Missed opportunities on defense result in Kee football team’s season opener coming up short, 48-36, against top 10-rated Turkey Valley
Trippin’ up a Trojan ... Kee football junior Aidan Winters (#54) helps wrap up this Turkey Valley ballcarrier in the Hawks’ 48-36 home loss to the Trojans to open the 2017 season Friday, August 25. Winters tallied one quarterback sack in his total of five solo tackles and four assisted defensive halts in the contest. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.
The Kee football season kicked off at home against a familiar and formidable foe in fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad Turkey Valley, who came off an undefeated 2016 regular season and begins this season with a top-10 ranking in the Eight Player class. Much like the Hawks’ season last fall, where a play or two here or there would have made a big difference, Kee football coach Chad Winters noted a small handful of plays could have resulted in a different result than the 48-36 Kee loss in the Friday, August 25 season-opener.
“We had our chances, but couldn’t get the big stops when we needed them,” Coach Winters said. “We had an opportunity to stop them on third- and fourth-and-long multiple times and didn’t do it. If we can get those stops, it changes the dynamics of the game.”
Regardless of those missed opportunities, the end result was still much more desirable than the 64-29 loss the Hawks suffered in their season-opening effort last season against the Trojans. That Turkey Valley team graduated a large class of 10 seniors that included a pair of offensive weapons that combined for nearly 300 yards on the ground in last fall’s season opener, with Kee’s defense allowing the entire Trojan ground game just 250 yards this time around but also 157 yards through the air while the Hawk offense managed just under 300 total yards itself.
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