Shocked and confused
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When I walked into the football stadium at Birmingham High at halftime and asked a fan walking past me what the score was, I couldn’t believe it.
He responded, ‘14-0.’
‘Notre Dame, right?’
‘No, Birmingham’s up.’
I couldn’t believe it. From there I watched what was supposedly a better effort from the Knights in the second half, but special teams woes coupled with their inability to stop Birmingham RB Milton Knox meant Notre Dame could never recover from its first-half deficit. And while I knew Knox would have to have a big game if Birmingham was going to win this one, I underestimated just how good the Birmingham defense can be.
‘Against a good team like Birmingham, you can’t play a crappy half then play a good half and expect to win,’ Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney said. ‘Our special teams wasn’t there tonight and we didn’t run the ball well....It killed us.’
I know most of the hundreds of Notre Dame faithful in attendance were more than a little shocked at the outcome, but QB Dayne Crist, who put up a gutsy effort in the second half, described Notre Dame’s losing effort in the best terms possible.
‘We stunk it up in the first half and we couldn’t come back,’ Crist said. ‘We just didn’t execute.’
In this picture, Rooney is addressing his team after the game.
- Austin Knoblauch
