River Ridge Football handles Boscobel

By A.J. Gates

Behind a dominating performance by his offensive line, River Ridge senior Andrew Nies ran through, over and around the Boscobel defense last Friday night in a 48-27 Six Rivers conference victory for the Timberwolves.

With the victory, coach Wade Winkers and his River Ridge Timberwolves improved to 2-2 in league play and 4-2 overall, while the Bulldogs fell to 0-4, 0-6.

After starting off the

season with two league losses, the Timberwolves can still clinch a playoff spot by winning two of their last three games against Iowa-Grant (2-2, 2-4), Wauzeka/Seneca (2-2, 3-3) and Pecatonica/Argyle (2-2, 3-3). 

They next take on Iowa-Grant, who is coming off a 43-0 loss to Potosi/Cassville. At Boscobel last Friday night, Nies ran wild over the Bulldog defense, finishing with 224 yards and three rushing touchdowns on 12 carries, for an average of 18.7 yards per attempt. From his linebacker spot, he also took an interception 40 yards to the end zone, concluding the night with four total scores.

Nies, who has rushed for 709 yards and 12 touchdowns in six games this season, scored on runs of nine and 60 yards in the opening quarter, then added a 25-yard TD run early in the second, which he followed with a defensive score on Boscobel’s next possession. “We could have kept running it to him, but we went and tried other things and tried to work on other facets of our game,” said coach Winkers of Nies.

Plowing the way for Nies’ big night were offensive linemen Tyler Breuer (C), A.J. Farris (RG), Cody Mezera (RT), Peyton Aulwes (LG) and Elliott Thornton (LT).

“Boscobel gave us a nice easy look to run veer against and we blocked it up pretty well,” explained coach Winkers. “When you’re fullback is running at the third level you know you’ve got some big creases, and kudos to the offensive line for giving us that.”

Before the night had ended, the Timberwolves rushed for 359 yards and five touchdowns on 28 rushing attempts.

Junior quarterback Brandon Davis managed 48 yards on five attempts, including a 17-yard score in the third quarter. Senior halfback Drake Barrineau rushed for 48 yards on just four carries, finding the end zone late in the second quarter from 16 yards out.

Through the air, Davis completed 2-of-3 passing attempts for nine yards, including a five-yard TD toss to Carter Copsey midway through the first quarter.

Having taken a 35-0 lead with 10:04 to play in the second quarter, the continuous clock was in affect the rest of the night.

River Ridge extended their lead to 41-0 before going into halftime, then took a 48-0 lead over the Bulldogs on their first possession in the third quarter.

Boscobel closed out the contest with a touchdown run late in the third quarter, followed by three more scores in the fourth. “They did take advantage of our youth and kept throwing on them in the fourth quarter, but it was a good opportunity for our young guys to get into a varsity game,” said Winkers.

The Bulldogs were limited to -12 yards rushing on 16 total attempts, but completed 13-of-31 passing attempts for 254 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Landon Haessly, who was under constant pressure by the River Ridge defense, was picked off three times, once each by Nies, Noah Copsey and Blake Reynolds.

Nies and Reynolds each finished the night with a team-high five tackles and one interception, while Davis had four stops.

“We didn’t bring a lot of extra guys, though occasionally coach Redman dialed up an extra player to come, but the front four did some good things,” Winkers said of his defensive unit.

“They definitely were putting the pressure on and making some balls come out a little earlier than they wanted.”