March 28, 2024

Raiders keep their hold on rivalry’s ‘Rock’

Mount Ayr pounds shorthanded Wolverines, 42-14

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GREENFIELD — Grant Staats and Kyle Dolecheck had two touchdowns each as visiting Mount Ayr defeated Nodaway Valley Friday night, 42-14, in the annual “Battle for the Rock.”

The Raiders (4-1 overall, 3-0 Class A District 8) took a 42-7 lead with 6:45 left in the third period on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Taylor to Lincoln Martin, engaging the state’s mercy rule running clock at a 35-point margin.

With Raider reserves in the game, the Wolverines (1-4, 0-3) drove 76 yards in the final minutes for a 2-yard TD run by quarterback Jackson Lamb with 10 seconds remaining.

Staats scored on runs of 10 yards and 2 yards in the first quarter for the Raiders. Dolecheck had a 4-yard TD run to break a 7-7 tie, and added an 82-yard jaunt in the second quarter. After Nodaway Valley fumbled on its own 11-yard line, Taylor’s 1-yard quarterback sneak tacked on another Raider touchdown before halftime for a 35-7 lead at the break.

Early tie

Early in the game, the Raiders lost the ball on a high punt snap and the Wolverines converted with a 1-yard touchdown run by Brennen Weiland to knot the score at 7-7. Josh Allsup’s 27-yard gain set up Weiland’s short touchdown run.

“We put ourselves in a hole with a bad punt snap, and allowed them to tie the game,” said Mount Ayr co-coach Delwyn Showalter. “But we responded and took control right away. We didn’t allow them to build any momentum. Other than that series right after the bad punt snap, when we were on our heels a little bit, we didn’t give them much on the inside.”

Another Mount Ayr high punt snap resulted in punter Levi Jarred getting a punt off on the run. The Wolverines were penalized for roughing the punter plus an unsportsmanlike penalty, keeping the Raider drive alive as Staats scored his second touchdown to make it 20-7 late in the opening period.

“When it goes over his head, he’s kind of free game,” said Nodaway Valley coach Steve Shantz, explaining his objection to the roughing penalty. “We ran into him as he got off the punt, so they called a personal foul. Then I went off, and I usually don’t do that, and I got the unsportsmanlike. We felt like that could have been another good shot for us to get some momentum.”

Aerial attack

Mount Ayr’s passing attack had much more precision in the second half, with Taylor lofting a perfect pass to Martin on the run along the left sideline to engage the running clock at 42-7 less than four minutes into the second half.

“In the first half the ball just fluttered coming out of there,” Showalter said. “We didn’t know if something was wrong with the grip, or what. But on that TD play, we had run two slants and they took a timeout to take the slant away. We called a V, which is a slant and cut back to the outside. He (Martin) broke it off and turned it upfield, because of the way the defender was playing him. He and Jacob were on the same page there. They read it the same way.”

That ended the scoring until Nodaway Valley put together its 76-yard drive at the end of the game. The drive included a 33-yard pass play from Lamb to Zach Eblen.

Until that drive, Nodaway Valley had managed only 83 total yards. The Raider defensive line, featuring 6-4 Jed McCreary, 6-2 Jake Ricker and powerful 6-foot Joe Ricker, batted down several of Lamb’s passes. Rhett Murphy caught one of them and scored on the return, but an inadvertent whistle called that play back when one of the officials thought the ball hit the ground.

“Lamb throws a nice ball, but it’s at a little bit of a sidearm, he kind of slings it out there,” Showalter said. “So, we talked about that with our defensive linemen. We’ve probably knocked down more passes this year than we ever have. We have some tall guys up front. To me that’s a devastating play for an offense, because you don’t even get a chance to make a play on the ball.”

It was the 52nd meeting of the two programs, with Mount Ayr breaking the tie to go in front 25-24-3.

Trophy game

The 2014 game was also the Battle for the Rock III, with the teams playing for a trophy designed by Freedom Rock artist Bubba Sorensen of Greenfield. The trophy honors longtime coaches Bob Daut (Nodaway Valley) and Dave Still (Mount Ayr) and also commemorates the history and tradition of the rivalry. The Raiders have won all three trophy games to date. Nodaway Valley’s last win in the series was in 2010.

Joe Ricker, part of the group that proudly held the trophy aloft in front of the Raider fans after the game, said it provides a little extra incentive.

“It definitely means something to us,” Ricker said. “The past years, with Dave Still and Bob Daut, both of them were great coaches. They led a lot of successful teams. Playing in memory of them, it’s always going to be a game where people play hard.”

The win sets up a big homecoming game this week as the Raiders host another district unbeaten, Bedford.

