PARKERSBURG — It’s been two weeks in a row now that Parkersburg South head football coach Mile Eddy feels “like we had opportunities to win and based on errors, it didn’t happen. “I know as frustrating at it is for us as coaches, I know it’s just as frustrating for our players because those kids play as hard as they possibly can. “So it becomes our responsibilities as coaches, after seeing the game film, to then relay to those players the areas in which we need to improve on as a group, so we not only put ourselves in positions to make the plays, but also to start executing them.” Last Friday night at Athens (Ohio) High School, a 26-16 South setback dropped the Patriots to 1-2 on the season. The score was 19-16 in the host Bulldogs’ favor in the fourth quarter “when we got the ball back with just under five minutes to go in the game,” related Eddy. South opted to run the ball down the field to either win it or kick a field goal to tie, but went four and out with Athens scoring a final touchdown with only 35 seconds left. “We were right in it with opportunities throughout the game, but we’re just not putting the pieces together to be consistent enough in all three phases of the game to win,” said Eddy. “And that’s the part that falls back on coaches. I do think, though, that coaching-wise, we’re putting together good gameplans going in. But somehow we’re not making that connection from coach to player, and putting those things into action on the field.” However too, he added, “we have to be cognizant of making sure what we ask these kids to do on the field, they can do. I don’t think it’s not an effort, ability or intelligence thing. “We’ve got a really good football team; we’re just not playing very good football — so we’ve got to figure out why that is.” In fact last Friday, “I thought we did a pretty good job of taking away Athens’ big-play ability, which is something they’re known for, that big strike,” said Eddy. “We were able to minimize that when we needed to.” So for Eddy, “overall, it was kind of hard to walk off the field for the second week in a row, knowing how close we were both times, but came up short.” Still, Eddy noted, “this is still a young football season. We’re only three games in. Unfortunately for us, we’re on the bottom end of the win-loss record. But we have guys who have really committed themselves for the last four years to this team and this program. “So hopefully we should be better once we get some things straightened out.” That should be evident come 7 p.m. this Friday when Princeton (0-2) visits the Erickson All-Sports Facility to face off with Eddy’s 1-2 Patriots. Last year, South traveled down to Princeton and came back with a 23-7 win over the Tigers. “So this year, they’re coming to us and will be on the bus for a while, while we’ll be at home again, which is always a good thing with our fans, who really make an impact,” said Eddy. Another thing in the Patriots’ favor, he added, “is we’re the only grass field on anybody’s schedule that we play. Everybody else is turf now. Our grass is an advantage for us because our kids practice on that every day.” On the Princeton team, “they’re somewhat similar to teams we’ve played so far this year,” said Eddy, “in that they’re more of a sprint offense than they have been, so that will be very similar to what we’ve seen the last two weeks. “They’re running what we’re determining to be a 3-4 defense, so it’s going to be that same three-man front that we’ve seen the last two weeks. So that will be a little bit of familiarity too for our kids that’s always beneficial since the more times you can see the same thing, the easier it is to react to.” Nevertheless, said Eddy, “Princeton had a bye last week, so have had an extra week to prepare for us, including more time to look back at last year’s game against us.” Eddy has used “this week as a really important one for us. It’s been a great week for us to kind of go back in, build some confidence and mentally get back on track after two tough losses.” After all, “going into late in the fourth quarter, we had chances to win these last two games,” Eddy related. “We were right there where we wanted to be, but just weren’t able to capitalize. We weren’t able to make that next big play or be consistent enough to grind out a drive; whatever it happened to be, we just missed it. “But we’ve not been in a situation this year yet where we weren’t good enough to win. “So sometimes, that is frustrating. So that mental part is going to be really important this week, along with being focused and be committed to what we set out to do.”