Cubs See Tough Opener Against Quanah

The Olney Cubs opened their football season on the road Friday night, falling 35-12 to the Quanah Indians in a game that Head Coach and Athletic Director Dustin Altmiller said exposed some things the young team needs to clean up — but also showed plenty of fight in the trenches.

The game marks the beginning of Coach Altmiller’s second season at the helm of the Cubs and another building year for a program working its way out of a slump.

Quanah’s ground-oriented offense presented Olney with an immediate challenge: the Indians held onto the football for long stretches of the game, limiting opportunities for the Cubs’ offense to get onto the field and establish a rhythm.

“Quanah was a run-heavy team and they did a great job of controlling the football and keeping it out of our offense’s hands,” Coach Altmiller said. “We only had two possessions in the first half of the game, and it’s hard to put points on the board when you do not have the football.”

Despite those limited opportunities, the Cubs stayed within striking distance before Quanah began to pull away in the second half.

“I thought we played tough, hardnosed football,” Coach Altmiller said. “They just wore us down in the second half.”

Mistakes on both sides of the ball also hurt the Cubs at critical moments, he said. Offensive miscues brought promising Olney possessions to a halt, while mistakes on defense allowed Quanah to extend drives and continue eating time off the clock.

Those problems will be a focus as the Cubs return to practice this week.

“We made some mistakes on both sides of the ball that stalled out some drives for us offensively and kept some drives going for them,” Coach Altmiller said. “We will work in practice this week getting those things cleaned up.”

One bright spot was the performance of Olney’s offensive and defensive lines, which Coach Altmiller said battled throughout the game despite the physical toll of spending so much time on the field.

“Our offensive and defensive lines played well most of the night and gave everything they had for the team,” he said.

The 35-12 final score was not the start the Cubs wanted, but Coach Altmiller has emphasized the long-term work of rebuilding the program, with improvement from week to week as the immediate goal.

The Cubs will get their next chance Friday when they face Petrolia.

“We just have to continue working to get better at us,” Coach Altmiller said, “and we are looking forward to the challenge that Petrolia will bring this week.”