The non-district portion of the high school football season for the Greene County Rams is over and Coach Mitch Moore’s team is 4-0 after a 46-7 road victory at Class 3A Gilbert on Friday night. The contest was heard on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com. Greene County put up 494 yards of offense, showing great balance between the run and the pass, and limited the Tigers to just 162 yards and one touchdown. The Rams broke into multiple top 10 rankings in 2A last week, and the impressive showing will no doubt keep them high on the minds of pollsters.
The Rams ran the ball 35 times for 252 yards and went 21-38-1 through the air for 242 yards. Junior Colby Kafer had a season high 23 carries for 142 rushing yards, and senior Clint Dennhardt had 124 on just seven attempts. Junior quarterback Brent Riley had all the passing yards, which included three scoring aerials. Dennhardt had touchdowns on the ground and pass receiving, with Kafer running for a pair of scores. Junior Carter Morton caught a pair of TD passes and 140 receiving yards, and junior Tyler Teeples fell on the ball in the end zone following a Gilbert muffed punt to account for the final Greene County touchdown.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Rams scored twice in the opening moments of quarter number two. Riley found Dennhardt for a three yard TD on fourth and goal from the three. That followed a botched fake punt attempt by the Tigers that resulted in junior Cole Betts picking up a fumble and rumbling 55 yards to the Gilbert five yard line. Morton recovered a Tigers’ fumble on the ensuing kickoff, then caught the first of his two touchdown receptions, this one from 21 yards out, and Greene County was up 13-0 with 11:45 to play in the half. Dennhardt broke an 80 yard TD run midway through the period, and the Rams led 19-0 at halftime.
The lead grew to 26-0 with 4:30 to go in the third on a Kafer run of six yards. Gilbert followed with its only scoring drive of the night. The big play was a screen pass that went for 50 yards, and the touchdown play was a 15 yard pass from Matt Barragy to Landon Howard.
Twenty more points in the fourth quarter provided the final margin. Morton caught a pass from Riley for 33 yards for the first TD of the stanza just 57 seconds into it. Kafer ran 30 yards for a score midway through the period. The Teeples recovery in the end zone came with 1:39 to play.
The District 9 opener vs. Shenandoah is Sept. 21 at Linduska Field in Jefferson. It will be just the second home game for the Rams and the contest can be heard on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com. Game time is 7 p.m. the rest of the season with coverage beginning at 6 p.m.