Woes on offense prove costly for defense

Russellville falls to Sherwood

CREIGHTON — Late game offensive struggles put the Russellville Indians’ defense in repeated tough positions.

The Sherwood Marksmen scored once in the second quarter, once in the third quarter and twice in the fourth, with only one scoring drive beginning in their own territory, to build a 28-7 win Friday night against the Indians.

“Hats off to them (Sherwood). I thought they had a good defensive gameplan and did some good things,” Russellville coach Tim Rulo said. “… Overall, the guys did a good job, we as a coaching staff need to coach up our guys better and I need to coach up our guys better on how to adjust.”

After the Indians jumped ahead in the first quarter, the Marksmen used a short field to take the lead in the second.

Sherwood’s final drive in the first quarter used 12 plays to go 58 yards, but the Indians got a fourth-and-1 stop at their own 11 to turn the ball over on downs.

The Marksmen’s defense then pushed the Indians backward on two of three plays to force a punt from the Russellville 9. The punt was downed at the Indians’ 38, setting up the first Sherwood drive that started in Russellville territory.

Sherwood needed only one play for sophomore quarterback Brady Mullen to connect with sophomore running back Lane Doll on a short completion, which Doll turned into a 38-yard touchdown with a strong run after the catch.

After the 2-point conversion, neither team scored in the remaining 6:19 of the first half.

“We tried to talk some things through with the guys at halftime,” Rulo said. “We tried some things, took some risks, we just got a bit tuckered out in the end.

… Overall, I thought the boys played hard, it’s just another one of those learning moments.”

Sherwood was stopped on two more drives starting in its own territory before breaking through on a sustained attempt.

With 7:06 left in the third quarter, the Marksmen started a drive on their own 32.

Six runs for 22 yards and four passes for 71 yards later, Mullen connected with sophomore receiver Mason Leskoff for a 16-yard score.

The Marksmen were able to continue moving the sticks even though they had three penalties on the drive. After a holding and an illegal man down field pushed Sherwood into a second-and-23, Mullen found Doll for a 19-yard catch before Garhett Cardwell carried the ball 5 yards for a first down.

The final Marksmen penalty of the drive took a Cardwell rushing touchdown off the board, but Mullen found Leskoff for a 16-yard score on the next play to go up 14-7 with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.

Down a score in the fourth quarter, the first of Russellville’s risky decisions gave the Marksmen another short field.

Josiah Herman carried the ball twice to give the Indians a third-and-5 from their own 29, then an incomplete pass left them with a fourth down deep in their own territory.

Doll forced his way into the backfield and caused an incomplete pass to turn the ball over on downs.

Starting at the Indians’ 29, the Marksmen took a shot.

Mullen looked to junior receiver Conner Morris deep down the left seam and nearly had another one-play touchdown, but Morris was stopped at the 1.

Two plays later, Cardwell carried it in from a yard out and Mullen passed to Cardwell for the 2-point conversion to put the Marksmen up 22-7 with 9:55 left.

Russellville got two first downs on the ensuing drive, but a fumbled snap and a recovery from Trent Rinker for Sherwood, gave the Marksmen another short field.

This time, starting at the Indians’ 39, the Marksmen gave the ball to Doll for six consecutive runs, with two going for 26 and 24 yards. Doll finished the drive with a 1-yard carry to create the Marksmen’s final advantage of 28-7 with 3:19 left.

The Marksmen had been more successful through the air than on the ground in their first seven games, with 742 of the team’s 1,345 total yards before Friday coming on passes.

On Friday, Sherwood still had success in the passing game, with Mullen completing 8-of-14 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns with Doll as the main pass catcher with five catches for 114 yards, but Cardwell and Doll had success on the ground as well.

Cardwell carried the ball 21 times for 144 yards, while Doll had 12 totes for 72.

Sherwood had 216 yards on the ground Friday after totaling 603 through its first seven games.

“I thought our defense played hard,” Rulo said. “… I’ve always been told by my coaches long ago, football is an easy game. It’s just tackling, it’s just blocking, it’s just taking care of the football, not letting people get outside of you, but that’s really hard to do in real time sometimes.”

Herman led the Indians with 17 carries for 59 yards, while Alex Oligschlaeger carried the ball five times for 41 yards, including a 39-yard run in the first quarter for the Indians’ lone score.

Oligschlaeger also had two of team’s three catches for 21 yards.

Quarterback Jesse Daniel completed 3 of 8 passes for Russellville for 25 yards with an interception.

Russellville (2-5) will look to bounce back and finish its season strong Friday when it hits the road to face Class 1 District 5 opponent Slater (0-7).

“This wasn’t the last game of the season,” Rulo said. “Now we need to improve. We have more games left on our schedule and now we need to go take care of business.”

Sherwood (1-7) will hope to move up in the Class 1 District 4 standings when it ends the season against district opponent Midway (3-5), which currently sits less than a half-point ahead of the Marksmen in the standings.