River Ridge blanks host Bangor 27-0
By A.J. Gates
Behind a 21-point third-quarter scoring surge, and a stout defensive performance, coach Wade Winkers and his River Ridge Timberwolves knocked off the top seed in their division 7 playoff football bracket last Friday night.
As the No. 5 seed in their WIAA division 7 playoff bracket, the Timberwolves (9-2) defeated host Bangor (8-3) 27-0 in a level-two playoff thriller that saw the two teams deadlocked in a first-half scoreless tie.
With their win over the Cardinals, coach Winkers and his Timberwolves advance to level-three of the WIAA playoffs, something that has only happened three other times in program history, the last coming in 2019.
River Ridge’s opponent this Friday night will be none other than conference rival and No. 3 seed Potosi/Cassville (11-0) who defeated No. 2 seed Cochrane-Fountain City last Friday night, 55-0.
Perhaps the most impressive part of last Friday night’s shutout victory over the host Cardinals was the play of the River Ridge defense.
The Cardinals, who came into their level-two playoff contest averaging 33.3 points per game, were held to a mere 100 yards of total offense last Friday night. All of Bangor’s yards came on 42 rushing attempts, for an average of just 2.4 yards per attempt. They attempted just four passes, none of which were completed.
The Cardinals started out last Friday night’s game with their most productive offensive possession, going 67 yards in 17 plays and chewing up more than 11 minutes off the first-quarter clock.
An incomplete pass on fourth-and-eight ended the drive at the River Ridge 34-yard line.
“We talked all week about how methodical they will be with their style of offense,” said coach Winkers of Bangor. “It’s going to be like a fight in a phone booth.”
“The guys eventually figured it out and we cleaned up a couple of things as far as alignments. They had 67 yards on their first drive and 33 yards the rest of the night,” Winkers added.
“Once we got our bearings, we understood what we had to do. Defensively, there were a lot of guys that played well. I don’t think anybody really stood out or anything, a lot of guys just played team football with a lot of gang tackling,” he explained.
Leading the River Ridge defense with 10 tackles was senior Elliott Thornton, followed by Brandon Davis, Blake Reynolds, Tony Hernandez and Peyton Aulwes with eight tackles each.
While the River Ridge defense was doing their thing, the Timberwolves offense made the most of their opportunities in the second half, after having just two offensive possessions in the entire first half.
The Timberwolves needed just two plays on their first possession of the third quarter, as Ty Adrian busted loose for a 46-yard touchdown 53 seconds into the third quarter. Owen Wagner’s extra-point kick gave River Ridge a 7-0 lead with 11:07 showing on the clock.
After forcing Bangor into a punt, the Timberwolves wasted little time scoring again, this time getting a 36-yard TD run from Andrew Nies, followed by another extra-point kick by Wagner.
River Ridge’s third touchdown of the third quarter was actually set up by their defense, when Nies returned the ball to the three-yard line following a strip sack. Brandon Davis later scored on a one-yard quarterback keeper to put his team up 21-0 with 2:02 to play in the third quarter.
“We made use of our possessions in the third quarter, and we were a little more efficient in the second half,” said coach Winkers.
“It wasn’t anything we talked about. There were a couple of things we had to adjust because they were lining up differently on us up front. We just had to get some audibles corrected and just block better,” he added.
River Ridge added their fourth consecutive touchdown of the second half when Brock Bunge reached the end zone from one-yard out early in the fourth quarter on a drive that began late in the third.
Following a first half that lasted just 34 minutes in real time and saw River Ridge with possession of the ball just twice, the Timberwolves stayed the course and dominated in the second half, particularly in the third quarter.
“There was no panic at halftime from our guys,” explained coach Winkers. “They were very confident in getting stops and just executing what we know we can execute and we’ll start popping some runs, which we did.”
“I was very worried at first. I’m one that usually takes the ball to start the game if we win the coin toss. This was one of those games where we wanted to win the coin toss because I didn’t want them to have the ball first, for that reason,” he added. “They won the coin toss, took the ball and I didn’t know if we were even going to touch the ball in the first quarter.”
Finishing with 271 yards of total offense, the Timberwolves gained 237 yards on 32 rushing attempts. They were led by Nies, who concluded the contest with 91 yards on 11 carries, followed by Davis with 65 yards on nine attempts and Adrian with 59 yards on three carries.
Through the air, Davis completed 4-of-6 passing attempts for 34 yards, which included a 17-yard play to Reese Drew, a nine-yard toss to Carter Copsey, a five-yard pass to Drake Barrineau and a three-yard pass to Adrian.
The Timberwolves now face a familiar opponent in Potosi/Cassville this Friday night for the right to play next week in a division 7 state semifinal contest.
The two teams met in the fourth week of the regular season, where the Chieftains held a 7-6 lead going into the fourth quarter and escaped Patch Grove with a 20-18 victory.
This will be the fourth time in the past six seasons that the two programs have met in the playoffs, with Potosi/Cassville winning in 2021 and 2023, and River Ridge coming out on top in 2019.
“It’s going to be a Six Rivers physical football game, and we know each other very well,” said coach Winkers. “There’s probably not going to be very many things that are unscouted.”
“It’s just going to be who can block better, who can tackle better and who hangs onto the football. It’s just going to be that simple,” he added.
“We just have to maintain drives and try to win the field position game. “I think we’ve both gotten better since our first meeting, and we’re two pretty darn good football teams,” Winkers concluded.