EG Wins Home Opener, 36-34

BEAT TWIN CEDARS IN GAME THAT SPANS TWO DAYS

East Greene slipped past Twin Cedars (Bussey), 36-34, in a game that stretched over two days—Friday and Saturday, Sept. 2 and 3—to pick up its first win of the season.

The game got underway as scheduled Friday night with a bit of sprinkles and light rain. The two teams traded touchdowns with the Hawks holding the upper hand at the halftime break, 26-20. Twin Cedars came back in the third quarter to take the lead on a touchdown and a two-point conversion, 28-26. The Sabers had the momentum as the Hawks looked to be tiring and were whistled for some key penalties.

The rain had stopped by halftime but with 3:45 left in the third quarter, the officials suspended the game due to lighting to the north. What was hoped to be a mandatory 30-minute delay with the expectations that the lighting would stop, turned into a one-hour delay and still no letup from the lightning. At that point—9:45 p.m.—it was determined to suspend play and resume the game the next day at 2 p.m.

The delay worked to the Hawks’ advantage as the Twin Cedars players and fans would need to drive all the way back to southern Marion County Friday night, and then back up to Grand Junction on Saturday.

Some electrical problems had made the sound system inoperative at Karber Field on Friday but the system was working on Saturday, so the resumed game got underway with the playing of the national anthem. But a light rain began just as play started, so conditions were similar to the night before—just brighter and with no lightning.

Twin Cedars got out of the blocks fast as Jared Stephens scored on a 25-yard run on the first play of the resumed game, extending the Sabers’ lead to 34-26. The EG defense came to the fore, however, and stopped the two point conversion.

The defensive momentum carried forward into the fourth quarter as the Hawks punted down to the 1-yard-line and then stopped TC for a loss in the end zone to score a two-point safety, cutting the lead to 34-28.

Neither team mounted much of a threat rest of the fourth quarter, but in the late stages the Sabers were threatening in Hawk territory when EG intercepted the ball with enough time on the clock to mount one last drive.

EG moved downfield on a key Tory Beger-to-Reed Ostrander pass play with Beger running the ball in a few plays later to tie the game at 34-34. Beger connected with Harrison Johnston on a two-point conversion pass play to put EG in the lead, 36-34, with 40 seconds left in the game.

The Hawks kicked off with Twin Cedars running the ball back to midfield. The Sabers put together an all-out passing assault but the Hawks held them in check in four downs and took over with 17 seconds left on the clock. The Hawks downed the ball on the first snap and then just ran out the clock to pick up their first win of the season, evening their non-district record at 1-1. Twin Cedars fell to 1-1 in non-district play.

Beger passed was 22-38 in passing for a total of 253 yards with no interceptions. He connected for three touchdown passes—one a 56-yard strike to Ostrander. On the receiving end, Ostrander caught 10 passes for 179 total yards. T. J. Lint caught seven passes for 50 yards, Gathercoal caught two for 18 yards, and Broc Timm

Beger ran the ball 16 times for 32 yards and Ostrander gained 106 yards on six carries, most of that on a 63-yard touchdown run. Beger scored on an 8-yard jaunt. Lint had 1 carry for a -1 yard, giving the Hawks 390 total yards—137 on the ground and 253 in the air. Twin Cedars had 356 total yards—213 rushing and 143 passing.

Lint lead the defense with 15 total tackles (two solo and 13 assisted) with Beger right behind with 12 total tackles (2 solo and 10 assisted). Ostrander, Beger and Cody Hidelbaugh each had a sack.

Gathercoal has a big night on defense as he added a fumble recovery to his game-changing interception. Beger also recovered a fumble. The Hawks kicking game was in good form with Zach Hiller kicking off five times for 165 yards and Alex Gordon punting four times for 150 yards.