“We’re playing our oldest rival for homecoming, and they’ve made a huge turnaround from last year,” Showalter said. “They have already rushed for 1,400 yards this year, so that tells you they are doing a great job up front. We’re looking forward to the game and all of the special events of homecoming and our Hall of Fame week.”

NV attrition

Nodaway Valley, down to 15 available players by the end of the game, tries to regroup in a district matchup with winless Clarinda Academy.

Receiver J.D. Lyman left the game with an apparent concussion in the first half for the Wolverines, and lineman Tanner Armstrong left the game late with an undetermined ailment.

The Wolverines were already down to 17 players at the start of the game, as receiver Jacob Baudler and tight end Nathan Andrews were withheld in their recoveries from concussions. By the end of the game, Shantz and his staff had a total of four reserves to call on.

“It’s tough,” Shantz said. “They (Mount Ayr) are huge, and in some cases we were just overmatched. We wore down a little bit.”

“We knew we could wear them down if we were patient,” Showalter said. “We were very physical tonight. But I’ll tell you what, they have some good players and they play hard. There just aren’t very many of them!”

Shantz said Armstrong was OK later Friday night and should be available this week against Clarinda Academy. While Lyman, jolted in a collision with Joe Ricker on a pass play, may be out a week or two, Shantz is hopeful tight end Nathan Andrews and receiver Jacob Baudler will be cleared to play Friday.

“That would help us, because right now we’re a little limited in our formations because we just don’t have enough receivers available,” Shantz said. “We have three games coming up that we feel good about competing in.”

Mount Ayr 42, Nodaway Valley 14

Points by quarter

MA 20 15 7 0 — 42

NV 7 0 0 7 — 14

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

MA — Grant Staats 10 run (Nick Wurster kick), 8:49

NV — Brennen Weiland 1 run (Zach Eblen kick), 5:10

MA — Kyle Dolecheck 4 run (Wurster kick), 2:31

MA — Staats 2 run (pass failed), :26

Second Quarter

MA — Dolecheck 82 run (Wurster kick), 8:23

MA — Jacob Taylor 1 run (Rhett Murphy pass from Taylor), 6:30

Third Quarter

MA — Lincoln Martin 30 pass from Taylor (Wurster kick), 6:54

Fourth Quarter

NV — Jackson Lamb 2 run (Eblen kick), :10

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TEAM STATISTICS

MA NV

First downs 18 9

Rushes-yards 46-228 36-113

Passing yards 120 46

Total yards 348 159

Punts-avg. 1-52.0 7-31.4

Return yards 97 73

Fumbles-lost 4-3 3-1

Penalties-yards 6-40 6-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — MA: Kyle Dolecheck 13-155, Caleb Schnoor 4-22, Grant Staats 6-19, Cal Daughton 3-16, Logan Stark 4-14, Ben Saville 1-13, Jacob Taylor 2-9, Riley Weehler 1-8. NV: Josh Allsup 8-54, Joe Herr 10-33, Brennen Weiland 14-27, Jackson Lamb 1-2, Zach Eblen 1-(-3).

PASSING — MA: Taylor 7-13-1 for 120 yards, Levi Jarred 0-1-0. NV: Lamb 5-14-1 for 54 yards.

RECEIVING — MA: Lincoln Martin 5-96, Rhett Murphy 1-13, Connor Giles 1-11. NV: Zach Eblen 3-36, Jared Corder 1-10, JD Lyman 1-8.

PUNTS-AVG. — MA: Levi Jarred 1-52.0. NV: Jackson Lamb 7-32.0.

TACKLE LEADERS (solo-assists) — MA: Caleb Schnoor 2-5, Joe Ricker 3-4, Riley Weehler 5-1, Nick Wurster 3-3, Jed McCreary 2-4, Rhett Murphy 2-1, Zach Murphy 0-3. NV: Ryan Jensen 7-2, Josh Allsup 6-2, Sam Marnin 4-3, Joe Herr 2-3, Jackson Lamb 1-4, Tanner Armstrong 2-3, JD Lyman 4-0, Wes Davis 1-2, Zach Eblen 3-0, Brennen Weiland 2-1.

INTERCEPTIONS — MA: Kyle Dolecheck 1. NV: Jackson Lamb 1.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES — MA: Riley Weehler 1, Trevor Gooding 1. NV: Josh Allsup 1, Colton Garside 1, Sam Marnin 1.

TACKLES FOR LOSS (YARDS) — MA: Weehler 3, Joe Ricker 2, Wurster 1, Murphy 1. NV: Jensen 2, Allsup 1.