On Monday September 17th the Rebels hosted their neighbors from the west, the BCLUW Comets. How would we respond to our sub-par performance last week at Union? We have been working with the kids to make sure and keep the focus and don’t dwell on the bad things that may happen in a game. You can’t go back in time. You just need to move forward and turn a negative into a positive. We were ready to go and anxious to play. The game didn’t start out well for us at all as we went 3 and out. The even worst part was a problem on the punt and BCLUW took over on our 20 yard line. The Comets took full advantage of the short field and 3 plays later were in the endzone for an early 6-0 lead. They held the lead until midway through the second quarter as we answered finally with a 20 yard TD pass from Cam Kickbush to Josh Cooley. Cam followed with a PAT run and we lead for the first time, 8-6. We would never look back. We lead 14-6 at the half and 36-6 at the end of three. Eric Stoakes scored 4 TD’s in this stretch, 3 rushing a 1 receiving. Dalton Schwartz, Ty Eiffler, Luke Holman, Logan Phillips, and Cameron Clark did a great job up front and opened some huge holes for Eric and our other backs to run through. They really took control of this game and they have the potential and ability to do this every game. We added another TD late on another Josh Cooley grab of 34 yards from Brady Kuehl and we cruised in with a convincing 42-20 victory. This moves us to 3-2 on the year. Eric had a huge night with 264 yards on 23 carries and 3 touchdowns. He also caught 1 pass for 70 yards and a score. Cam Kickbush added 63 yards rushing and 30 yards through the air with Kainen Hendricks chipping in 10 yards and Cam Murphy 6 yards rushing. Brady was 2 of 4 for 104 yards and a score. Josh caught 3 balls for 64 yards and 2 TD’s. Jake Schuman also added a 2 point conversion caught to round out our offensive stats. Bryce Ehlers led the way with 5 stops, followed by Jeff Tscherter with 4, Brady, Luke, Hunter Wegner, and Bennett Petersen 3, Logan Flamme, Austin Lott, Ty, Dalton, Josh, Cam Clark, and Riley Gilbert 2, with Carter Murphy and Jake Mohlis each finished with a tackle. Austin and Logan Flamme also chipped in an interception apiece to aid our cause. Good effort by everyone. We need to continue to get better every time we take the field. We need to think about our pad level and we need to play hard every play. We have a ton of potential and talent but we all need to figure out what it takes every play. We must play hard and with intensity to become the best we can be. Everyone should expect big things from this group. Our next action will be Monday October1st against the Redhawks from North Tama. We also will follow that up with a Fresh-Soph clash with the West Marshall Trojans on Thursday October 4. Both games will begin at 6 pm. Hope to see you checking out the future of G-R football. See you on the sidelines.