Late touchdown, interception seal Panther victory

Friday night’s non-district matchup here between Creston/O-M and Greene County had the feel of a late-season district game with playoff implications.

Which is just the type of atmosphere head coach Brian Morrison wanted for his Panthers, who scored a late go-ahead touchdown and then held on for a 36-32 victory over Greene County.

Two physical teams locked horns, with Creston/O-M emerging as the victor when Kolby Tomas picked off a Daric Whipple pass that deflected high into the air with :00.9 remaining in the game.

“We schedule good teams for a reason,” Morrison said. “We knew they were going to be good. They had a younger group of kids last year and they were a good football team. They are a playoff football team. In our first four games, we saw four playoff teams. That’s what you want to see in the non-district and with Winterset last week.”

Tomas’ game-preserving interception came after junior Chase Shiltz scored his fifth rushing touchdown of the game with 1:48 remaining to push the Panthers in front 36-32.

Late drive

Creston/O-M started its game-winning drive from its own 28-yard line with 6:06 remaining after Whipple connected with Nick Schroeder for a 5-yard touchdown and then ran for the 2-point conversion to put the Rams up 32-29.

The Panthers got a critical third-down conversion when Evan Jacobson ran a slant route on third-and-8 and dove forward for the first down after hauling in the pass from Moritz Johannknecht.

The 12-yard pickup on third down kept the Panther drive going early.

“That was a huge play,” Creston/O-M offensive coordinator and co-coach Ryan McKim said. “That’s the ballgame if we don’t convert there. We have to do a lot better on offense executing, but that was a critical throw and catch.”

Johannknecht then hit tight end Colton Bolinger for another first down to the Greene County 49-yard line. Shiltz ran up the middle but fumbled the ball, but the Panthers recovered.

Facing third-and-3 from the Greene County 42, Shiltz ran up the middle for 4 yards to keep the drive going.

Just three plays later, Creston/O-M faced a fourth-and-4 from the Ram 27-yard line, however. Shiltz ran up the middle again, picking up 4 yards and a Panther first down.

After a 4-yard completion to Jackson Mikkelsen, Tomas took a pitch to the left side and cut back to the middle of the field, breaking out of a tackle and starting upfield. In doing so, the ball was stripped loose and squirted toward the end zone.

After several Greene County players had an opportunity to scoop up the ball, Gavin Woods ended up with the ball near the Greene County sideline and was knocked out of bounds at the 1-yard line.

Shiltz punched the ball into the end zone on the next play for the go-ahead score, with Evan Jacobson kicking the PAT for a 36-32 lead.

Shiltz finished with 34 carries for 205 yards and five touchdowns in the victory.

“People don’t realize every football season you go through adversity,” Morrison said. “We’ve had our fair share in the first four weeks. Our kids just believe in each other and they get put in situations and they’re doing a good job with that.”

“We have kids who have been in the spotlight and have been in there when the bullets are flying,” McKim said. “We weren’t worried, but again, you have to have success in those situations in order to have confidence the next time, so it’s good that’s how it happened.”

Defensive stand

But with Greene County’s big-play potential, 1:48 provided the Rams with plenty of time to drive down the field for the potential game-winning score.

The Rams had already scored touchdowns from 72, 45 and 71 yards out in the game.

In fact, only one of Greene County’s four touchdown drives were sustained drives. Three of the four touchdown drives were two plays or shorter.

Greene County put together a 13-play drive in the first half that resulted in a 21-yard field goal by Schroeder, and a 10-play drive that ended in Schroeder’s second touchdown catch to put the Rams up 32-29.

“They have big-play potential,” Morrison said. “They have some good receivers, some good skill kids. They’re a good football team. Their big plays they got in big chunks. That’s frustrating, as a coach.”

Creston/O-M knew it had to avoid giving up the big play on Greene County’s final possession.

But the second play of the drive went as a 28-yard completion from Whipple to Tyler Beger.

After a pair of incompletions, Whipple scrambled for 8 yards on third-and-10, down to the Panther 40-yard line.

Whipple then picked up 10 yards on fourth-and-2 with :38.6 remaining to extend the drive and keep the Rams’ hopes alive.

Whipple, who has drawn Division I interest, finished the game 11-of-25 passing for 218 yards and two touchdowns, while running 21 times for 199 yards and two more touchdowns.

But he was flagged on first-and-10 for an illegal pass, after crossing the line of scrimmage. That set up a second-and-15 from the Panther 35.

An 8-yard completion set up third-and-5 from the Creston/O-M 27-yard line with :08.4 left in the game.

That’s when Whipple’s pass was deflected high into the air and dropped right into Tomas’ hands, who slid to the ground with just :00.9 left on the clock, sending the Panther crowd and sideline into an uproar.

