East Greene heads to Stanton tonight to face the Stanton Vikings in an 8-Man State Playoff game. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Stanton is an 8-Man football powerhouse, qualifying for the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
The two teams head into the game with identical 7-2 records with Stanton qualifying as the district runner-up in District 8 at 6-1 and EG as the No. 3 team in District 7 at 5-2.
The Vikings were 8-Man state champs in 2007. Stanton also qualified in 2002 and 2003 in 8-Man, and the Vikings made it to the playoffs in 1984, 1998 and 1998 in Class A. This is Stanton’s 10th football playoff appearance. The Vikings have a total combined won-loss record in the playoffs of 11-8.
This is East Greene’s first 8-Man playoff berth and the fourth in school history, as the Hawks went to the playoffs in Class A three years in a row, 1987-89, and compiled a 3-3 postseason record.
Stanton has passed for a total of 716 yards this year but its rushing yardage is a whopping 2,588.
East Greene counters, however, with the sixth-best defense in the state in 8-Man, giving up an average of just 14.3 points a game while scoring 41.7 (26th best). Stanton has scored at 48.7 points-per-game clip, 12th best in the state, while giving up 24.11 (20th best). [Add those up and 12th and 20th equals 32 divided by two equals 16, and 6th and 26th also equals 32 and divided by two equals 16, so these teams come out with exactly the same level of offense/defense when ranked among all the state’s 8-Man teams.]
Team stats are very close as EG has rushed for 2,293 yards and passed for 856.
The Hawks’ offense is led by running back Schyler Bardole, who ranks among the top all-time career leaders in touchdowns, total points scored, and rushing yards in Iowa 8-Man football. This season Bardole has scored 29 touchdowns and 7 two-point conversions (188 points) on 190 carries for a whopping 1,652 total yards.
He is also an anchor of the EG defense along with linebackers Zach Dearborn and Tory Beger. The Hawk’s have been known for their solid defense the last several seasons. Last year, Tom Beger, who played the same positions that younger brother Tory, a sophomore, plays this year (QB and linebacker on defense), was named second team all-state as a linebacker in his senior season. Tom is now playing defensive linebacker for the Simpson College JV team. Kyle DeMoss of rural Rippey, a graduate of Ogden High School, plays for the Simpson varsity this year as a senior running back and kickoff specialist.
The Begers are sons of EG co-coach and athletic director Tony Beger. Bardole is the son of co-coach Tim Bardole, an EG graduate who lettered in football in Iowa State after his days as a Hawk gridder a generation ago. Another son, Gabe, is a freshman on this year’s team.
The Begers are an “all EG” family as Traci Beger, wife of Tony and mom to the “Beger Boys,” is lead elementary teacher at the EG elementary school in Rippey and the high school girls basketball and softball coach. And there is still a third “Beger Boy” to wear the green and white, as Tyler will be in high school in a few years and has played in the youth county league in football.
100-POINT TURNAROUND: This football season has marked many accomplishment for the EG gridders, among them the first winning season since 2001, best season record since the 1980s, first 8-Man Playoff appearance, and first playoff berth in 21 years. Most indicative of the Hawks’ success is a 100-point turnaround against a very solid football program like Ar-We-Va.
EG shut down the Rockets 50-0 last Friday night in Westside to put a dramatic flourish on the last game of the regular season. Just three years ago—in 2007—the Hawks took a 57-7 drubbing from Ar-We-Va. The gap closed the next year to 39-20 in 2008 and last year, EG opened the season in Westside, losing to the Rockets in a tough, defense-oriented battle, 15-2. That’s an amazing 100-point turnaround in just three seasons.
The Hawks rolled up 388 total yards and 19 first down in last week’s game while holding the Rockets to just 48 yards rushing in 13 attempts and 8 of 29 passes for 88 yards—and no first downs for the entire game.
Bardole led the charge with 192 yards and five touchdowns. Beger had a great night at quarterback with 8 of 16 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns. He threw one interception on the night but the Hawks had the overall advantage as they intercepted five Ar-We-Va passes and recovered a fumble.
Beger’s passes were spread among four receivers: Nic Nicoliasen, 3 catches for 68 yards; Reed Ostrander, 3 for 45 yards with two of them for touchdowns; Cooklin, one for 25; and Aaron Lyons, one for 14.
Beger and Bardole were sharp on the defensive side, leading the Hawks with 10 and 7 tackles respectively. Cooklin snared two of the interceptions and returned them for 56 yards total while Lyons, Beger and Rob Ritchie each picked off a pass.
Stanton also heads into tonight’s game after a big, lopsided win last week as the Vikings drubbed winless South Page (College Springs), 82-14.
STANTON’S DEEP TRADITION: This is the third year that East Greene’s district (7) and Stanton’s district (8) have been matched up in the playoffs with each of the top four finishers in the two districts facing off in the first and second rounds, and then the state quarterfinals. Two years ago, Coon Rapids-Bayard, the runner-up to CAM (Anita) in District 7, and Stanton, undefeated champion of District 8, met in the quarterfinals with Stanton winning 42-17 and advancing on to the semifinal round where the Vikings lost to Armstrong-Ringsted, which fell in the title game to Lenox. Last year, Adair-Casey, D7 co-champ and top seed, moved through the first two rounds and, again, the team advancing on the opposite side of the quarterfinal bracket was Stanton, but this time the D7 team had the upper hand as AC disposed of the undefeated Vikings, 42-26. AC met the same fate as Stanton had the year before, falling to Armstrong-Ringsted, 64-22, with AR going on to claim the state title.
