Carr, Glenwood Defense Comes up Big in Tight Win over Kuemper

Nick Stavas's picture

  Glenwood’s defense stood tall once again as the Rams escaped with a 14-13 victory over Class 2A opponent Kuemper in week three of the high school football season. With this win, the Rams improved to 2-1 on the season.

  In a game that the Rams were projected to win by a decent margin, Kuemper came out fighting, and never laid down until the final whistle. Glenwood Head Coach Cory Faust was proud of the way his team grinded out a tough win.

  “I’m proud of our guys for battling through some adversity tonight,” Faust said. “There was maybe a tough call here and there, and we have a lot of guys who are injured right now, but they battled, and I’m proud of that.”

  This win did not come without its fair share of miscues and mental errors for the Rams. Glenwood turned the ball over twice and racked up 85 yards worth of penalties throughout the game, which slowed the offense down.

  “We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of unforced errors, and that’s something we obviously have to clean up, we’re just not very disciplined in some of those things,” said Faust.    

  The Rams once again leaned on a stellar defensive performance. While Kuemper’s speed option was allowing them to move the ball efficiently, Glenwood relied on a “bend don’t break mentality,” as they frequently stopped Kuemper deep inside Ram territory.

  “I’ve been really impressed with [the defense],” Faust said. “We’re running a pretty non-traditional defense this year, which puts a lot of pressure on our guys, but so far they’ve been great.”

  Trailing 3-0 at the half, the Rams only had 63 yards of offense in the first two periods. However, a 57 yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Zach Carr to sophomore wideout Ryan Blum put the Rams on top early in the third quarter. Glenwood was finally able to sustain a solid drive, leading to another Carr touchdown, this time on the ground. Glenwood held onto a 14-3 lead until Kuemper’s Cole Collison connected with Justin Schaefer on a 43-yard touchdown pass followed by a two-point conversion to bring the score back within three points late in the third quarter.

  Glenwood’s defense held tough for the remainder of the game, and the Ram running game was able to bleed the clock out to secure a victory.

  The Rams finished with 233 total yards of offense. Carr was the leading rusher, carrying the ball 18 times for 85 yards and a touchdown. Carr also completed two passes for 75 yards and a score. He was the Barrett Auto Center Player of the Game.

  Carr explained why he had so much room to work in the ground game.

  “We knew their defensive ends would be crashing, we ran our plays and I basically pulled it every time, they were attacking the running back and I was just out there with nobody around,” said Carr.

  The triple option was working like a charm for the Ram offense in the second half, but Carr was also able to  find an electric connection with Blum through the air.

  “I feel like we’ve had that connection the whole season, even in the offseason. I just knew where he was gonna be and I threw it up there, I knew he’d go grab it.”

  Carr and the Rams will travel to Dallas Center-Grimes for a battle with the Cowboys next week in their final non-district game of the season.

 

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