It was a Senior Night to remember for the Greene County Rams as Coach Caden Duncan’s team beat Des Moines Christian 14-13 in a down-to-the-wire thriller to end the high school football regular season. Fans at Linduska Field in Jefferson got their money’s worth in this Class 2A District 8 football game. Both teams are 4-4 overall and the Rams are 3-2 in the district while the Lions fell to 2-3. The win by the Rams means Greene County finishes in third place in the district while the Lions are fourth. The difference being the Rams open the playoffs on Oct. 25 at the home field of another district’s second place team while DMC will play at another district’s first place team. Pairings are scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. today. All Ram playoff games will be broadcast on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.
DMC had a 49 yard pass play to the Rams’ three yard line with 17 second left in the game. A field goal would win it for the visiting team, but with no timeouts left they chose to throw a swing pass in bounds and the Rams made the tackle in bounds. The Lions tried to get the field goal team on the field and set before time ran out, but zeros were on the clock and the celebration began for the home team and its fans.
DMC out gained Greene County 398-222, but the Rams took the ball away four times and did not turn it over at all. Sophomore Trevon Keely intercepted two passes and senior Camden Strennen picked off one. Sophomore Zach Stalder had a fumble recovery just before halftime. Nicholas Stream had 118 rushing yards on 32 carries and his two first half touchdown runs of five and three yards were his seventh and eighth on the ground this season. Senior Crew Conner was 7-11-0 throwing and Keely had three catches for 32 yards. The Lions ran for 216 yards on 32 attempts and were led by Jace Fadden with 13 carries for 125 yards. Jett Each went 13-27-3 passing for 182 yards. He entered the game with just five interceptions thrown in the first seven games of the season.
DMC had six possessions in Ram territory in the second half alone and scored just three points after halftime. The Rams had very little offense after halftime, but the defense turned the Lions away repeatedly.
Coach Duncan told Raccoon Valley Radio listeners to the postgame show he thought this may have been the biggest regular season victory in his six seasons leading the Greene County program.