Armstrong-Ringsted was the team Stanton defeated in the 2007 championship, 32-24. The Mustangs have now been in the last three straight championship games, winning the crown in 2008 and finishing as runner-up in 2007 and 2009. AR (9-0) has qualified again as the No. 1 seed from District 2 and the winner of the D7-8 quarterfinal matchup will again face the winner from D1-2 in the semifinal round in the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. The Mustangs head into the playoffs as the No. 2 ranked team in 8-Man football by the Des Moines Register and the Associated Press, just behind Lenox, the team it beat last year for the title.
Lenox (9-0), District 3 champion, handed Stanton (7-2) one of its two losses this year in a non-district home opener for both teams, beating the Vikings 44-8 in Stanton. That loss snapped Stanton’s win streak of 30-regular season games, the longest in the state, and when Stanton lost to Fremont-Mills (Tabor) a few weeks later, that snapped a 26-game winning streak in district games.
Since 2001, its last year in Class A, Stanton has finished first or second in its district except for one year, 2004, when the team went 2-2 and 5-3 and finished third of five teams in District 5.
Ms. Christine remained loyal to her hometown and despite her busy life as an actress in Hollywood she visited Stanton often. And in her honor and the height of the success of during her 21 years as Folger’s Mrs. Olsen, the town rebuilt its water tower to look like a coffee pot. And Stanton topped that when it built a new water tower in 2000 and this one was built to look like a coffee cup. Stanton has also kept the first water tower. Both are designed with a Swedish motif, in further expressing the town’s deep Swedish heritage.
Stanton has a modern school facility on the north edge of town and the football field is just adjacent to the school at a lower elevation. The home side bleachers are actually built into the side of the hill, or rise, between the school and the field with the visiting team’s bleachers on the opposite side of the field. A new elementary wing was added to the school in 1994 and the facility now serves grades K-12.
Stanton has retained its older school building from the early 20th century and turned that into the Swedish Heritage and Cultural Center. It is located in the heart of the community not far from another landmark in the town center, the high-steepled Mamrelund Lutheran Church.
Stanton’s population is 714 (U.S. Census, 2000) and it is located on U.S. Highway 34 between Red Oak (pop. 6,197) and Villisca (1,344), the two other main communities of Montgomery County.
However, these communities are coping with declining populations and smaller school enrollments, as are most small towns of rural Iowa. As of 2009, the projected census for Stanton was 680, a 4.8% drop, while Villisca has decreased 8.8% to 1,226 and Red Oak is now down to 5,626, a 9.2% drop. Comparatively, towns in Greene County are seeing declines of anywhere from 10 to 14% but there are more communities in Greene County: Jefferson, Grand Junction, Rippey, Dana, Paton, Churdan, Scranton, Cooper and Farlin, all but two of them incorporated. Montgomery County has just 5 incorporated towns and one unincorporated: Red Oak, Villisca, Stanton, Elliott, Grant and Goburg (unincorporated). Overall, however, Montgomery County has a slightly larger population, 10,796 based on 2009 U.S. Census estimates, than Greene County, 9,251, due to the size difference between the two county seat towns, Red Oak and Jefferson. Montgomery’s population has decreased 8.3% since 2000 while Greene’s population has dropped 10.8%.
Stanton’s BEDS enrollment figures for high school sports classification is 71 compared to East Greene’s 84. Villisca, which is also an 8-Man school in District 8, is 94.
Stanton has long competed among the 10-member Corner Conference which was comprised of 10 school districts in the four southwestern-most counties of Iowa: Mills, Fremont, Page and Montgomery. Along with Stanton, the longstanding Corner Conference schools were Nishna Valley (Hastings), Malvern, Fremont-Mills (Tabor), Sidney, Hamburg, Farragut, Essex, South Page (College Springs) and Villisca.
The alignment has changed in the just last few years as Nishna Valley and Malvern embarked on a sports sharing and now whole-grade sharing arrangement and have renamed themselves East Mills as a combined entity with elementary students attending a school in each of the two main towns, Malvern and Hastings. The high school is in Malvern and the middle school in Hastings. When East Mills was formed, that dropped the Corner down to 9 teams but then Clarinda Academy, a private school formed a few years ago in Clarinda, the county seat of Page County, was added to make the league 10 teams again.
This past year, Hamburg and Farragut joined forces to share sports and now compete as Nishnabotna, taking up the slack since Nishna Valley is just the name of a school district and elementary school in Hastings (for the time being). Nishnabotna got out of the blocks in a good way as the baseball team qualified for the state tournament last summer, the first state baseball appearance for either school.
Nishnabotna finished fourth (4-3, 6-3) in District 8 and will travel to Glidden-Ralston tonight to face the Wildcats, the D7 champions and the seventh-ranked team in the state. Nishnabotna drubbed Essex (1-7, 1-9) in its district game on Friday, 92-6. East Mills heads to Coon Rapids-Bayard to take on the Crusaders, the No. 2 team from D7. Fremont-Mills, ranked sixth in the state, will host Boyer Valley (Dunlap), the fourth-seeded team from D7. F-M won the D8 crown Friday night in Tabor with a big 56-20 win over EM.
The Corner Conference is now reduced to 9 teams and it looks as if more sharing is on the horizon. It does not appear that Stanton or Villisca have approached any type of teacher or classroom sharing with either other or neighboring districts like Red Oak and Corning (just east of Villisca and the county seat of Adams County) nor in sports in the past few years. But now discussions are underway in earnest. Villisca has agreed to discuss pursuing whole grade sharing with Corning while Stanton is looking at several neighboring districts (one of them was Villisca) but it is most likely it would align with Red Oak, which is only 8 miles away.
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