A heavy downpour of rain seemed to benefit Greene County in Carroll on Friday night vs. the Carroll High Tigers, but when the rain stopped at halftime, so did the 7-0 Greene County lead. The result was a dominant second half leading to a 28-13 Carroll victory in Class 3A District 2 football, and the end to the 2015 season for Greene County. The Tigers (6-3, 5-1) host Glenwood in the opening round of the playoffs on Wednesday night.

As it turned out, even an upset win by the Rams would not have been enough to propel the team into the playoffs for a seventh straight season. Coach Dean Lansman’s team finished with a 4-5 overall record and they were 2-4 in the district.

An early six-yard touchdown run in the rain by senior quarterback Daric Whipple and extra point by junior Nick Schroeder gave the Rams a 7-0 lead with 7:51 to play in the opening quarter. That lead stood up until early in the third when Carroll senior running back Matt Pauk and a big offensive line started to have its way with the smaller and shorthanded Ram defense. Only 64 of Carroll’s 422 yards of offense were in the first half. Pauk had TD runs of 64 and six yards, and finished with 260 rushing yards on 30 carries. Junior quarterback Kolby Molinsky threw a pair of TD passes in the last 2:19 of the game to put it away for the Tigers.

Whipple and senior Tyler Beger hooked up for a late scoring pass through the air with just 19.5 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

The game was the final one for the Rams in football for Beger, Whipple, Reid Lamoureux, Anthony Cunningham, Johnny Varricchio, Max Neese, Keyden Pollock, Ben Lint, Branden Miller, Matthew Gordon, Joe Thede, and Mitchell Gorsuch. Standout two-way lineman Noah Juergensen did not play in the game vs. Carroll after being diagnosed with mono.