Greenwood has no answer for Thorp passing attack

When Thorp tried to run the ball against the Greenwood defense on Oct. 8, the Indians were mostly in place to stop it.When the Cardinals went to the air, well, that was a different story. The end result was a 36-0 Thorp win.

Thorp junior quarterback Aiden Rosemeyer had a field day in the Cardinals Parents Night game, passing for 319 yards and four touchdowns against an Indian secondary that didn’t match up well against the athletic Thorp receivers. Rosemeyer’s scoring tosses were of 16, 19, 53 and 43 yards. The Greenwood offense, meanwhile, was able to move the chains at times, but couldn’t find the big play to reach the end zone.

Greenwood kept close for a quarter, allowing only a 19-yard scoring pass to Logan Hanson on Thorp‘s first possession of the night. The teams traded punts after that, but Thorp broke through again early in the second quarter, this time on Rosemeyer’s 10-yard scramble for a score. Greenwood tried a fake punt on its next possession, and when the pass play failed, the Cardinals had good field position. They turned that into an 18-0 lead when Rosemeyer connected for a 16-yard pass to Denzel Sutton.

Although Greenwood quarterback Christian Thomas broke of a 31-yard scramble on the Indians’ next drive, they couldn’t move any closer to the end zone. After turning the ball over on downs, the Indians allowed another Thorp touchdown on a 53-yard strike from Rosemeyer to Hanson.

Thomas had a 38-yard run on Greenwood’s next drive and the Indians penetrated to the Cardinal 17-yard line, but then faltered. That led to a final Cardinal score in the half, on a 30-yard Rosemeyer run on the last play before the break.

Rosemeyer completed 20 of 33 passes for the 319 yards. Three Cardinal receivers each had more than 80 receiving yards. With several sacks for losses figured in, the Indian defense allowed only 49 rushing yards.

Greenwood ran 42 times for 176 yards. Thomas had 114 yards on 18 carries, and Xander Hinker added 54 yards on 15 attempts.

Thomas was 5-10 through the air for 40 yards. Fletcher Bredlau had four receptions for 39 yards.

DEAN LESAR/STAFF PHOTO