Troy loses home opener to Conrad, 31-14

The Troy Trojans football team dropped their first game of the season to Conrad, 31-14. The Trojans scored the game’s first touchdown in the second quarter, but they were unable to recapture the momentum after Conrad scored a pair of touchdowns before the end of the first half.

“The first game of the season went pretty well,” head coach, Brendan Miller said. “If it wasn’t for the back-to-back touchdowns they scored before the first half we played a competitive first half. It was zero to zero at the end of the first quarter. We were up 6-0 in the second quarter. We played hard. It was good to see the young kids on the line competing. We just ran out of gas. We only had 13 kids that we played in this game. We were exhausted at the end of the game. They played their hearts out and I’m proud of them.”

Miller said playing Conrad is a good measuring stick for his team.

“Conrad is picked to make the playoffs,” he said. “I think they were ranked in the top 10 in the preseason. It was nice to see the team compete and fight hard against a good team like Conrad. It was nice to play them to see where we stack up.”

The Trojans had four new starters on the offensive line and still ran for 216 yards.

“The young guys up front had some good moments,” Miller said. “They opened a few holes and we were able to get some decent runs up the middle. They just got tired at the end of the game.”

Miller said they will be getting their regular starters on the offensive line for the third game.

“We are missing four starters on the offensive line,” he said. “We will get them back in week three. If we had our starting guys in there it would have been a completely different game. We would have been deeper and we wouldn’t have worn out at the end of the game. We had 200 yards rushing with freshmen and sophomores out there. If we had our seniors out there it would have been a massive day for us on the ground. We probably could have rushed for 300 yards easily.”

Miller said having a leader like Sean Opland is good for the inexperienced players on the team.

“Sean ran for 158 yards on 15 carries,” he said. “He’s able to turn some negative plays into positive ones. He’s able to make people miss in the backfield. It’s good to have a kid like that who can help the young kids up front feel good about themselves and gain some confidence.”

Miller said his team will be focusing on conditioning this week.

“That whole week of practicing inside due to the smoke killed us,” he said. “Indoor conditioning is not the same as conditioning outside with pads on. We are not where we need to be and we will be working on that this week.”

Next up for the Trojans is a home game against Deer Lodge on Friday, Sept. 11.

“Deer Lodge is a young team,” Miller said. We can be competitive with them. We definitely feel if we can stay with them throughout the game we will be able to pull out the victory this week.”