The Green River Wolves traveled to Evanston this past Friday and came away with a close hard fought 23-20 victory.
With the exception of too many penalty yards the Wolves showed the promise that all who know the athletes on the team have been expecting.
It was Green River’s best all around game as they showed an exciting big play passing game to go along with a deep set of powerful and speedy runners. The defense came up with a number of huge defensive stands to stop Evanston who had a strong running game of their own and Green River’s defensive backs broke up some key big play passes.
Both the running and passing game profited from some excellent line play from the big guys up front as did the defense as the defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and got penetration into Evanston’s backfield to frustrate the Red Devils throughout the game and allowed the linebackers to make a number of big stops.
The game was also a tale of two halves as there was not much scoring in the first half and a second half explosion right up to the final whistle.
Green River won the coin toss and deferred. On the kickoff Evanston returned the ball to the 23-yard line with junior Hayden Roberts making the first tackle of the game.
On a first-down play junior linebacker Alex Atkinson stopped Evanston for no gain. On the next play Evanston’s hard running Jagger Mitchell gained six yards before senior Seth White came up from his safety position to make the stop.
Senior James King stopped Mitchell for only one yard on the next play with King and fellow seniors Jake Martinez and Colby Ivie providing the defense on the next play and after senior Gabe Burdette got pressure on Evanston's quarterback to force an incomplete pass Evanston had to punt.
Behind some excellent blocking hard running King had runs of 5, 10 and 24 yards with senior Jacob Fuss completing a 6-yard pass and King adding another 5-yard run but the drive stalled there and Green River settled for a 33-yard field goal by senior kicker Oran Watts and the Wolves were on the board for a 3-0 lead.
Watts then kicked the ball into the end zone and Evanston started their second offensive series on their own 20 yard line. After a 37-yard drive great team defense led by Jake Martinez, Dylan Taylor, Jeremiah Selmo, Jaxon Mcgee, Jacob Schieve, Gabe Burdette and others Evanston’s drive was stopped. A penalty, a couple of incomplete passes and a low snap and the Wolves turned the ball right back to Evanston.
Evanston ran two plays before the end of the first quarter with Burdette. Derek Salvidar, J.D. Renfro, Atkinson and Kolby Ivie on the defense.
Evanston's drive stalled and they set up to kick a field goal to tie the score but the snap was fumbled and broken up by Dylan Taylor and the score remained 3-0 Wolves. Evanston got excellent field position after a bad put on their next drive and took the ball in on a 14 yard run to take a 7-3 lead.
Green River took over but quickly turned the ball over on a bad snap. Both teams had a short offensive series each before the half came to an end with Evanston holding a slim 7-3 lead.
The Wolves who had won the coin toss to start the game but had deferred got the ball to start the second half which Burdette returned all the way to the forty yard line to start their first drive in excellent field position. On just the second play of the second half Green River’s offense delivered as has been expected all season when Jachob Fuss connected with Dylan Taylor who took the ball 59 yards to the end vs a quick zone to give the Wolves a quick second half lead 9-7 when the ADAPT, which was no good.
The Red Devils had a big 43-yard pass completion of their own and a nice 17 yard run before taking it in from 5 yards out and after they to missed the ADAPT. they regained the lead 13-9.
White once again put Green River in good field position as he returned the kickoff to the 34 yard line. On the first play James King broke another big run of 32 yards. With excellent blocking from his offensive line,. A couple play later sophomore Bracken Miller ran for 7 yards with great block by Burdette and then Fuss hooked up with Seth White who took the ball to the two yard line and where Miller took the ball in and after the P.A.T. was good by Orin Watts the Wolves had regained the lead 16-13. The two teams each ran a series of plays with no scoring until Evanston got the ball and after a 24-yard run by Mitchell Evanston got another big gain of 35 yards for a score and with the P.A.T. good the Red Devils again reclaimed the lead in the see saw battle 20-16.
Green River got the ball back and were three plays and out and had to punt the ball to Evanston at the start of the forth quarter. Evanston moved the ball on a ten play sustained drive but great defense in the last three plays of the drive by Jacob Achieve, then Kaine Wood and Burdette and Evanston went for it on forth down, but were stopped by Kolby Ivie and White halfway through the forth quarter.
The Wolves, with excellent blocking from their offensive line and fullback, then went to their powerback King, who carried the ball five times in the drive for 22 yards with a completion to Taylor along the way before Fuss found White for another score and with the P.A.T good, the Wolves took the lead back once more in the exciting see saw contest 23-20.
Evanston then went on another long drive of 10 plays by the Green River defense, tough all night, made the big plays when they needed to and a pitch out was recovered by White to end Evanston’s hopes. The Wolves came away with a hard fought victory in their best all round game of the season and a win in the first conference game of the year. The Wolves will have their work cut out for them when they return for a home game this week against the No. 1 ranked team in 3A, the Jackson Broncs at 6 p.m., at Wolves stadium.
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