Panthers rally late to hand Timberwolves tough 34-30 loss
By A.J. Gates
A 34-30 loss to host Iowa-Grant last Friday night puts coach Wade Winkers and his River Ridge football team in an unenviable position.
Dropping to 2-3 in the Six Rivers conference and 3-4 overall, the Timberwolves must now run the table in the final two weeks of the regular season if they are to assure themselves a playoff bid in the WIAA postseason tournament.
The Timberwolves ran up against the daunting passing attack of the Iowa-Grant Panthers last Friday night, giving up 306 yards and three touchdowns on 35 passing attempts.
The Iowa-Grant duo of quarterback Brock Hinderman and receiver Sam Lundell hooked up for 10 completions for 137 yards, that included touchdowns of 17, 15 and 45 yards.
The Timberwolves held a two-point lead three different times throughout the contest, but just couldn’t keep the Panthers at bay long enough to add to their advantage.
Holding a 16-14 lead midway through the second quarter on an 84-yard kick return by Preston Gage, and a 13-yard TD run by quarterback Brandon Davis, the Timberwolves gave up a 30-yard interception return to the house with one minute to play before the half.
At the intermission, Iowa-Grant held a slim lead of 20-16 over their visitors, until Davis found the end zone from three yards out with 5:14 to play in the third quarter.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to answer on a three-yard TD run by Hinderman, putting Iowa-Grant back up, 26-22 going into the fourth.
Needing a momentum boost, the Timberwolves got exactly that on a three-yard touchdown run from fullback Braden Skaife, giving River Ridge a 28-26 advantage with 8:19 to play.
As they had done throughout the entire contest, Iowa-Grant answered with a big pass play from Hinderman to Lundell, when the two connected on a 45-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion run gave the Panthers a 34-28 lead with just 1:03 to play.
The Panthers wound up getting the ball back in the closing seconds and took a sack late in the contest to make it a 34-30 final.
The Timberwolves concluded the contest with 263 yards of total offense, gaining 218 on the ground and 45 through the air.
Brandon Davis led River Ridge with 160 yards rushing and touchdown runs of 13 and 3 yards on 16 attempts. He also completed 7-of-17 passing attempts for 45 yards and was picked off twice.
His top receiver was senior Reese Drew, who had five receptions for 37 yards, while Cael Koenig and Brock Bunge each had one reception.
Junior fullback Braden Skaife rushed for 53 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, while Drew had 12 yards on three rushing attempts.
Iowa-Grant did most of their damage through the air, where they finished with 306 yards and three touchdowns on 22-of-35 passing attempts.
Leading the River Ridge defense with 12 tackles was junior Noah Copsey, followed by Davis with six to go along with one interception and one sack. Koenig also had six tackles on the night to go along with three sacks.
“We really struggled to slow down their pass game, as well as tackle in space,” said coach Winkers. “We also couldn’t get to the quarterback quick enough to throw off their timing. We tried a few different things, but never found a perfect answer.”
“Congrats to Iowa-Grant on a great performance, but we are definitely disappointed in ours,” Winkers added. “I know we are better than our performance, but that is the performance we gave as a team on Friday and we have to take the result.”
Coach Winkers’ squad will host Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca (3-2, 5-2) this Friday night, then will close out the regular season at Pecatonica/Argyle (1-4, 1-6) next Friday evening.
“Now our backs are against the wall with a really good team coming to our place for Senior Night,” Winkers said of this week’s game. “The pain of Friday’s loss will hopefully put us in the right mindset for it.”
