By Coach Reece Dodd
The 8th grade football team got off to a successful start with a 36-14 victory over North Mahaska in a Saturday morning contest at New Sharon. Tailback Nick Pippert started the game off with a bang scoring on the first play of the game. Nick also carted the ball across the goal line two more times later on. Fullback Ryan Janss and Quarterback Adam Daily scored touchdowns also for the Plainsmen. Dailt and Janss also scored on 2-point conversion runs and Tight End Matthew Mengler caught a conversion pass from Daily to round out the scoring.
I was happy with the way we moved the ball on the ground. Doing most of the blocking up front for the running backs was Mengler, Lance Weeda, Derek O’Brien, Austin Vranek, Josh Hotz, Ross Henning, Grant Bevins and Jacob Reineke.
Defensively we need some work. Because of the lack of numbers in the junior high program right now, this was the first time we actually defended an entire offense of our size this year. We can practice against an over-matched 7th grade and even do some half lines but it’s never the same as defending an opponents entire offense. Tackling is the biggest issue we need to improve on. Knowing their responsibilities was also a problem. We’ll focus on that before our next game and hopefully improve. Derek O’Brien had a nice interception to stop a drive.
On Wednesday, the eighth grade football team scored a 40-6 victory over Iowa Valley in their first home game of the season. The team went into the game with only 12 players as injuries to Austin Vranek and Rachel Blink kept them from playing. The running game exploded again as great blocking up front allowed our backs to fur free. Nick Pippert again led the scoring with 3 touchdowns. Nick is a real tough young man to tackle. Swing back Trenton Young showed off his speed with an outstanding game with 2 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion. Lance Weeda’s first catch of the season went for an 8 yard touchdown on a tight end quick. Adam Daily delivered the pass to Weeda. Daily scored a conversion try on a quarterback sneak. Matthew Meck replaced Austin Vranek at offensive tackle and Rachel Blink at defensive end and played an outstanding game. What impressed me was that we had our second unit backfield in the second half and still moved the ball well. That second unit consisted of Matthew Mengler at quarterback, Trenton Young at tailback, Derek O’Brien at swingback and Adam Daily at tight end. We kept Ryan Janss at fullback and he had some good, tough runs.
I thought the defense played much better but still has room for improvement. We made better contact but still need to do a better job of wrapping up. I thought the defensive line of Ross Henning, Grant Bevins, Jacob Reineke and Mathew Meck played very well.
The team gets the next two weeks off before playing BGM on Oct. 7th at Belle Plaine.
The following photos were supplied by Steve Mengler.
