LET THE FOOTBALL GAMES BEGIN!

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com

The Greene County Rams will begin their 2014 football season with a home contest versus South Central Calhoun. Both teams competed in 2A districts last season. This year the Rams jumped up to 3A, and the Titans moved down to 1A, but the changes in classification will not impact the game. South Central Calhoun has a rich football tradition and would relish starting their season by beating a larger school on that team’s home turf.

The Titans finished the 2013 season with a 5-5 record. Offensively they gained 1247 yards through the air and 1324 yards on the ground. Since the team’s talented quarterback, Jake Petzenhauser, graduated last spring, the squad will probably return to rushing the ball more, which would be more characteristic of SCC teams in the past. Jeff King, the Titan’s leading rusher last season will return, as will Cyle King one of their leading pass receivers and Rylan Richardson who had almost twice as many tackles as anyone else on the team. South Central Calhoun averaged 17 points per game last year. Their biggest loss was to Kuemper Catholic  by 43 points, and their biggest winning margin was 25 points in a 31-6 win over Estherville Lincoln Central.

The Rams have several capable running backs and an experienced offensive line, so they will likely try to move the ball on the ground as much as possible. Greene County’s quarterback Daric Whipple is in his second year at the helm and although last year’s leading receiver T.J. Lint graduated, Tyler Beger and Jake Carey, two other top receivers from last fall, are both back. The Rams had a slow start offensively last year scoring 14, 13, and 15 points in their first three games. As young players gained more confidence, they started putting more points on the board. Hopefully with the number of returning letter winners, Greene County’s offense will have a more positive beginning to their season. Coach Dean Lansman feels that the Rams defense versus the running game is quite solid. Panorama did not pass the ball a lot in the scrimmage last week, so the pass defense has not been tested as much, but the defense did a nice job of pressuring the quarterback when he attempted to throw.

Enough speculating, it’s time to get the 2014 season started. Since there isn’t a freshman game at 5 p.m. this week, the varsity contest will start at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m. Good luck Rams!!!!!