Plagued by penalties, undisciplined play, TMB finds a way in season-opening victory
There were 97 high school football games played across the state last Thursday to christen another season.
Ryan Kruse only cared about one, which also served as his football head coaching debut. And, despite a 16-8 win over former 212 Conference rival MACCRAY, he wasn’t pleased.
These numbers justify his frustration:
• 12 — TMB penalties (for 79 yards), including a number of false starts and two of the 15yard variety;
• 3-of-11 on third-down conversions;
• 12:00 time of possession compared to 36:00 for MACCRAY
• 2 fumbles lost
“It’s the first game, so I expected some of this, but we had so many penalties and at terrible times — when we were driving, or on a third-and-short,” said Kruse. “They had some, too, just like everyone did this week, but it’s too many. We’ve gotta find a way to fix that. I don’t think you can have that many penalty yards and win too many games. I think we’re lucky to have won. It’s not a recipe for success.”
Through all that, the Panthers did enough to walk away with a 1-0 record, mostly because of their defense, which held the Wolverines to a meager 88 yards of total offense.
In short, TMB’s defense was in control for most of the game after giving up a first-quarter touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, TMB started slowly behind quarterback Aiden Sanow, who was starting his first varsity game under center. The Panthers punted on their first drive, lost five yards on their second drive and punted again on their third possession.
In fact, it wasn’t until the third quarter when TMB lit up the scoreboard. The scoring drive started at the Panthers’ 45-yard line. David Schuh gave a preview of what was to come in the second half by starting the drive with a 26-yard jaunt; two more Schuh runs netted 17 yards, but TMB was pushed back 15 yards to the MACCRAY 31 because of an unnecessary roughness call on the next play.
Later in the drive, Sanow would hit Jackson Kruse with a 14-yard pass to the 1-yard line, and Schuh would finish things off with a touchdown run to make it 8-6. Schuh carried it over for the two-pint conversion to tie it at 8-8 with 4:49 left in the third quarter.
“We made a few plays when we needed to,” said Kruse. “We ended up relying on (Schuh) pretty much. We got a couple sweeps in there with Grif (Zick) once in a while; we had some good matchups. Our line did a good job of bringing (Schuh) and he ran tough, got extra yards. We just flat-out need that from him.”
TMB’s game-wining drive started with one of their numerous false starts on the night. MACCRAY got a healthy dose of Schuh out of the backfield for much of the possession; he had runs of 12 and 1 yards before another false start pushed the ball back to the Wolverines’ 27-yard line. Schuh had two more rushes — for 13 and 4 yards — before a TMB illegal formation penalty set them back yet again.
A holding infraction on the ensuing play pushed the Panthers back even farther, but Schuh followed that with a pair of 8-yard gains. Two plays later, Sanow threw a dart in the end zone to Zick on a slant pattern to put TMB ahead 14-8.
Once again, Schuh ran it in for the two-point conversion for a 16-8 cushion with 5:54 to go in the game.
That, plus the combination of a first-year starter under center and a stingy MACCRAY pass defense, spelled a tough night for the Panther offense.
“Their defense was stopping us — our pass game was shut down pretty early in the game,” said TMB receiver/defensive back Emery Xiong. “But we fought back and found some good plays and had some good gains.”
The Wolverines got the ball back at midfield and got as far as TMB’s 31-yard line, but the drive ended when Xiong stepped in front of a Blake Grimsley pass for a pick that appeared to have sealed the game, but on this night, nothing came easy for the Panthers, and thanks to a fumble with just 1:29 left, MACCRAY had one last shot. However, the TMB defense once again rose to the occasion, and Xiong knocked away a pass with :49 to give the Panthers the win.
“That (fumble) at the end, that could’ve been really costly,” Kruse said. “Obviously, you can’t have those; I don’t think we will in the future.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Beside’s Xiong’s interception, Sanow had two, both in the first half. Sy Sanders was a beast all night up front, collecting seven total tackles and two-and-a-half sacks (Brody Hauger also shared a sack with Sanders). Nolan Verlinde and Zick each had seven tackles, and Sanow and Talon Brinkley both had four.
“The defense looked good,” Kruse said. “They’ve been flying around in camp; I think they’re much improved from where we were at last year. We’re handling things up front better, and we’ve got guys that can run to the ball and run things down on the outside. And we had a few picks.”
Xiong said TMB’s defense proved what they knew — that they have the ability to shut down opposing offenses.
“No matter if we’re down 100 points or two points, we’re always going to come with 100% energy,” said Xiong. “We just never give up, and I think we really showed that tonight.”
Schuh finished the game with 168 rush yards on 25 carries for an average of nearly 7 yards per run. Zick led a quiet passing attack with two catches for 15 yards.
Kruse said Sanow did well in his first game, but the constant parade of penalties, as well as some fumbled snaps, hindered the TMB offense all night.
“We expected some mistakes from him, but he made some really good plays, too,” said Kruse. “The throw in the end zone to take the lead was a big-time throw. There are some things he needs to keep learning. Overall, it’s kind of what I expected — some mistakes and some good things.”
