It was a beautiful September 10 evening as the Rebels traveled to LaPorte City to take on the Knights of Union. The Knights have an outstanding program and a growing tradition each and every year. Coach Hadacheck and his staff have done a great establishing Union as a premier program not only around this area but also the state. They were state champs last year and have many returning from that squad. That kind of success brings out the best in the kids so we knew we were in for a battle all night long.

The game started out slowly as each team was trying to get a feel for what each other was going to do. Union scored on their second possession and we lost all focus and intensity. We turned very flat and very unenthused to be on the football field and Union made us pay the whole night. They flew around faster than us and made us look not so good. It really was not the same team that defeated Dike New Hartford last week. The effort and execution did not even compare to last week. Hopefully all understand that we have to show up ready to play each time out. The team that defeated DNH was as good as I have seen in some time but tonight we stepped backwards to be very average. These are the things we need to learn from as a team and we need leaders to not allow this to happen. We are young but we must learn this lesson soon.

Offensively we didn’t get much going as we were limited to 66 yards passing and 89 yards rushing and most of that was late in the game after it was all ready decided. Eric Stoakes had 80 rushing yards, Brady Kuehl had 57 yards through the air and Logan Flamme caught 4 balls for 25 yards to lead our offensive stats. Defensively, Luke Holman led the way with 8 tackles followed by Cam Murphy with 7 and Cam Kickbush with 6. Ty Eiffler added 5 and Josh Cooley and Logan chipped in with 4 stops each. Jake Schuman and Carter Murphy contributed an interception apiece to round out our highlights.

Our next action will be Monday September 24 at home against the Cougars from AGWSR. We also follow this with a Fresh-Soph game against Aplington-Parkersburg on Thursday September 27. Both games will begin at 6 p.m. at the Pit. See you there.