and he’s doubtful for this Friday night’s road contest at 4-1 Kingfisher which is 2-0 in the district.
McLoud is 0-2 in district play and 1-4 overall heading into the 7 p.m. kickoff Friday evening.
Hall pointed out, “We’ve gone 14 straight games, dating back to last season, without our full roster. That’s 14 consecutive games without all our starters over two seasons, all due to injury. We just can’t catch a break,” he thinks.
Still, he says, “We had our chances the other night. We played really good defense,” he believes. “Our kicking game and offense put our defense in really tough situations. We let them return a couple of kicks deep into our territory,” Hall said.
“Everything they scored was inside the 50-yard line due to turnovers. We gave them a short field.”
Hall said running back Cirilio Valles ran for nearly 200 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns and Hunter Lowe gained around 70 yards and scored TDS as well.