After their most lopsided loss of the season in their district opener against Tahlequah on Friday, the Grove Ridgerunners will look to regroup when they travel to Collinsville on Friday.
The Cardinals themselves will be looking to right the ship after falling in overtime 42-38 to Claremore in their district opener last week. Suddenly, a team that had district championship aspirations finds itself 2-2 nearing the halfway point of the season.
Collinsville scored 35 points in the first two quarters of Friday’s loss to Claremore but could not muster another point until an overtime field goal. The Zebras then countered with a touchdown on the first play of their overtime possession.
The Cardinal offense is led by sophomore quarterback Shawn Koscheski. Through four games Koscheski has passed for 865 yards and nine touchdowns while running for 528 yards and five more scores. His two main targets have been T.J. Johnson (23 receptions, 347 yards) and Keenan Hamilton (22 receptions, 238 yards).
Running back Ryan Haymaker has added 451 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 5.6 yards per carry through four games this season.
They’ll be going up against a Grove defense that had a hard time stopping anything Tahlequah attempted during the Tigers’ 47-20 win last Friday. Tahlequah ran for nearly 500 yards on the night, a total greater than what the Ridgerunners had allowed through their first three games of the season combined.
“I think they seemed a little faster in reality than they did on film,” Grove head coach Dennis Millican said afterward. “It seemed like we were stuck in dirt. We didn't pursue very well and didn't tackle very well.”
The Tigers had three runners go over 100 yards each on the night and Grove will face multiple threats from the Cardinals’ running game as well.
The Ridgerunners will also have to find a way to get their own running game cranked up. After running for 223 yards in the season opener against Miami and finding success moving the ball on the ground during preseason scrimmages, the Grove running game has stalled, gaining less than 100 yards in each of the last three games, all losses.
“That's where physicality takes over,” Millican said. “You have to get your butt in the weight room in the offseason so that when it comes time to get it done in the trenches – what do you have to draw on? That's kind of what I've been telling them. We need to get stronger and more powerful. It seems like everybody's bigger than us, so that being said, we have to use spread formations and smoke and mirrors. I thought for sure we'd come in this season and be effective running the ball. It seemed like we did okay in the scrimmages, but for whatever reason, we haven't been able to get much out of the rushing game. So you're left with must-throw situations and the defense knows it they can play back and just watch the quarterback throw the ball.”
That has led to a Grove offense that has struggled to move the ball and one that has committed at least three turnovers in each of its four games this season. The Ridgerunners will have to find some way to turn those trends around if they want to start saving their season on Friday.
