Week 0 loss wasn?t end of the world

(Editor?s note: Because of the lengthy amount of writing required to describe all of the touchdowns scored in Tuesday?s Warren County Middle School win over Franklin County North, the following column had to be typed with two pencils held in the writer?s fists.

Hopefully, by the next edition of this publication, this columnist will have regained use of his typing fingers without medical assistance, or the need for messy litigation against the Pioneer offense.)

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Quick, head to your bomb shelters!

Do you have enough canned food? Have you cleaned, oiled and loaded your shotgun, to protect against would-be looters?

Well get ready, because the end is here!

What? You haven?t heard? Warren County High School lost its first football game of the season a week ago, so it?s clearly the end of the world, right?

Yeah, right.

Maybe that?s taking things a bit to the extreme, but based on what I heard out over the past six days, that?s the attitude of some Pioneer ?fans.?

And no, I didn?t accidentally put ?fans? in quotation marks because I?m typing with pencils. I meant that as a way to describe them sarcastically.

Up until around 6:30 last Friday night, apparently the Pioneers were the odds-on favorite to make the Class 5A state championship game. They were going to build on last year?s playoff appearance, and begin their march to the postseason with a massacre of the Bradley Central Bears.

One problem: Nobody told the Bradley Central Bears.

When it was all said and done, the Pioneers had lost 21-7, and in doing so, they looked like a team which would lose 21-7.

But the sun still rose on Saturday. The world did not come to an end.

The Pioneers went back to practice on Monday, and they didn?t flip-flop the depth chart, they didn?t scour the hallways looking for someone who could open a hole for a running back or catch a pass. They didn?t kick the coaching staff to the curb.

And guess what? They?re still going to play their game tonight, and all of their games for the rest of the season.

Will they win the other nine contests? Not all of them. Will they lose the other nine? Again, not all of them.

And I hope you were paying attention right there, because that paragraph, and the ?On the Line? board inside Friday sections, are the closest you?ll get to a public prediction from this friendly neighborhood sports columnist.

But to answer all of those ?something?s got to be done? people who left Cleveland Friday night in a huff, or turned off their radios in disgust after the game, or threw down their Sunday sports section vowing that Warren County football has returned to the losing days of old, I offer this advice:

Take it easy. It was one game. It was one round in a 10-round season, and while the Pioneers took a few hard shots, they didn?t get knocked out.

They?re going to answer the bell for round 2 tonight, and hopefully they?ll get a few shots in of their own, and come away from Smithville on the winning side of the scorecard.

But win or lose, it?s way to early for the team ? or its true fans ? to throw in the towel.