Storm wins the war
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PORT BYRON — The Bureau Valley Storm overcame an early surge by the Riverdale Rams Friday night to take a 14-7 victory in a defensive struggle to improve to 2-0 on the young season.
“Both teams played just a phenomenally tough, physical football game,” BV coach Jeff Ohlson said. “We were lucky enough to come out on top. That ball bounced around and bounced our way tonight. It was a physical, physical game. I’m sure that their kids are walking off here feeling, ‘we’ve been to war,’ I know my kids have. We’ve talked about it all year that we’re going to have to be physical, physical, and tonight we were physical and solid. I thought that they did a great job of executing what we needed to do.”
The key to the game for the Storm was the defense, which, after allowing the Rams 69 yards and a touchdown on their first possession of the game, gave up only 113 total yards of offense the rest of the game, with 30 of that coming as Riverdale threatened late in the fourth quarter.
“On defense, we’ve told them all year that we are going to have to be solid,” Ohlson said, “and tonight we were solid.”
The winning score for the Storm actually came after one of the most tense moments of the game.
After driving from its own 44 down to the Ram’s 24-yard line on its best offensive drive of the game, Caleb Baker’s pass was tipped and picked-off turning the ball over to the Rams at their 18. The Storm defense held tough, however, forcing Riverdale to punt on fourth-and-three. Steve DeMay got a hand on the punt to give the ball back into the Storm’s hands at the Riverdale 30.
Three plays later, Sam Lowers took the ball 19 yards for the touchdown, and Tanner Schoff ran the two-point conversion in to give the Storm its first lead of the game, 14-7.
“We came down here and we did something that we don’t like to do, we turned the ball over,” Ohlson said. “The defense rose up right there and took that as a challenge. One of the things that I told them right there at the end was that that shows true character. You have some adversity and you have to handle it, and we handled it. Those kids didn’t give up. They’re a tough group of kids and they want to be great, and they keep working and working. They’re going to keep getting better.”
The Rams came out strong to take the lead on their first drive of the game, as they marched the ball 69 yards downfield, scoring on a 28-yard screen pass from Chuck Rocker to T.J. Nitz. The Aaron Benevidez kick put Riverdale up 7-0.
It looked like one score might be enough, as the game became a defensive battle, with neither offense able to do much.
It was defense that got the Storm on the board with time running out in the first half. The Storm was pushing Riverdale back, deep in its own territory when it took advantage of a Ram miscue.
DeMay forced a Rocker fumble at the 17-yard line. Mike Catton scooped the ball up and ran it in for the touchdown to narrow the gap to 7-6.
“That’s a play that we work on in practice,” Ohlson said. “That was an important momentum shift for us. We had some balls bounce our way tonight.”
The Rams made their bid for a comeback late in the game. Assisted by a pass interference and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the same play, they drove the ball down to the Bureau Valley 23-yard line. Tanner Schoff ended the Rams' hopes, however, by catching a Rocker pass from his back in the end zone.
