Sat Nov 21 2009
By JASON STEIN
cnsports@crescent-news.com
In case there was any question in Ram country as to whether “It’s Now or Never”, Tinora left no doubt that the time indeed is “Now.”
From a fumble recovery by the defense to a virtually unstoppable ground attack, the Rams (9-1, 7-0 GMC) announced their presence and ultimately that they are the Green Meadows Conference champions with a 42-0 blanking over previously unbeaten Hicksville (9-1, 6-1 GMC).
“It feels amazing,” exclaimed senior center and defensive tackle, Lucas Schroeder. “Coming into tonight, we were just really pumped up and ready to go because, I mean, it’s now or never, it’s 2009 and it’s all we got.”
Hicksville opened the game by receiving the kickoff and looked poised to make a game of it as they began to drive the ball from their own 41-yard line.
On the seventh play of the drive which began with a Seth Klepper run followed by four Logan Battershell carries, with an incomplete pass mixed, quarterback Just Miller called his own number but fumbled the ball four yards into his run, and right into the hands of Tinora’s Landon Drewes.
And both coaches saw that as an early, but key play in the game.
“We talked about it as we were walking into halftime, me and one of the other coaches,” began Hicksville’s head coach Lucas Smith, “and we were like “man that fumble was big” cause we were putting together some solid plays here, we were moving the ball and I said before the game that we have to win the turnover battle and we gave up one early and they took it right down to us and I think we were pretty much done after that.”
“That was a huge momentum changer,” Krouse agreed. “They were driving a little bit, had a good kickoff return and then the defense just comes up with an outstanding play. Then the offense just took over from that point on.”
Following the fumble and one incomplete Tinora pass, Blake Foor and Lyndon Benecke began what would be a very productive night for the two running backs.
Foor began his 244-yard, one touchdown night with a 48-yard run on the second play for Tinora’s offense. Benecke then got his 77-yard, three touchdown night started with a 20-yard, quick-hitter which put him over the 1,000-yard plateau.
Benecke then followed it up with a 5-yard run behind the Rams’ powerful offensive line, which both he and Foor credited for their success, for the first score of the game with 8:07 remaining in the first quarter.
“The line did great tonight, Blake did really well tonight, both Blakes (Reiman and Foor) did really well, it was just a great game overall by everybody,” Benecke said of the offensive unit. “With Landon at quarterback, he opens everything else up, the run game and the pass game.”
Tinora’s defense, a staple of the Rams all season long, forced Hicksville into two punts and a turnover on downs and gave up only two first downs in the rest of the Aces’ first-half offensive possessions, not counting the fifth one ending with halftime, following the fumble.
Behind a line that was ready to go to battle on every snap on both sides of the ball, the Rams also held Hicksville to 74 total yards of offense in the first half, and 102 for the game while the offense of the newly crowned GMC champs racked up 261 yards by halftime and 402 overall.
“We’re a close knit group and we really felt like we had a chip on our shoulder,” noted offensive guard and linebacker Alex Batt, who with the rest of the defense played a huge role in limiting Battershell, the GMC’s leading running back with 1,560 yards rushing coming into the game, to only 82 yards on 22 carries. “We felt we didn’t play our best against Edgerton and we felt like we had something to prove and I think we did tonight.”
“We have to give credit to our coaches, they told us right where the other guys were going to line up,” added Schroeder. “We just got off the ball tonight and made things happen. If you beat them off the ball, you’re going to win the battle every time and we proved it tonight.
Foor continued to pile up the yardage in the first half as he inched, or rather gained in large chunks, ever closer to the 1,000-yard mark while Benecke, already eclipsing that total, found paydirt two more times on Tinora’s second and third drives of the game on touchdown runs of three and four yards.
With a 28-0 halftime lead, and just in case everyone in attendance forgot what had taken place in the first half, the Rams needed just one play to score to open the third quarter after a failed onside kick attempt by the Aces.
Tinora started with the ball on their own 46-yard line and when Drewes, who added a 1-yard score late in the second quarter, handed the ball to Foor, the 5-10, 195-pound back did the rest, busting into the defensive backfield for a 54-yard score to put the game further out of reach while joining Benecke in going over 1,000-rushing yards for the season.
“You just can’t say enough about that combination,” stated Krouse. “Another duo over 1,000 yards, and we’ve done that three years in a row now and that speaks volumes for your line. We just want to keep this thing going.”
The victory capped off Tinora’s eighth straight win on the year and a perfect record in the GMC and for 14 seniors, assured themselves that they will play one more game at their Justin F. Coressel Stadium when they host a week 11 playoff game next Friday night.
“Our senior class this year just has all the heart in the world, it’s crazy,” said Foor. “Every two-a-day, everybody was there, all the seniors and it was just amazing. We won the GMC our freshman and sophomore years and then we lost our junior year and coach said ‘no one is going to ask you what you did your freshman year, they ask you what you did your senior year’ and that gave us all the momentum in the world.”
For the Aces, they will have to put this one behind them quickly as they will be on the road in week 11.
HICKSVILLE TINORA
First Downs 5 18
Rushing Yards 38-99 49-352
Passing Yards 3 50
Total Yards 102 402
Passing 1-6-0 2-4-0
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 2-1
Penalties 0-0 2-15
Hicksville 0 0 0 0 - 0
Defiance 14 14 14 0 - 42
Tinora - Benecke 5-yard run (Moser kick).
Tinora - Benecke 4-yard run (Moser kick).
Tinora - Benecke 3-yard run (Moser kick).
Tinora - Drewes 1-yard run (Moser kick).
Tinora - Foor 54-yard run (Moser kick).
Tinora - Willett 38-yard pass from Drewes (Moser kick).
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Hicksville - Battershell 22-82; Post 3-6; Miller 5-5; Klepper 4-3; Vega 1-2; Yoder 3-1. Tinora - Foor 17-244; Benecke 12-70; Reiman 3-22; McCann 4-11; McKenney 2-11; Drewes 4-8; Rumbaugh 2-2; Gerschutz 2-(-2); Grube 3-(-14).
PASSING: Hicksville - Miller 1-6-0-3. Tinora - Drewes 2-4-0-50.
RECEIVING: Hicksville - Battershell 1-3. Tinora - Willett 1-38; Benecke 1-12.
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