HAWKS LOSE FIRST GAME, NOW THIRD IN D7
Glidden-Ralston put the clamps on East Greene, 40-8, in a District 7 showdown last Friday night in Grand Junction.
The loss put a bit of a damper on East Greene’s Homecoming activities. GR remained in first place in D7, the “Lincoln League,” with a 3-0 mark, tied with Coon Rapids-Bayard, which beat Boyer Valley, 67-44. EG dropped into third place in the district with a 2-1 mark.
EG, GR and CRB are each 4-1 overall for the season. The win helped push GR to the No.10 spot in the Des Moines Register’s 8-Man state football rankings this week.
The Hawks put forth a solid effort. It tied the lowest point total the Wildcats have been held to all season (40 in a 3 OT loss to Newell-Fonda, 46-40) but the GR defense was unyielding and the offense got off to a fast start. GR rolled to a 34-0 halftime lead and upped that to 40-zip early in the third quarter.
The Hawks did get on the board with a touchdown run by Scyhler Bardole and run for the 2-point conversion by Reed Ostrander in the third quarter. Despite a poor first-half showing, the Hawks did play the Wildcats even for the second half, and actually outscored them 8-6.
Bardole racked up 128 yards on 21 carries while Nic Nicolaisen ran 5 times for 23 yards. Bardole also led the receiving corps with 3 catches for 18 yards. QBs Tyler Cooklin and Tory Beger passed for 85 yards against the GR defense, but it took them 20 attempts and only 8 of those passes were completions. Cooklin completed 1 of 6 passes for seven yards, while Beger connected on 7 of 14 for 78 yards and one interception.
GR unleashed a running back “triple threat” with Taylor Hackett, Mitchell Lensch and QB Wade Hoyle each scoring two running touchdowns. Hackett had 13 carries for 114 yards and Lensch added 99 yard on 17 carries.
Despite his scoring two TDs, the Hawks did hold QB Hoyle pretty much in check, limiting him to just two completions in six passing attempts for 12 yards, and just 33 yards on the ground in 9 carries.
East Greene travels to Woodbine tonight while the Wildcats host Ar-We-Va.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: Well, there are baseball towns and there are football towns. Clearly, Glidden is a football town, and with EG having made the substate in baseball the last two years, Grand Junction and Rippey are baseball towns.
But, that being said, it really was disappointing to see GR win by a such a large margin when it seemed both teams were pretty evenly matched, and especially since last year, when EG came so close to beating GR, losing a hard-fought battle, 14-6. That game showcased how much improvement the Hawks have made over the last several years, considering GR drubbed EG 48-8 in 2007 and the Hawks pulled closer in 2008, 34-14, and then the loss by just a touchdown last year.
The Hawks will need to re-group as they have a long road trip this week to Harrison County to take on Woodbine, now 1-2 in D7 after rolling over Walnut last week, 52-12. The Tigers are 3-2 on the season, but their losses are to very strong teams—D7 co-leaders GR and Coon-Rapids Bayard (combined records of 8-2) and East Mills (3-1) which is in third place at 2-1 in District 8, just behind co-leaders Stanton and Fremont-Mills (3-0). East Mills’ only losses this season have been to top ranked Lenox (5-0) and No. 5 Stanton (4-1) whose only was to Lenox in the season opener.
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Woodbine's Kyle Kuhlmann heads down the sideline in last week's game at Walnut. Photo by Dawn Powers of the Logan Herald Observer/Woodbine Twiner. |
The Hawks will need to get their offense back in gear while the defense will need to stop the Tigers’ Kyle Kuhlman (see photo) and QB Zach Archer. Archer has thrown for 393 yards and 8 TDs and passed for 313 yards and 5 TDs through the air so far this season, while Kuhlman has rushed for 647 yards and scored 9 running TDs along with 118 yards receiving and 2 passing TDs.
EG has its own offensive weapons with Bardole now having racked up 823 yards for the season, a hefty 164 yards per game average, and a 1-2 punch at quarterback with Beger and Cooklin.
Tonight’s matchup with Woodbine begins a key stretch of four key games for the Hawks that mark the back half the season. After the road trip, EG returns to face Walnut (1-4) in Grand Junction on Parents’ Night on Oct. 8, and then the Hawks go on the road to finish the season with tough games at Coon Rapids against CRB and in Westside against Ar-We-Va the final two weeks of the season, Oct. 15 and 22.
The Hawks will need to make sure there is no letdown after losing in a big game that was even bigger because it was against a longtime rival like GR and that it came at homecoming.
It should be noted that when the Hawks scored that impressive victory over Boyer Valley on Sept. 10—even more important when tallying up the District 7 standings as BV went on to beat Ar-We-Va, a solid team year-in and year-out—it also matched all of last year’s EG win tally (3). And the thrashing of Charter Oak-Ute the following week moved the EG season win total to 4, which surpassed last year’s mark and equaled the four wins of the 4-5 record of the team two years ago. That 2008 season was the best EG grid showing since its first year of 8-man football in 2001, when EG went 6-2 with its only losses to the same team—state champion Adair-Casey.
One more East Greene win will clinch a winning season, the first since that 2001 campaign.
It’s a bit premature to begin talking about a berth in the substate in the postseason, as there are still 4 of the 7 total district games to be played, but it’s not at all out of the realm.
First things first, and that’s the road game at Woodbine. This will be a night where the lights are really shining bright on the Lincoln. Not only do “Lincoln League” schools EG and Woodbine faceoff in a key game in Woodbine, but Ar-We-Va travels east “on the Lincoln” to the other side of Carroll to Glidden to take on GR in another key battle of LL teams—these two being the smalls school rivals who are the east and west neighbors of county seat Carroll and its 2A schools Kuemper and Carroll public.
Ar-We-Va rolled over Charter Oak-Ute by 54 points last week and will no doubt be psyched to knock GR off its first-place D7 perch and out of the state-wide rankings. Last year GR squeaked by with a 20-19 win while Ar-We-Va had the upper hand in 2008, winning 32-12.
District 7 Standings
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3-0, 4-1
Glidden-Ralston 3-0, 4-1
East Greene 2-1, 4-1
Boyer Valley 1-2, 3-2
Ar-We-Va 1-2, 2-3
Woodbine 1-2, 2-3
Walnut 1-2, 1-4
Charter Oak-Ute 0-3, 0-5
Sept. 24 Results:
Glidden-Ralston 40, East Greene 8
Coon Rapids-Bayard 67, Boyer Valley 44
Ar-We-Va 56, Charter Oak-Ute 2
Woodbine 52, Walnut 12
Tonight’s Games:
East Greene @ Woodbine
Ar-We-Va @ Glidden-Ralston
Boyer Valley @ Charter Oak-Ute
Walnut @ Coon Rapids-Bayard
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