The Greene County Rams were on the winning side of a shut-out a week ago when they beat the Perry Blue Jays 61-0 on the gridiron.
The Rams were in a shutout again Friday, but on the short side, losing to the Kuemper Knights 35-0 in Carroll.
The game started poorly for the Rams. They received the opening kick off and started play on their 20 yard line. They were pushed back two yards on their first play. On the second play Ram quarterback Gabe Ebersole threw a pass that was intercepted by Knight DJ Vonnahme, who plays QB when the Knights are on the offense. Vonnahme made it to the Ram 8 yard line before Camden Strennen made the tackle. The Knights were on the scoreboard two plays later on a quarterback sneak. The Tommy Fitzsimmons point after touchdown kick was good and with less than two minutes off the clock the Rams were down 7-0.
The Rams’ next possession didn’t go much better. Richard Daugherty returned the kickoff 29 yards to put the Rams at first and 10 on their 29 yard line. On the first play from scrimmage the Rams were penalized for holding, moving the ball back to the 16 yard line and still first down. Jack Hansen picked up one yard on a short pass play and Ebersole ran eight yards on the next play, putting the ball on the Ram 25 on third down. Ebersole connected with Richard Daugherty on a long pass into Knight territory, but a fumble gave the ball back to the Knights on the Knights’ 39 yard line.
The Knights scored on that possession as well, using 10 plays to move the ball the required 61 yards. Vonnahme took the ball over the goal line again, and after the PAT, the score was 14-0 with 5:25 left to play in the first quarter.
The Rams made their first first down for the game during their next possession as they moved from their own 20 yard line to the Knights’ 44. At fourth down and 3 on the Knights’ 43 yard line Patrick Daugherty was able to pick up two yards, but not the needed three before he was brought down. The Knights were once again in possession of the ball on their 41 yard line.
This time the Ram defense held the Knights. Noah Cornell sacked QB Vonnahme on third down and 11 for a loss of nine yards. The Knights were at fourth and 20 on their own 31 when they punted. The punt went out of bounds and the Rams had the ball on the Knights’ 44 yard line. The Rams were on the Knights’ 32 yard line at fourth and 8 when they were flagged for an illegal procedure. Their possession ended at fourth and 13 on the Knights’ 37.
Both teams went out on downs in their next possession. The Knights ended their possession with a 33-yard punt, giving the Rams the ball on their own 19 yard line. After seven plays the Rams were at fourth and 8 on their own 34 yard line when Nathan Behne went in to punt. His punt was blocked and the Knights ended up with it on the Ram 9 yard line. Just three plays later Vonnahme again took the ball over the goal line. With the PAT the Knights were ahead 21-0 with 2:10 to play in the first half. That was the score at intermission.
The second half started poorly for the Rams as well. Behne’s kickoff went out of bounds at the 1 yard line, allowing the Knights to start their possession on their own 35 yard line. They scored six plays later, with the final play being a 45-yard run by Taye Vonnahme. With the PAT the Knights were up 28-0 with more than nine minutes left in the quarter.
The Knights scored once more in the game on a 10-play, 57-yard drive that started with a minute left in the third quarter and finished with a 4-yard DJ Vonnahme run to the end zone. The PAT gave the Knights the 35-point margin needed for the clock to run continuously for the final 8:59 of the game.
The Rams had a total of 197 yards of offense. Ebersole made 10 of 25 passes for a total of 115 yards. Richard Daugherty was the top receiver at 87 yards. Patrick Daugherty caught for 13 yards, Jack Hansen had 10 yards, Jesse Miller and three yards and Strennen two.
Patrick Daugherty rushed for 40 yards, Gavin Scheuermann rushed for 30, and Ebersole and Strennen added 11 yards and one yard respectively.
Scheuermann led in defensive stats with 9.5 tackles, four of them solo tackles. Cornell had 6.5 tackles, with four as solos. Hansen had four tackles with three solos.
The loss put the Rams at 2-1 on the season. They open 2A District 8 play in a homecoming game Sept. 16 against the Des Moines Christian Lions. The Lions are 1-2 on the season, with a 32-27 loss to AC/GC in Week 0, a 48-7 win over Des Moines Hoover, and a 56-28 loss to Pella Christian.
The game will be played on the new turf at Linduska Field and will be the debut of a new video scoreboard. The Rams hosted DMC for homecoming in 2021 and won 55-0.
