April 18, 2024

Charger rushing attack too much for NV/O-M

NV/O-M senior receiver Blake Lund (23) is met by ACGC seniors Brock Littler (15) and Ben Marsh (2) during Friday, Sept. 23's Class 1A, District 7 football game in Guthrie Center. (Kevin Fister)

GUTHRIE CENTER — Despite several bright spots that show they are growing their product on the field each week, Nodaway Valley/O-M suffered a 51-0 loss at Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center (ACGC) Friday, Sept. 23.

The loss drops the Wolverines to 0-5 on the season and 0-2 in Class 1A, District 7 play.

“I liked how our guys fought and they played hard all game,” Wolverine head coach Seth Comly said. “We fought and battled for the most part, but we didn’t adjust as well as we needed to. We’re a lot younger than they are across the board too.”

Charger senior quarterback Brock Littler scored the game’s first two touchdowns, on runs of 33 and 49 yards, then he completed his only pass of the game to sophomore running back Jathan South for a 34-yard touchdown with 11:53 left in the first half, giving ACGC a 22-0 lead.

Sophomore Ben Franzeen scored from one yard out with 8:58 remaining in the half and a safety with time expiring in the second quarter gave the hosts a 30-0 halftime lead.

Littler added second-half touchdown runs of 35 and 3 yards, and freshman Joe Crawford added another, in the fourth quarter.

NV/O-M had 101 yards of total offense. Senior quarterback Boston DeVault was 10-of-23. Eli Harris had one carry for six yards as the only rusher with positive yardage in the game.

Littler led ACGC with 13 keeps for 200 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 15.4 yards per carry.

DeVault had one interception on defense. The Wolverines lost one fumble in the game.

“They do the same thing over and over,” Comly said of the Chargers. “The hardest part is to train your guys to not be lackadaisical or fall asleep. They caught us on a pass one time sleeping. That was because we weren’t focused with our eyes, and it happens, but the hardest part is making the guys aware of how methodical [their offense is].”

That being said, Comly was very pleased with how a couple of his players performed up front on both sides of the ball.

“Ashton Honnold and Trenton Warner played amazing. Trent’s first start as a freshman was last year against ACGC. He and Ashton both had a heck of a game,” Comly said. “Those two up front, they were the biggest reason our defense had success. I think they held their own pretty well.”

Nodaway Valley/O-M now prepares for a home game Friday, Sept. 30 against Van Meter (4-1, 2-0 in Class 1A, District 7).