“FROM THE HUDDLE”

BY COACH BRIAN WALKER       

                The Falcon football team played a rare Saturday afternoon game in Comfrey last week, and the Cougars took advantage of 6 RRC turnovers for the win.  We started out the game with a great defensive series.  CMC went three plays for -1 yd and were forced to punt, but the punt bounced off one of our return men and they recovered the ball at the 41 yd line, and from there were able to score the first TD 6 plays later on one of four TD passes on the day.  However, our offensive team responded on our 2nd play from scrimmage with our line opening up a massive hole for Jake Fredrickson to run through, and Jake took it to the house from 83 yds out. It has been a long time that we have had a run that distance, but we gained some of the momentum back at that time, knotting the game at 6-6 with 7:06 left in the first quarter.

Both team’s defenses settled in for a while, until CMC forced a fumble and got great field possession at the 22 yd line.  They would score to make it 12-0 on a 17 yd pass.  Then CMC gained the momentum back as on 4th and 10, the hooked up on a 32 yd TD pass with 4:20 left in the half.

We went in at half down 18-6.  We would hold them for 2-3 plays, then they would get a big one.  They put a lot of stress on the defensive backs with tall, athletic receivers, and the QB threw the ball quickly.

We were able to get to the QB a few times, but not enough.  The second quarter was not a good one for us on the offensive side, we had both backs sidelined with some injuries, so it cut into our ground game some.

Also I think the heat got to our team some, as it was a hot afternoon.

We also had too many penalties with 10 for 75 yds.  That along with 6 turnovers spelled the big difference between two teams with similar talents.  CMC didn’t fumble the ball once, and threw just 1 interception.  We have to do a better job of taking care of the football, as we lost 4 fumbles on the day.  In the third quarter, CMC continued the aerial show hooking up for a 51yd TD pass with 8:36 left, then finished the scoring on a 1 yd run.

                For the game, RRC rushed the ball 27 times for 175 yds.

Last week we had 20 more rushing attempts.  Those 4 fumbles take so many plays away from your offensive unit. Leading the way on the ground was Jake Fredrickson with 100 yds in just 6 carries and 1 TD.  Dylan Bunting

added 67 yds in 11 carries.   In the passing department, Bunting

completed 10 of 21 passes for 45 yds on the day.  George Rogotzke hauled in 4 passes for 23 yds.  Nate Bierman caught 2 passes for 13 yds.  Tyler Erickson, Nick Derickson, Jake Fredrickson, and Zach Siemer each caught one pass.  On the defensive side of the ball, Nate Mattison led the way with 15 tackles.  Josh Rogotzke came up with 10 stops, and Dillon Imker with 7 tackles.  Alex Kircher and Aaron Furth had QB sacks for the Falcons.  George Rogotzke came up with the only take away, with an interception that he returned 20 yds.  The Cougars completed 17 of 30 passes for 288 yds.  The Falcons held CMC to just 88 yds rushing in the game, but they were able to run 64 offensive plays to just 48 by the Falcons. 

                This week we take on one of the conference front runners in the Wabasso Rabbits.  They travel to RRC on Friday night.  They have another quality team that loves to run the football, so our defense will face a different type of test this week.  They rarely throw the ball, and love to hand it to Derek Riley, who in two games has close to 600 yds rushing.  Also, our offense will have to be sharp, and take better care of the ball and make good decisions.  This game has conference as well as section implications, so it is a big game for us.  A win would by the Falcons would pull them even with the Rabbits at (2-1), so we will be ready for the challenge.  Come out and cheer the Falcons to victory.  GO FALCONS!!