Sutton football coach Steve Ramer is not overly interested in flashy. He coaches a team that has the personality of it’s town.
The Mustangs helmets are simple: plain white with a black facemask. Simple kind of like Main Street — errr, Saunders Avenue — in this Clay County town.
The Mustangs game plan is based on power and hard work. Power and hard work reminiscent of the town he lives in that has survived the population shift in the state of Nebraska and continues to churn our 11-man football teams when some this size have had to go the 8-man route.
Last night, the third-ranked Mustangs put their blueprint on display in a 48-9 win over Shelby-Rising City as they racked up 546 yards rushing on 50 carries and 600 yards of total offense. They scored — mostly with with the help of an unbalanced line stretch play — on every possession except their first.
“I think we came out a little bit flat at the start,” Ramer said. “But, no discredit to Shelby. They are much improved over the past two years. They had a plan coming in to take the play clock all the way down.
I think we had two possession in the first half and scored twice.”
He was right on both fronts; the Huskies controlled the ball for most of the first half and the Sutton defense had a heck of a time getting them off the field. Coach Kevin Kopecky’s team has much to be proud of and he runs out eight full-time starters who will be back next year.
After a three-and-out on their first possession, the Husky defense stopped Sutton and then went to work. They used eight plays to go from their 36 to the Mustang 1 and then Tristan Sheridan wouldn’t let them in the end zone.
The fullback/linebacker stuffed three plays from the that kept SRC out of the end zone and on the turn around, Sutton needed just seven plays to go 99 yards when Sheridan went in on a trap play from the 8. Sheridan earlier had ripped off a 24 yard run and tailback Garrett Leach — the recipient of all those stretch plays — had his first one go for 35 yards on the next play.
“That’s what they were giving us tonight,” Ramer said of the play that got Leach a seam near the sideline. “Last week, we ran the middle most of the night and we before that we threw ball a little bit, too.”
We’d have to see that to believe it.
After Sheridan’s run opened the scoring, SRC had the ball for 24 of the final 25 plays of the first half, scoring with two seconds left when Drew Schultz dove in from five yards out on a pass from Jake Hoatson.
The Sutton play? Leach’s 88-yard run — we won’t tell you the play — after SRC had advanced to the Sutton 12.
In the second half the Mustang defense buckled down, allowing just a 27-yard Jaden Kuhnel field goal, with Leach scoring on runs of 33, 2 and 6 yards. He finished with 260 yards on 24 carries.
Top-ranked St. Cecilia and fifth-ranked Doniphan-Trumbull await in district play. “We have been making a few changes the last couple of weeks. We’ve got our guys set where we want them,” Ramer said. “Now we just have to get better every week. We have to build on the second half this game.”
Let’s Rewind
Class A
T-Bird defense makes them title contender | NebraskaHSFootball Report
Third-ranked Westside grinds out win over LNE | NebraskaHSFootball Report
No. 4 GISH keeps rolling, Westside next
Thursday recap: Central tops Burke to stay unbeaten
No. 6 Millard North pounds LSW, 59-17
Norfolk overcomes penalties to top Lincoln East
Class B
Top-ranked Skutt takes down unbeaten Roncalli
Elkhorn South pulls away from Norris
No. 5 York turns over Pius, moves to 4-0
Class C-1
Third quarter shift propels Scotus past Pierce
No. 10 BC/NG rolls past GICC
Class C-2
No. 6 Gibbon dominates No. 10 Bridgeport, 48-8 | NebraskaHSFootball Report
Eight-Man
Exeter-Milligan wins 29th straight, tops J-B
Parting Shot — The People’s Game
On our Facebook page on Sunday night, we’ll begin a vote for next week’s Channel Seed Game-of-the-Week. We’ll have a post for Cozad v. Gothenburg and Scottsbluff v. Grand Island Northwest. The game with the most likes will be our featured game next week. Tell your friends and be ready to share and comment on the post that you want “liked” to tell us where to go next Friday.
