Fieldston works through growing pains

Gus Ornstein knew his Fieldston football team was going to be a work in progress this season, especially early on. With a roster dotted with fresh new faces and players that had yet to taste varsity-level football, there were sure to be growing pains.

And last Saturday there were. Despite jumping out to a quick lead on their first offensive possession of the season, the young Eagles stumbled in their season-opener with a 28-7 loss to Hackley. The loss did not entirely surprise Ornstein.

“I think we have so many new guys playing that it could take a while to get used to the physical difference between middle school and high school,” said Ornstein, Fieldston’s head football coach.

The game began with promise for Fieldston (0-1) when quarterback Christian Henry capped the Eagles’ opening drive with a nine-yard touchdown toss to Kyron Thomas for a quick 7-0 lead. But that would be it for Fieldston’s offensive exploits as Hackley would score four unanswered touchdowns before halftime to salt away the victory.

“On our opening drive of the season we go right down and score and we’re up 7-0,” Ornstein said. “For as young as we are it was a great opening drive. The rest of the game we had shots and opportunities. But we dropped some balls when we had guys beat. We got sacked on a couple of plays where we had guys wide open. It was a couple of things here and there, timing-wise and communication-wise, that you kind of expect when you’re as young as we are.”

Fieldston did show some signs of growth in the second half as they held Hackley (1-0) scoreless, giving Ornstein and his staff something to build on going into Week Two.

“I thought in the second half we started to figure some things out and started to play better,” Ornstein said. “I thought we did a lot of good things in the second half. I thought defensively in the second half we were much more aggressive. I thought in the first half, typical of teams with guys that are new, we were slow to react to things. Guys were kind of feeling their way through because they were a little unsure.