EG travels to Dunlap on Friday to face 2-1 Boyer Valley in the District 7 opener. This kicks off another season of the 8-Man Football “Lincoln League” as 5 of 7 teams in District 7 are located on the historic Lincoln Highway. The “Lincoln League” (8-Man District 7) is down to seven teams this season as Walnut has dropped its football program and is sharing football with Atlantic, a 3A school. Teams on the Lincoln are: East Greene, Glidden-Ralston, Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley and Woodbine. The only non-Lincoln teams are within a dozen miles of the highway—Coon Rapids-Bayard and Charter Oak-Ute.

Towns that are on the Lincoln in the five school districts, heading westward, are Grand Junction, Ralston, Glidden, Arcadia, Westside, Vale, Arion, Dow City, Dunlap and Woodbine—a “Big 10” roster of Lincoln Highway/U.S. 30 towns.

Boyer Valley has had easy wins over Whiting and River Valley (Correctionville) and lost by one point on Friday in overtime to No. 6-ranked Kingsley-Pierson, 21-20. EG beat Boyer Valley last year in Grand Junction, 26-20. Both teams qualified for the playoffs last year with EG finishing third in District 7 and BV finishing fourth. Twin Cedars hosts Tri-County (Thornburgh) in a District 5 opener for both teams.

Season (Non-Districts) Records of Lincoln League Teams
Boyer Valley (Dunlap) 2-1
Coon Rapids-Bayard 1-1
East Greene 1-1
Glidden-Ralston 1-1
Woodbine 1-1
Charter Oak-Ute 0-2
Ar-We-Va (Westside) 0-3

District 7 Scores, Week 2 (Sept. 1):
EG 36, Twin Cedars (Bussey) 34
Woodbine 48, Whiting 8
Kingsley-Pierson 21, Boyer Valley 20 (OT), *KP ranked No. 6
CRB 42, Grandview Park Baptist 9
Newell-Fonda 45, GR 8
River Valley 64, Ar-We- 61
Remsen-Union 58, Charter Oak-Ute 8, *RU ranked No. 5

District 7 Scores, Week 1 (Aug. 26):
Melcher Dallas 44, EG 30
GR 62, Grandview Park Baptist 21
Boyer Valley (Dunlap) 61, Whiting 0
Kingsley-Pierson 47, Ar-We-Va 6
Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) 56, CRB 20
River Valley (Correctionville) 70, COU 28

District 7 Scores, Week 0 (Aug. 19):
Boyer Valley 66, River Valley (Correctionville) 22
CAM (Anita) 39, Woodbine 0
Armstrong-Ringsted 51, Ar-We-Va 12, *AR ranked No. 1

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawks will have their hands full with the Boyer Valley Bulldogs, who look to be one of the top teams in the “Lincoln League” at this stage of the season. BV took sixth-ranked Kingsley-Pierson, a District 1 team, to overtime before falling by one point while unranked Newell-Fonda, also in District 1, rolled over Glidden-Ralston 45-8. Glidden-Ralston, Kingsley-Pierson and Newell-Fonda all advanced to the playoffs last year. KP lost to state champion Armstrong-Ringsted in the first round while NF was eliminated by Armstrong-Ringsted in the second round. GR made it to the quarterfinal round, losing to Fremont-Mills (Tabor) which was, in turn, eliminated by AR in the semifinals in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

EG will need to stop the running game of Michael Hanigan, BV’s standout junior quarterback/defensive back. Hanigan ran the ball 41 times for 131 yards and two touchdowns against Kingsley-Pierson. He was 4-9 with one interception and 51 yards passing. He has ran the ball 91 times for 601 yards in three games—an impressive 200 yards per game average.

BV will need to shut down the EG aerial assault. Beger is now finding success with a range of receivers, while he and Ostrander are also a threat running the ball. Ostrander is still the go-to guy on the EG passing attack, so how the Hawks hold up against the Bulldogs’ pass defense will go a long way in determining who gets the upper hand in Dunlap.

In the 44-30 loss to Melcher-Dallas, Beger put up 195 total yards on 16-24 passing with one interception, giving him a total of 448 yards for both games combined—an impressive 224 yards per game average.

In other D7/Lincoln League games this week, Ar-We-Va (0-3) is at Coon Rapids-Bayard (1-1) and Woodbine (1-1) is at Glidden-Ralston.