New London cancels football game against Columbus

New London football has canceled its upcoming game against Columbus. According to a post from the New London Tiger Athletics Facebook page, the Tigers will not travel to face the Wildcats on Friday and have forfeited the game.

The post cited injuries resulting in low team numbers as the reason for the decision. It did not indicate if more games would be canceled as a result of low numbers.

Friday’s game was originally scheduled to be played at 7 p.m. Friday at Louisa-Muscatine High School due to field conditions at Columbus. In it’s own Facebook post, Columbus Community School District said the Wildcats will return to the field for its next game against Wapello on Oct. 3.

New London is the second Union school to cancel games due to limited player availability this season. Highland has also been forced to forfeit its last three games, which included a Sept. 12 matchup against New London.

The Tigers have 16 players listed on their roster this season, their first since making the jump from eight to 11-man football. When speaking to the Union on Sept. 10 regarding Highland’s canceled game against the Tigers, New London coach Dominick Loyd cited more manageable travel as the reason for his team’s switch.

“We were tired of that every Friday night,” Loyd said. “Every game is an hour and a half, two hours, and I don’t want that for the kids. I didn’t want it for the parents and the grandpas and grandmas. I don’t want them driving home on a Friday night at midnight. So scheduling was another part of it.

“We got back into a District in 11-man where a lot of the teams are within our conference. So the travel is pretty close, and we could kind of re-ignite some rivalries within our conference and the kids really wanted it.”

In the same interview with the Union on Sept. 10, Loyd also said that during initial discussions ahead of New London’s switch to 11-man that the Tigers were expecting around 25 players, but several opted not to play by the start of the season. New London’s small roster has prompted Loyd to adjust his side’s play style and practice habits in an attempt to mitigate injuries.

“It’s not a lot of contact,” Loyd said. “Tackling drills are low-impact. You have to change your offense around. You can’t get into the power-run game stuff because that’s where you get beat up. Kids are beating on each other in the power run game so you kind of run a more wide-open offense, spread out, keep kids in space.”

The next contest on New London’s schedule is against Danville on Oct. 3. The matchup is slated as the Tigers homecoming game.