Royal Valley hosting Riverside for homecoming

Following a 41-0 loss at Seneca last Friday, the Royal Valley Panthers (0-2) are preparing to host Riverside (2-0) for homecoming Friday.

“The team just has to continue to get better,’’ said head coach Jake Lott this morning. “We played a very good Nemaha Central team and had opportunities to make the game close going into halftime.’’

Defensively, coach Lott said, the Panthers “played really well, but we have to find consistency in doing our jobs every time.’’

“Offensively, we are still a work in progress,’’ the coach said. “We have worked hard to get better but we just aren’t seeing any results during the game. We will continue to stress consistency in doing your job on both sides of the ball and we have to get the offense to start giving us some drives to control the ball and put some points on the board.’’

The Thunder (2-0) took an early 7-0 lead over the Panthers. With 9:57 until halftime, the Thunder made it a 13-0 game. The Thunder then scored again making it a 21-0 game. At halftime, the Thunder led 27-0. The third quarter was scoreless and then the Thunder tacked on two more TDs in the fouth quarter.

Offensively, the game was dominated by the Thunder. The Thunder quarterback Ryan Hasenkamp led the offense with five pass completions on 15 attempts for 79 yards, one touchdown, one interception, 12 rushes for 92 yards and one touchdown.

The Thunder running backs had a busy night also. Mitchell Henry had 13 carries for 109 yards, two touchdowns, one pass reception for 32 yards and one touchdown.

David Delaney had 13 carries for 65 yards, one touchdown and one pass reception for 15 yards.

Mitchell Heiman had 3 carries for 23 yards.

Jacob Koelzer had three carries for 15 yards.

Luke Haverkamp had four carries for 7 yards, one touchdown and one pass reception for 14 yards.

Dylan Enneking had two pass receptions for 18 yards.

Defensively, for the Thunder, Heiman had seven tackles.

Derek Uphaus had four tackles and one was for a loss of yards.

Chase Kramer had 11 tackles, two of them for loss of yards and one fumble recovery.

Caleb Henry had five tackles, Eli Wilson had two tackles, Elijah McWilliams had two tackles and Delaney had five tackles.

Austin Gerety had four tackles, Paul Enneking had four tackles, Alex Haug had one tackle, Brent Heideman had one tackle, Trenton Henry had five tackles and M. Henry had two tackles.

Cameron Feldkamp had three tackles and one sack, Luke Reitz had four tackles, Matt Baumgartner had one tackle, D. Enneking had one tackle, Hasenkamp had one tackle, Trenton Butler had two tackles, Devon Seiss had one tackle for a loss of yards and Austin Schmelzle had one tackle.

For Royal Valley, Garrett Rodewald rushed 17 times for 41 yards and Kyle Stithem rushed nine times for 28 yards.

Stithem also passed four times and completed two for 20 yards.

Jacob Box led the Panthers in tackles with 10 while Kenny Aitkens had nine, Brandon Rodewald seven, Garrett Rodewald six and Noah Ensley six. Hayden Fenske has four tackles and an interception.

The Panthers (0-2) will play host to Riverside (2-0) for the Panther homecoming game. Riverside beat Jeff West 21-14 last week. In the first game of the season, the Cyclones beat Perry-Lecompton 19-14. The Thunder (2-0) will travel to Holton on Friday.