Cowboys get by Knights, 45-35

TABOR - Sidney racked up 532 yards and wrestled control of perennial power Fremont-Mills in Eight-Man, District 7 with a 45-35 win in Tabor Friday.

The Cowboys (4-0) moved to 2-0 in district play with the win while handing the Knights their first home district loss since 2015.

“Obviously this starts our playoffs early because one more loss (in the district) and we’re pretty much out of it,” said Fremont-Mills coach Jeremy Christiansen after the game. “So our playoffs start next week and we need to go one game at a time. We need to continue to keep improving the little things.

“There’s little things we did well but almost all of their scoring came on us not being in the right spot, or rolling our zone the wrong way. We just have to get that taken care of.”

After a Knight turnover and a Sidney punt on each opening possession, the Cowboys marched 40 yards in a six play second drive of the game – aided by two Knight penalties – to take the early 7-0 lead.

F-M would be forced to punt on its next possession and Sidney would go on to take a 14-0 lead on a Bryson Duncan 5-yard scamper.

After a scoreless first 15 minutes and three punts and a turnover in four possessions, the Knight offense finally kicked into gear. A shanked punt set F-M up at the Sidney 16 and quarterback Mason Vanatta raced in from there to cut the lead to 14-7.

The Knights’ rally would be short-lived, however, as Sidney did all game long, answered following an F-M score. Cody Dupre’s 35 yard run and the ensuing extra-point made it 21-7 with just over eight minutes to go in the opening half.

F-M got on the board once more in the second quarter, again from Vanatta from 45 yards out this time, but once again, the Cowboys would answer. Sidney booted a 27-yard field goal and then used another Knight turnover to set up a Cameron Whitehead to Sergio Rodriguez TD toss to score the final 10 points of the half and go up 31-14 at the break.

In the second half, the Knights scored on their first three possession but the Cowboys answered each time. F-M cut the lead to 10 three times in the final two quarters but could get no closer.

For the game the two teams combined for nearly 1,000 yards of offense in a physical, playoff type game that saw the Cowboys rack up 532 yards (363 rushing) to the Knights’ 436.

“I think physically, they were what we anticipated,” Christiansen said. “I think we didn’t do a very good job of following our reads. We gave up too many points. They were more physical at the point of attack than us.”

All night long the Knights had trouble containing the Cowboys’ outside run game with Duncan. The senior finished with 252 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.

“We didn’t do a very good job picking up their pulling guards and then we’d over pursue from the inside out,” Christiansen said. “That’s just something we have to get taken care of. We just picked the wrong time for that happen.”

Vanatta keyed a Knight run game that finished with 288 yards on the ground. The junior QB ran for 169 yards and two TDs on 18 carries and threw for 148 yards and a TD on 11-of-17 passing. Jaeger Powers picked up 78 yards on the ground and Seth Malcom 41 with a TD each.

“They ran really tough, there’s no double about it,” he said. “We probably should have gone to the run a little earlier but that’s something we have to get better at.”

The Knights head to Essex Friday for a District 7 road game.

Scoring Summary
S     14  17  07  07  45
FM  00  14  14  07  35

Game Summary
S – Bryson Duncan, 5 run (kick good).
S – Cameron Whitehead to Sergio Rodriguez, 16 pass (kick good).
FM – Mason Vanatta, 16 run (kick good).
S – Cody Dupre, 30 run (kick good).
FM – Vanatta, 45 run (kick good).
S – Rodriguez, 27 field goal.
S – Whitehead to Rodriqguez, 5 pass (kick good).
FM – Seth Malcom, 21 run (kick good).
S – Whitehead, 17 run (kick good).
FM – Jaeger Powers, 2 run (kick good).
S – Whitehead to Dupre, 37 pass (kick good).
FM – Vanatta to Austin Gartner, 9 pass (kick good).