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The Point Skyhawks travel to face off with the Faulkner Eagles for the team’s last road game of the season. 

Point comes into the matchup on a three-game losing streak. The biggest issue for the Skyhawks has been turnovers. Over the three-game span, Point’s offense has turned the ball over 12 times. 

“We have got to take care of the football,” Point coach Trevor Zeiders said. “I mean, it can’t be emphasized enough. That has just continued to hound us week in and week out. You can’t keep turning the ball over and expect to be successful on Saturday.” 

A lot of the turnovers have come from the inconsistencies at quarterback. Mitch Gossett started against Pikeville this past Saturday and finished with four touchdowns and three interceptions. Those three interceptions led to 21 points in a game that the Skyhawks lost by 11. 

“It’s decision-making,” Zeiders said. 

“We’ve got to make better decisions with the football. We’ve got to be on time. You just can’t wait.” 

Gossett is expected to be the starter again this Saturday. Despite the turnovers, the coaching staff has seen a lot of promise from Gossett, and the team is looking for him to continue the maturation process. 

“It’s really starting to understand more so of where to go with the ball and making quicker decisions,” Zeiders said. 

“It should be to a point now where the game should have slowed down. It’s understanding what the defense is trying to do and capitalizing off of that. You can’t go for broke every play. You’re never going to go broke if you’re making a profit, but if you keep trying to go for the big home run every play, you can go broke pretty quickly.” 

Faulkner comes into the matchup with Point with a 1-7 record, and the Eagles have lost their last five games. 

Last season, the Eagles beat the Skyhawks on the road 14-10. Despite this game not being a conference matchup, it holds significance for both teams. 

Faulkner is the closest team geographically on Point’s schedule, and the game has become somewhat of a rivalry. The two teams are also often competing against each other for the same recruits in Alabama and surrounding areas. 

“It is big,” Zeiders said. “These have been well-contested contests. It’s starting to slowly turn into a rivalry. It does factor in. It’s not probably emphasized as much by the guys on the team because they really look at Reinhardt as being that, but Faulkner is our closest geographical rival.” 

The Skyhawks came into the season with their sights set on winning the conference. At this point, that goal is no longer attainable. 

Zeiders still believes that the team, especially the seniors, still has things to fight for in these last two games. 

“Well, number one it’s still growth and improvement,” Zeiders said. “This is momentum going into the offseason. We still have the opportunity to get to five wins. Point has only had five wins in a season one time.” 

For the seniors, Zeiders believes that there is still a lot to play for in the next two games. Several of them could be touching a football field for the last time in two weeks. 

“It’s their last two probably college football games,” Zeiders said. “They’re not going to have a ton of extra opportunity after this, and they may never play the game again. They’ve got eight quarters of football.”