There are some mental mistakes that Hickory needs to correct before they play Dudley.
For example, the Red Tornadoes got off a good punt late in the game and it was rolling inside the five. The player covering the kick could have touched it down at any point, but he let it roll inside the one before he downed it. The problem was that he was standing in the end zone when he did and it was ruled a touchback, bringing the ball back out to the 20. I can't blame the kid for wanting to make a big play, and it is easy to get confused between what is the high school, college or pro rule about these things, but they would have been better off taking a "good enough" play of him downing it at the two- or three-yard line.
Then later Hickory had the ball and just needed to run it to eat up some clock. Instead, they tried a read-option handoff and fumbled. At that point in the game there was no need to do anything complicated just hand it off up the middle or run the keeper-all you want to do is run down the clock. There are other mistakes, and no one expects kids to play a perfect game, but those are the kinds of things that could make the difference against a team like Dudley.
