Tigers fall at home to Greene County
RED OAK — A night filled with penalties, including several personal fouls for Red Oak led to Greene County scoring 22 unanswered points in the second half as the Red Oak football team lost Friday 25-7.
The Tigers were penalized 10 times for 99 yards, which is the most this season.
“You can’t take any team lightly and that’s one of the things I stress very much,” Red Oak football coach Barry Bower said. “You’ve got to come to play every single week and you’ve got to make sure you eliminate your mistakes. You can’t have 10 penalties in a ball game and expect to win.”
Penalties plagued Greene County, as well, as they were penalized 12 times for 105 yards.
Red Oak’s (1-3 overall, 1-1 district) lone touchdown of the game came in the first quarter when Evan Mellott scored on a two-yard run.
The point after try by Evan Drake was good and Red Oak led 7-0.
The touchdown was Mellott’s fourth this season, which leads the team and is second most in Class 2A District 8 behind Kuemper Catholic’s Chase Rupiper.
Mellott finished the game as Red Oak’s leading rusher, carrying the ball nine times for 66 yards.
Mellott started the game at quarterback for Red Oak. However, Ryan Leininger was back at quarterback for Red Oak in the second half as he completed 7-for-16 for 56 yards.
Leininger sat out the week three game against OA-BCIG for undisclosed reasons.
Greene County got on board later in the quarter when Nick Schroeder kicked a 23-yard field goal.
A scoreless second quarter meant Red Oak went into halftime with the 7-3 lead.
It was a tale of two halves though, as Red Oak Football Coach Barry Bower described.
“I told people all week that this is the best 0-3 football team that I’ve seen in a long time,” Bower said. “They should have won some ball games that they had some difficulties winning.”
Greene County quarterback Daric Whipple gave them the lead thanks to a one-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Schroeder’s PAT was good and the lead for Greene County was 10-7.
“[Whipple] presented a lot of challenges simply because you have to corral him, you can’t give him lanes and once he got outside that pocket, you can’t cover forever,” Bower said. “He made some plays with his feet and he made some plays with his arm.”
The Rams scored two moretouchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
The first came courtesy of a JC Weitl one-yard run. Greene County converted the two-point conversion and the lead became 18-7.
TJ Lint scored the final touchdown for Greene County on a 19-yard run. Schroeder made the PAT and that was the final touchdown.
Time of possession played a big role in Greene County’s win as they held onto the ball for 32:10. Red Oak had the ball for 15:50.
Mellott led the team in receiving as he caught four passes for 32 yards. Phillip Decker caught two passes for 13 yards and Austin Streicher had a catch for 11 yards.
Hayden VanMeter was second in rushing as he carried the ball three times for 21 yards. Leininger had 20 yards rushing.
Mellott had a big game defensively as well as he led the team in tackles with 18.
Six other players had double-digit tackle totals for Red Oak. Tanner Gilliland finished with 14, while Decker and Colin Bruce each had 13. Streicher had 11 tackles, while VanMeter and Nathan Guffey each finished with 10.
Red Oak forced Greene County quarterback Whipple to throw two interceptions, both times by Dakota Petty.
With Red Oak’s loss to Greene County and Shenandoah losing to OA-BCIG, four teams currently are fighting for the third and fourth spots in the standings at 1-1. Kuemper Catholic and Clarinda are 1-0 in the district.
Red Oak have a chance to get back on track Friday when they play Clarinda Academy.
“We’re going to go back to fundamentals this next week and we’ve got to make sure that we try to eliminate the mistakes we made on Friday night, such as penalties, and also schematic-wise,” Bower said. “It starts on top with myself and I’ve got to make sure I get these guys prepared to the fullest and we’ll see about getting that done.”
Offense has been an issue for Clarinda Academy as of late. After scoring 28 points in a week zero loss to Clarke, Academy has scored six points in the three games after, including being shutout twice against East Mills and Kuemper Catholic. Clarinda Academy is coming off a 41-6 loss to Clarinda.
Last season, Red Oak defeated Clarinda Academy 64-0.