Tigers fall short at home against OA-BCIG in first district game
RED OAK — The Red Oak Tigers football team lost Friday night to OA-BCIG 52-12 at Russ Benda Field in Red Oak.
OA-BCIG playmaker Trever Ryen scored three first half touchdowns to put the Falcons ahead of Red Oak (0-3 overall, 0-1 district) for the entire game.
“He’s a quick athletic kid with some good moves on him,” Red Oak Head Football Coach Jeff Spotts said about Ryen. “We tried to do some stuff with him. He was just a superb player tonight. There's no doubt about it.”
Ryen had his first touchdown of the game with OA-BCIG already ahead 6-0. Ryen scored on a 34-yard run, beating Red Oak defenders to the outside.
After the missed two-point conversion, the Tigers trailed 12-0 with less than seven minutes left in the first quarter.
Red Oak didn’t have an offensive possession for the first five minutes of the first quarter. A fumble on the first punt of the game led to OA-BCIG taking over in Red Oak territory.
That set up the first score of the game, a one-yard run by Cash Wilicke.
The Falcons led 6-0 with more than eight minutes left in the first.
Ryen's other two touchdowns came in the second quarter on touchdown passes from quarterback Creighton Allen.
The first touchdown came on a 25-yard reception with 4:18 left in the first half. The other came with less than two minutes as Allen completed a 64-yard pass to Ryen.
“Our gameplan this week was to make sure to let those guys scoot to the outside,” Spotts said. “We figured we’d make them earn it down the field.”
Ryen is reportedly receiving interests from several Div. I schools, including Drake University in Des Moines, as well as TCU and Iowa State.
Red Oak scored their first touchdown of the game in the second quarter. The Tigers had a long drive, which consisted of converting two third downs. On fourth-and-two, in the Falcons red zone, quarterback Ryan Leininger completed a pass in the middle of the field to Jose Perez, who ran it in the rest of the way for the score, giving the Tigers their first touchdown through the air this season. The Tigers were trailing 18-6 at that point.
Spotts said one of the objectives for the game was to make the passing game more effective. Leininger finished the game completing 7-of-13 for 77 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Perez was the leading receiver as he caught five passes for 48 yards.
“We had another night where we had 20 first downs, won the time of possession by about eight minutes,” Spotts said. “We did some things well, but we've got to clean up some penalties.”
OA-BCIG led at halftime 33-6. The Tigers had an opportunity to score some points late in the half.
Following an Evan Mellott first down and a Perez catch and run for the first down, Red Oak had one last chance before the half. Leininger made the throw to the end zone, but was picked off.
The Tigers had the ball to start the second half and moved the ball downfield, despite accumulating penalties. A defensive facemask call kept the drive alive for Red Oak, however a couple plays later, Leininger was picked off again.
From there, OA-BCIG drove down field again as Allen completed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Royce Rosenmeyer. The Falcons missed the point after, but now led 39-6.
The Falcons scored to force a running clock in the fourth quarter when Austin Zobel ran it into the end zone from one yard out. A bad snap on a fourth down punt set OA-BCIG up for the chance to score.
Red Oak didn't waste time as they utilized Dakota Petty for all the running plays on its next drive. Petty helped the Tigers march down the field and scored on a seven-yard run, stopping the clock and cutting the lead to 46-12.
Petty and Mellott finished the game as the co-leading rushers for Red Oak, each recording 75 yards. Petty had 58 of those 75 yards on the touchdown drive.
“Our kids, they have a lot of heart. They were probably a little bit flat from last week's game, so I think it took a lot out of them,” Spotts said. “But we went after it as hard as we could.”
OA-BCIG's final touchdown came with six minutes left in the game as Darian Ernst ran it in from 44-yards.
Defensively, Austin Streicher was once again the leading tackler, tallying 14 total with three solo tackles. Mellott and Nathan Guffey each had nine, while Jose Perez recorded eight.
Red Oak was able to get run production out of Nick Leinen, Brock Isaacson and Tanner Mertz. Leinen had 38 yards, while Isaacson and Mertz finished with 26 and 19, respectively. Geoff Sellers caught the other two passes thrown by Leininger as he had 29 receiving yards.
Red Oak will now travel a ways as they take on Greene County (Jefferson-Scranton) Friday night. Greene County has had their fair share of issues as they're coming off a loss to Shenandoah.
The drive will take about two hours as Jefferson is located West of Carroll on US-30.
“If we can get them focused on the bus, like we got them focused on the bus for Treynor, we'll be outstanding,” Spotts said.