SIBLEY, Iowa -Sibley-Ocheyedan is two-thirds of the way through running the gauntlet that is the top tier of Class 1A-District 2.
After rolling through nondistrict play, the Generals took their first loss of the season on Sept. 11 in a 17-13 nailbiter against West Lyon. Friday, they ran into a powerful Western Christian squad and suffered a 52-14 setback. Things won’t get any easier next week when they travel to Hinton.
“That’s just one of those things in our schedule where we know we have to go against West Lyon, Western Christian and Hinton right in a row; it happened to us last year, too,” said S-O head coach Kyle Ewinger. “But, I’m very confident in our guys and I think we can bounce back and give Hinton a good game. They’ve been working their tails off and I know we’re going to see more of that team that we saw the first couple weeks of the season.”
The Wolfpack used a balanced offensive attack that put up 472 net yards and a stifling defense. Though they allowed Sibley-Ocheyedan 296 yards of its own, they also sacked quarterback Garrett Sayler six times, hurried him even more and finished the game with a pair of takeaways.
The game started out uneventful, but things got interesting in a hurry.
The first three possessions of the game went three-and-out, but Western Christian finally broke that trend on its second chance with the ball. Ben Granstra capped off a 59-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to put the Wolfpack on top 7-0. It took less than a minute to add to the lead after a Generals’ 3-and-out. Tyson Kooima hit Taylor Miedema on a 54-yard touchdown pass with 4:09 in the first.
“We know that Miedema is a game-changer,” Ewinger said. “When he scored and we were down 14-0, the guys kinda came off the field like, ‘What just happened?”
On their fourth possession of the game, the Generals used a little razzle dazzle to ignite the offense. After a 25-yard connection from Garrett Sayler to Trent Kruger gave them a first down for the first time in the game, a trick play gave them another huge chunk of yardage.
Sayler pitched the ball right to bruising running back Hunter DeJong. He pulled up and heaved a pass deep down the right sideline in the direction of Colvin Jenness. He hauled it in and was driven out of bounds at the 3. DeJong pounded it in two plays later to cut the deficit to 14-7 at the end of one.
“When we scored, that got a little bit of life back into us,” Ewinger said. “But then we went down and fumbled in their territory and they just took over from there.”
Despite Sibley-Ocheyedan twice venturing into Wolfpack territory, the second quarter belonged to Western Christian.
Cruise DeGroot forced a Generals’ fumble early and teammate Drake Granstra was able to fall on it. A 27-yard pass to Joey Horstman on the first play set up an 8-yard Ben Granstra TD run. A 59-yard punt return by Miedema went for six and put Western up 28-7 with 6:57 in the first half.
A promising drive to the Wolfpack 14-yard line ended in disappointment for S-O after the return. On fourth down, Justin Grevengoed picked off a pass and returned it 48 yards to the Generals’ 42. This time the visitors couldn’t take advantage. Carson Marco intercepted it right back on the first play of the ensuing drive.
Western scored once more late in the half when Ben Granstra broke a 45-yard touchdown dash. That put the Generals in a 35-7 hole at the break.
The Wolfpack threatened early, but the S-O defense held and forced a turnover on downs inside its own 10. The big play of the quarter came on a 3rd-and-9 play with the Generals on their own 25. Sayler dropped back and fired a picture perfect pass deep down the seam to DeJong. He rumbled the final 40 yards to pay dirt. Ruben Ramirez added the point-after to set the score at 35-14 with 3:02 in the third.
“Our offense is developed for that type of play; quick strikes,” Ewinger said. “We have a lot of good skill position players. Now we just have to get that consistency and do that on a regular basis like we did the first two weeks of the season.”
Brayden Bruxvoort forced a fumble on the ensuing Wolfpack drive, but two Western sacks quickly put the ball back in its hands.
The Wolfpack put the game away just three plays into its first series of the fourth quarter. A 30-yard pass to Horstman got them deep into S-O territory. Kooima ran in an 8-yard touchdown to make it a 42-14 game. Wolfpack senior Riley Van’t Hul drilled a 27-yard field goal with 7:00 to play before James Warntjes brought the game to its final on a 34-yard touchdown run.
Sayler completed 11-of-28 passes for 169 yards, a touchdown and an interception while also running for a team-high 63 yards on 15 carries. DeJong added 28 yards and a score on the ground while hauling in five passes for 87 yards and a touchdown. Jenness caught four passes for 83 yards.
Ben Granstra rushed for 152 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries for Western. Drake Granstra and Warntjes both ran for 52. Kooima completed 9-of-18 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown. Miedema caught three passes for 71 yards, Horstman grabbed three for 67 and Dustin Marra had two for 30.
The Generals (2-2 overall, 0-2 district) travel to Hinton Friday. The Blackhawks improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the district Friday with a 42-7 victory over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn.
“Hinton is going to do a lot of the same things we saw this week,” Ewinger said. “We’ve said that we think they’re the favorites to win the districts, so we have to go in there and show them that we’re ready to challenge the top teams.”
WC 14 21 0 17 - 52
S-O 7 0 7 0 - 14
