NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Drury Blue Devils football team fell short to Smith Vocational with a 30-0 loss at home on Saturday.
It was another tough loss for Drury (0-5) as it struggled to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball.
On its first defensive series, it showed some resilience. After giving up a big rush that set up the Vikings inside the 5-yard line, Drury fought back and forced a fumble on the next play, keeping the game scoreless in hopes to get their offense going.
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they couldn’t get anything going and had to punt the ball away on their first five drives, putting pressure on their defense to make some more key plays. The Blue Devils defense did a nice job at minimizing big plays, but Smith Voc did a nice job in the ground game inching their way down the field.
The visitors were able to score on four straight offensive drives after the fumble on their first and took a 30-0 lead into the halftime break.
“It’s important to say we did some good things today, but we’re struggling to understand the conceptual understanding of football,” Drury head coach Al Marceau said. “It’s not just about going 100 miles an hour, it's about understanding where you’re supposed to be and what you’re supposed to do. Defensively at times we were there but it’s all about reading keys.”
Although Drury was shutout in this game it had some things to hang its hat on in the second half l, shutting Smith Voc out completely.
The Blue Devils had their best drive of the game late in the third quarter that brought them down inside the red zone, but due to a couple penalties they were unable to get anything out of it.
On the defensive end, Jameson Bayliss came up with a nice interception when Smith Voc was driving late in the game to set their offense up one one last try at a score. They moved the ball down the field but ran out of time before they could get on the board.
“We can build off of some of the stuff we had today, we just need to get a little bit smarter and more physical,” Marceau said. “We just need to get our communication and understanding down going forward.”
Drury will look to secure their first win of the season next week when it takes on Pathfinder, at home.
