Friday, September 2nd the Rabbits took on Melbourne at James B. Abraham Stadium. It was a very close game, but the rabbits came up short by a point in the 4th quarter. “We had some positives on the offensive side, but we struggled with finishing drives and had too many mistakes. Defensively, we need to create some depth in the secondary.” Head coach Chris Norton states, “We’ve had three touchdowns called back due to penalty in two games.” Nortons says they are working on cleaning up their mistakes, so they can reach the full potential that he knows they are capable of.

“I thought Bradon Allen was outstanding. He threw for 386 yards and ran for 141. He is an outstanding player and really tried to take the game over when we needed him on Friday.” Norton states. Quarterback Bradon Allen said he felt like his team gave it their all, and fought until the end. “After the game, I just wanted to make sure that we all kept our heads up.” Allen adds, “We need to work on being more consistent on offense, cutting out little mistakes we made, and separating the routes for receivers.” Allen hopes to work on these mistakes before the next game so they can make a run going into conference play.

Coach Norton also highlights Marquez Jackson Jr.’s game play on Friday night. “He showed the explosiveness we knew he had in him. We’ve got to give him the ball more.” Norton stated. Marquez said he enjoyed being able to score his first varsity touchdown. “I feel like this season has already been a great learning experience and I hope I can continue to get better and help my team win more games this year,” Jackson adds, “We played hard throughout the whole game until the clock hit 00:00. Even though we were down, in the end, we never gave up.”

The Rabbits have a bye week before their next game, and they are making sure they take full advantage of it. Coach Norton says his focus for bye week is on creating depth, so they can play deeper than they are right now and compete against good teams later in the season. “This week will be a great opportunity to clean up some technique things, fundamental stuff, and work to get our younger guys more comfortable with our scheme.” Marquez Jackson Jr. says his plan for bye week is to take advantage of it, and work on all of the mess ups they had.

The next game for the Rabbits is on September 16th, and the theme is red, white, and blue. Be there to support the boys, in hopes to get another win. Go Jackrabbits!