Rams open season with shutout
It’s hard to imagine the Glenwood football team getting off to a better start than it did in Friday’s opener against Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln.
The Rams scored on its first possession of the game, then its next four series and led 32-0 before the Lynx had amassed a single offensive yard or first down en route to a 45-0 victory.
“I’m proud of our guys,” said Glenwood coach Cory Faust after the game. “I think we did a lot of good things and we have a lot of talented players. At the same time, we need to stay humble. There’s a lot of things we can correct. I know as a coach I can do a better job getting them ready. We’ll look at the film, I’m sure there’s a lot of things we can correct and come out next week and give it a new identity and give T.J. our best shot.”
The Rams gave the Lynx their best shot from the opening kick off. After forcing a three-and-out on the Lynx first possession, Glenwood used a 40-yard Zach Carr punt return to set up a five play, 21 yard scoring drive on its first offensive possession – capped by Cooper Silvius’ three-yard touchdown – to take a 7-0 lead.
Glenwood only got better from there – on both sides of the ball.
The Rams got a pair of touchdown passes from Andrew Blum and two more touchdowns scampers from Silvius to go up 32-0 with just under six minutes to go in the first half.
“I thought our guys executed pretty well,” Faust said. “We can run the offense faster, I think we were a little slow in the backfield. We can pick things up, do a better job getting guys blocked up front but overall I thought for a first game, we were pretty good.”
Defensively, the Ram defensive line dominated up front, limited the Lynx to a net-minus seven yards and no first downs until AL quarterback Sean Lorenzen scampered for 13 and eight yard runs in the waning seconds of the first half.
“We have a lot of good players up front,” Faust said of his defensive line. “I thought our guys covered really well. (Cornerback) Kohen Watson covered a really good athlete for AL who had it thrown to him deep a couple times and he covered it about as well as you can. I do things there are some things we can correct on that side too.”
Glenwood picked up right where they left of after halftime when Blum connected with Nate Kennedy for a 38 yard touchdown strike to make the score 39-0. With the 35 point “mercy rule” in affect, Faust substituted freely the remainder of the game.
Blum, in his first start under center since his sophomore year, was 6-for-13 passing for 137 yards and three TDs. Faust liked a lot of what he saw from his senior signal caller.
“I thought he played really well,” Faust said. “We’d been kind of holding him back early this season getting over some injuries this summer. He’s a competitor and an athlete. He made a great throw on a roll out for a touchdown that was pretty special. We’re lucky we have him on our team.”
Silvius finished with a game-high 64 yards rushing to go with his three TDs.
The Rams head to Council Bluffs on Friday to take on Thomas Jefferson at the Gale Wickersham Athletic Complex.
Faust has watched the Yellowjackets’ scrimmage tape briefly and he knows, his Rams will have their hands full.
“It was a dog fight with them here last year so we know we’ll have to be ready,” Faust said. “They’re very physical. They run kind of a different offense the we see the rest of the year so we need to be ready to play.”
Scoring Summary
G 20 12 13 00 - 45
AL 00 00 00 00 – 00
Game Summary
G – Cooper Silvius, 3 run (kick good).
G – Andrew Blum to Cody Buresh, 9 pass (kick good).
G – Silvius, 25 run (kick missed).
G – Blum to Colton Schutte, 45 pass (kick missed).
G – Silvius, 9 run (conversion failed).
G – Blum to Nathan Kennedy, 38 pass (kick good).
G – Ben Roenfeld, 4 run (kick missed).