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GLENVILLE -- The Pioneers of Glenville State University head coach Mike Kellar will look for a better afternoon come 1 p.m. Saturday when Lock Haven invades Morris Stadium for the Bald Eagles' season opener.
The G-men (0-1) opened up last weekend at Emory & Henry, which had its way during a 38-7 triumph.
"Obviously disappointed," coach Kellar admitted. "Going into it I thought Emory & Henry was a good football team, a veteran team. I think we helped them. We did not play our best game. We did not play well at all. I don't know if it was first game jitters or nerves, but obviously wasn't happy with our team's performance.
"Helping them win isn't anything that we want to do and it's not really something we've been in the past. It's one of those days. We've had a couple of those games in my tenure and a couple is too many. Hopefully we don't have very many more."
Despite an off afternoon by signal-caller Anthony Garrett, who was picked off four times, coach Kellar and his staff are far from being in panic mode.
"If that was something we did everyday in practice or if it was something in the last two years that we've done a lot, I would be concerned about it," said the coach. "Obviously, I am concerned about it, but of the same token, I mean, we run a play we run all the time. We throw a corner route and if the ball is two feet this way it's a touchdown. The ball is two feet inside and the kid goes up and makes an interception.
"The RPO where the defensive end jumps up and catches it (returning it for a touchdown), I'd be willing to bet that was a one in a million play by them. It's almost like those two you live with. The other two are just bad decisions. Trying to scramble and make a play. I think the scoreboard and being down, first game, the expectations, hopefully it's something we learn from."
Lock Haven third-year head coach Dan Mulrooney's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference program is coming off a 5-6 season. The last time the Bald Eagles secured a five-win campaign was back in 1982.
Jackson Ostrowsky, who is a Rhode Island graduate transfer, will key the Lock Haven attack and has a plethora of weapons both in the backfield and at receiver.
"We don't have a lot on them. They haven't played yet this year," coach Kellar said of Lock Haven, which was picked fifth in the PSAC East preseason poll – the Bald Eagles' highest poll selection in two decades. "Everything we do have on them is from a season ago. A very, very well coached team. I was in the PSAC for 10 years. We played Lock Haven almost every year.
"They were not a program that played with a lot of confidence. They were not really a winning program. This coach has come in, he's in his third year, and he's done a really good job of getting them turned around. Offensively, some of the schemes they do, some of the RPO stuff they do, some of the leverage throws they take advantage of, the West Coast throw game, the screens and draws. They are very, very good."
Despite not having much on the Bald Eagles, Kellar added "they got very good skill everywhere.
"Defensively I think they are super well coached and they run a very good scheme."
Glenville State, which trailed 31-0 until late in the third when Garrett hooked up with Elijah Palmer on a 10-yard touchdown pass, held a 16-14 advantage in first downs and allowed 271 yards while gaining 248.
"Truth of the matter is we didn't give them a lot to play for," coach Kellar said of his defense, which received 2.5 sacks from Jamair Diaz.
"We put them behind the chains a few times with bad field position and turnovers. At the end of the day they were three for three in the red zone and we were one for three in the red zone, and we had five turnovers."
The Pioneers, who rushed 23 times for 74 yards with Mark Rucker's 42 stripes on eight totes leading the way, had nine different players catch a pass.
"Our emphasis is going to be not turning the ball over. Not having misalignments on defense. Not giving up the big plays," Kellar stressed. "Players are going to make plays. What we can't do is give them plays and make them earn what they do get. We were a veteran team and some of our veteran guys made the mistakes in a game.
"They got to play cleaner. I got to coach better. I would start it there. I don't know that I put us in the best of situations and then anytime you are behind and you are chasing the scoreboard you can dig yourself deeper. If we play clean then we have a good football team. We were making mistakes and they didn't."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com