Denver A new season is upon us and it seems earlier every year. We have been working hard at preparing for this upcoming season and now on Monday August 20th, it all got going. We started fall football camp the last week in July so we were ready for some different bodies to push around. The kids and coaches have been working very hard. Now it was time to see how far along we are and how much further we can go. Denver was our first test. The game off slowly as it was very evident that each team was excited to be on the field for the first time against an opponent. There were some mistakes made and the execution was certainly not where you would want it to be but as the game moved into the second quarter, things calmed down and both teams kind of settled in. The Rebels were moving the ball all over the field but just could not get it into the endzone. That was the case all night long as we were defeated by a very fine Denver Cyclone group by a score of 14-0. We have a long way to go and these kids have a ton of potential but conditioning and discipline will be very important in the next coming weeks. We have to push through the tough times both physically and mentally. We must keep our focus and intensity to continue to live up to some high expectations. We have a ton of work to do but for the most part the coaching staff was pretty happy with this outing. We ended the night with 141 yards on the ground and 142 through the air. These are pretty good totals but the problem was punching the ball into the end zone. Eric Stoakes, Cam Murphy, Bennett Petersen, and Kainen Hendricks took care of the ground game for us. Cam Kickbush, Jake Schuman, and Brady Kuehl take care of the quarterback chores and the receiving was done by Logan Flamme, Jeff Tscherter, Jake Mohlis, Josh Cooley, Austin Lott, Carter Murphy, and Brock Bystricky. The Blutos up front are Logan Phillips, Dalton Scwartz, Ty Eiffler, Luke Holman, Shye Johnston, Bryce Ehlers, Cameron Clark, Hunter Wegner, and Bryce Clark. Good work by all of you and keep getting better every day. East Marshall It was a gorgeous August 27th summer evening and the Rebels were headed south to LeGrand to take on the East Marshall Mustangs. With a new coaching change for East Marshall we were not sure what to expect. The game started out well and we came out and scored on the first drive of the night on a 6 yard Eric Stoakes run. We added the PAT to go up 8-0 early. Eric then added another TD run of 20 yards to make it 16-0 early in the second quarter. East Marshall then mounted a drive of their own to pull within 16-6 but that was all the closer the Mustangs would get on this night. Cam Kickbush added a long 50 yard TD run and we were cruising along with a 24-6 lead. Stoakes added two more scores and East Marshall put one on the board late to come to the final of 36-12 moving us to 1-1 on the year. The coaches were impressed with the effort and our execution was better this week also. That is what we are after. We need to get better every time out. Good work guys. Eric Stoakes lead us with 111 yards on the ground, had 3 catches for 49 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Cameron Murphy, Kainen Hendricks, and Bennett Petersen added another 57 on the ground along with Cam’s 50 yard TD for a total of 218 rushing yards. Brady Kuehl was 4 of 9 for 67 yards while Cam had a completion for 25 to account for our passing yardage. Cameron and Logan Flamme hauled in the other 2 completions. Logan also was co-team leader in tackles with 4 along with Bryce Ehlers and Dalton Schwartz. Logan and Josh Cooley each had an interception in the game to make up the turnover margin. Brady, Luke Holman, and Bryce Clark each had 3 stops each followed by Cam, Eric, Cameron, Bennett, Josh, Ty Eiffler, and Cameron Clark with 2 each. Carter Murphy, Hunter Wegner, Jeff Tscherter, Logan Phillips, and Austin each made 1 tackle each to aid our defensive cause. Our next action will be a Fresh-Soph game at Dike New Hartford on Thursday September 6 at 6 pm. We then will play a JV game at Union LaPorte City on Monday September 10 beginning also at 6 pm. Hope to see you on the sidelines.