The Kirksville football team has been battling momentum all season long, with the Tigers coming up on the losing end more often than not.

Coach Conrad Schottel said riding momentum is one of the best parts of the game for him, but being on the other end has been a tough pill to swallow with the lofty goals the team had for this season, now sitting at 1-6 after last weeks loss to Mexico.

Were fighting a big case of disappointment. Id be a liar if I didnt tell you I was disappointed or that any of the kids are, or the coaches, Schottel said. Were competitors and we want to win and we had high hopes coming into the year, certainly to have more wins in our win-loss column than we did. The fact of the matter is it hasnt worked out. Like I told the kids and I tell our staff and myself, we have two options: We can play the blame and victim game or we can rise to the occasion and make our own break and make our own momentum.

The Tigers get another winnable game this week as Moberly (4-3) comes to town. Kirksville eked out a 34-32 win over the Spartans last season and hope they can grab another one this time around on senior night.

Kirksville has had less than stellar showings in the second half of many games this season, losing halftime leads to Macon and Mexico, and going quiet against Clark County and Palmyra. Schottel has seen that happen and credits it more to not playing each phase well. He thought his offense and defense were playing very well last week against Mexico, then special teams allowed a long kick return before halftime to let the Bulldogs get back in the game before winning.

The Tiger defense had the team right there with Palmyra before the offense was shut out in the second half.

The biggest thing for me and our team and our staff isnt so much the halves, its playing a complete game and playing three phases of the game, Schottel said. Each phase of the game the kicking game, the offense and defense it all feeds each other. Right now, if you look at all of our weeks 1 through 7, we have not put together a full game, so thats really our emphasis. When our defense is playing really well at Palmyra, our offense not stepping on our toe and turning the ball over, for example. Or when both our defense and our offense is playing out of their heads and executing very well against Mexico, our kicking game cant stub our toe. Right now thats what weve got, were two of three at best and mostly one of three. Were trying to go three for three.

Junior Andrew Nothdurft plays all three phases of the ball for the Tigers, so hes seen what Schottel describes. Nothdurft said each unit has played hard, but has shot itself in the foot several times, usually caused by a lack of trust in each other, themselves, or the coaches. He said sometimes a player might read a situation differently than what the coaches call and will make a different move, leading to a mistake.

But the Tigers have tried to keep using their own disappointment in positive ways.

Everyones disappointed. You could say theyre pretty pissed, but we all want to win more and more after every loss, Nothdurft said. We just try to get it back up and keep fighting.

Moberly had its own second-half woes last week, getting shut out by Hannibal in the later portion of the game. Moberly has previously lost to Fulton by four and Lafayette County by seven, so theres reason to believe the Spartans could have been 6-1 coming into this game.

Junior quarterback Dominic Stoneking presents plenty of issues for a Tiger defense that has had trouble stopping the run. He can bruise his way up the middle and the Spartans also have some speedy backs to hit the edge.

But the Tigers have carried great attitudes through practice and hope to send their seniors out with one last home win.

Obviously, losing homecoming sucks, but this upcoming week with Moberly, we have senior night and theres been a lot of enthusiasm this entire week, said quarterback Paxton Dempsay.

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Kirksville football hopes to turn recent misfortune into motivation - Kirksville Daily Express and Daily News