When a season ends, it’s easy to look back and think about the coulda, woulda and shouldas. But for Coach Lucas MacArthur and the Noxon Red Devil football team, a playoff loss only has them looking forward to next football season.

“These guys didn’t want to lose that game, but they are motivated to be better and move on looking forward to next year,” MacArthur said this week. The Red Devil season came to an end in the first round of the 6-man playoffs with a 52-8 loss at Valier.

MacArthur said the Noxon defense was playing solid at the beginning of the game and didn’t allow any scoring in the first five minutes of the game. After a Noxon error, Valier scored their first touchdown in the first quarter. “That took the wind out of their sails and it was hard to get back into it,” the coach stated. “It was hard to focus and get themselves back in the game.” Two Red Devils were also sidelined with injuries early in the game, and MacArthur said the injuries hurt the team.

Despite the final loss, MacArthur is proud of his team and their winning season in his first year as head coach. “Overall they started working as a team,” he said. “We started off the year focusing on being teammates and having each other’s backs.” The team worked on communication, collaboration and working together. “When they were on they were on,” MacArthur said. “When they were working together and playing hard, they really made some waves. I’m super proud of what they’ve done.”

MacArthur added that the playoff loss motivated his team, who finished the season 6-3, to look ahead to next year, noting that some of the players were already in the weight room Monday after school. The coach is also looking forward to next year and said he’s seen interest from younger Red Devils who are looking forward to playing football in high school. The football team did meet and greets with the younger students and MacArthur said the school was excited about watching the football team.

“Being a new coach, it was challenging,” Mac Arthur said. “I really appreciated working with Coach (Sean) Kelly. We communicated quite a bit and strategized together to coach the team.

“It was a good year. We enjoyed it. I’m super excited to be back at it next year.”