RIB LAKE 58, WINTER-BIRCHWOOD 8 - Rib Lake has no trouble running through overmatchedWinter-Birchwood

RIB LAKE 58, WINTER-BIRCHWOOD 8

The Rib Lake Redmen had no trouble evening their eight-man football record at 2-2 on Friday afternoon, steamrolling over an overmatched Winter-Birchwood squad 58-8.

Rib Lake punched in three touchdowns in each of the first two quarters to build a 44-0 halftime lead and put another score on the board in each of the next two quarters.

The crossover game in the Northwoods Conference counts for Rib Lake in the East standings, putting the Redmen at 2-1.

All 380 of Rib Lake’s total yards came in the running game.

“We went into the week talking to our guards about how we were probably going to try to trap a lot depending on how their alignment is,” Rib Lake head coach Jonah Campbell said. “Our center and two guards were pretty prepared for trap blocking. We worked on it a lot during the week. We came out and primarily ran traps and we had a lot of success with that. Once they started trying to take it away by clogging the middle we were able to get some success outside of the Bgaps or C-gaps running some other plays. Across the board we did a pretty good job creating holes up front. Our backs, pretty much every ball carrier did a nice job breaking some tackles at the second level and making some big plays.”

Tucker Phillips led Rib Lake with his third straight 100-yard game. He racked up 157 yards on just 11 carries and scored three touchdowns. Logan Schmittfranz had his biggest game so far, scoring his first two rushing touchdowns of the season and gaining 125 yards on seven carries.

After 35 punishing carries at Phillips the week before, quarterback Talon Scheithauer carried the ball just four times, picking up 22 yards and a touchdown. Seth Borchardt also had 22 yards on five carries and scored a touchdown. Freshman quarterback Slade Scheithauer got some snaps in the second half and scored a touchdown as well.

“It was nice to spread the ball out a little more,” Campbell said. “No one had an extreme amount of carries as we had a lot of quick drives. (Phillips and Schmittfranz) hit the hole fast. They both did a great job getting north and south and breaking tackles in order to bust some.”

Defensively, the game plan revolved around making sure Winter-Birchwood didn’t connect on a lot of big passing plays, which is where the Warcats scored most of their points in their first three games.

“We were prepared for them taking shots down the field,” Campbell said. “Our coverage was pretty good. I think there were one or two times they got a really nice catch with good coverage, just a good throw and catch you can’t really defend. We did not give up the big play. It was catch and tackle, not catch and run that busted open.”

Talon Scheithauer led the Redmen with 10 total tackles, four solo stops and six assists. Ethan Cook had six solo tackles and two assists. Schmittfranz was involved in six tackles.

Rib Lake will cap off homecoming week this Friday by hosting their former co-op partner Prentice at 7 p.m. at Rib Lake High School.