“Our kids played hard, they fought hard the entire game for four quarters,” Morrison said. “Super proud of that. It’s a good football team and to finish that way and get a win, I’m proud of that.”

Line play

In addition to Shiltz’s 205 rushing yards and five touchdowns, he also had three takeaways on defense, intercepting two Whipple passes and recovering a fumble. Seth Maitlen and Cameron Leith each finished with two solo tackles and nine assisted tackles, with a pass defensed.

Both Morrison and McKim praised the Panther linemen for the job they did against a physical Greene County defensive front.

“There’s a reason Chase has big numbers,” Morrison said. “Chase is a really good running back, no doubt about it. But you have to have guys up front.”

“They’re really good in the front seven,” McKim said. “They’re physical. They were the best front seven we played all year last year and I would be surprised if they’re not the best one we play this year. I’m encouraged by what we are. We’ve got a lot of things to get better at, but we’re still getting there.”

Creston’s line will receive a boost this week from the returns of Cody Tanner and Kaden Wilson.

The Panthers improve to 3-1 overall with the victory, while Greene County dropped to 2-2. The Panthers resume District 8 play with a 1-0 mark at 7:30 p.m. Friday at home against Glenwood on homecoming.

In other District 8 action from Friday, Dallas Center-Grimes scored on an 81-yard punt return by Trey Washington with 2 seconds left in the game for a 28-21 victory over Harlan in a battle of rated teams. Glenwood knocked off Winterset 42-13 and ADM beat Atlantic 55-14.

Creston/O-M 36, Greene County 32

Points by quarter

Greene County  7  10  0  15  —  32

Creston/O-M  15  7  7  7  —36

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

GC — Nick Schroeder 72 pass from Daric Whipple (Schroeder kick), 8:14

C/O-M — Chase Shiltz 15 run (Evan Jacobson kick), 6:33

C/O-M _ Shiltz 1 run (Shiltz run), :09

Second Quarter

GC — Whipple 45 run (Schroeder kick), 11:48

GC — Schroeder 21 field goal, 5:41

C/O-M — Shiltz 5 run (Jacobson kick), :38

Third Quarter

C/O-M — Shiltz 33 run (Jacobson kick), 2:33

Fourth Quarter

GC — Whipple 71 run (Schroeder kick), 10:46

GC — Schroeder 5 pass from Whipple (Whipple run), 6:06

C/O-M — Shiltz 1 run (Jacobson kick), 1:48

—————

TEAM STATISTICS

GC  ...  C/O-M

First downs  17  ...  23

Rushes-yards  36-279  ...  52-253

Passing yards  218  ...  125

Total yards  497  ...  377

Punts-avg.  4-41.0  ...  5-35.8

Return yards  101  ...  211

Fumbles-lost  2-1  ...  3-0

Penalties-yards  10-60  ...  6-54

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — GC: Daric Whipple 21-199, Max Neese 12-75, Anthony Cunningham 3-5. C/O-M: Chase Shiltz 34-205, Chris Foster 1-24, Gavin Woods 1-21, Kolby Tomas 6-14, Mitchel Swank 3-0, Moritz Johannknecht 6-(-6).

PASSING — GC: Daric Whipple 11-25-3 for 218 yards. C/O-M: Moritz Johannknecht 15-25-0 for 125 yards.

RECEIVING — GC: Nick Schroeder 5-149, Max Neese 1-24, Reid Lamoureaux 2-24, Chase Stoline 1-8, Mitchell Gorsuch 1-3. C/O-M: Seth Maitlen 3-36, Chase Shiltz 2-20, Jackson Mikkelsen 2-19, Kylan Smallwood 1-17, Colton Bolinger 2-15, Evan Jacobson 2-12, Chris Foster 2-4, Kolby Tomas 1-2.

PUNTS-AVG. — C/O-M: Colton Bolinger 5-35.8.

TACKLE LEADERS (solo-assists) — C/O-M: Seth Maitlen 2-9, Cameron Leith 2-9, Chase Shiltz 2-3, Kadon Hulett 1-4, Ryan Brown 1-4, Cody Crawford 1-3, Chris Foster 2-2, Mitchel Swank 3-1, Kylan Smallwood 1-2, Kolby Tomas 2-1, Jackson Mikkelsen 2-0, Blake Sevier 0-2.

INTERCEPTIONS — C/O-M: Chase Shiltz 2, Kolby Tomas 1.

PASS BREAKUPS — C/O-M: Seth Maitlen 1, Cameron Leith 1, Cody Crawford 1.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES — C/O-M: Chase Shiltz 1.

TACKLES FOR LOSS (YARDS) — C/O-M: Cody Crawford 2-(-5), Ryan Brown 2-(-5), Trevor Downing 2-(-2), Kadon Hulett 1-(-1).