 |
 |
    
|
  
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
Norris Art Department
Norris Art Department | ||||||||||||
|
Season Summaries
Oct. 26 Crete
A strong and fast Crete defense took away the run Thursday night and forced Norris to go to the air to try and stay in the game… it didn’t work out to well. We have said all year that we are a team that needs to run the ball to set up the pass and Crete showed this. While we were able to connect on a long pass from Cameron Dudley to Jon Damkroger to put us back in the game in the second quarter, we didn’t connect enough times the rest of the game to back off Crete’s pressure defense. It was this pressure and our inability to move the ball on the ground, which led to turnovers which directly led to 14 of Crete’s 27 points. Our defense played well enough to keep us in the game most of the night with Brent Carper and Justin Jackson leading all tacklers with 13 and 11 stops. Blake Huls and Cole Gade followed with 10 tackles apiece. This game ended the Norris season at 2-7. We bring back a lot of experience for next season as many juniors and sophomores saw starting time this year or were contributors. This was also the last game for a group of 15 seniors, many of whom did not see major playing time,who were selfless enough to hang in there and provide leadership to a younger group of players through an up and down season. They showed up every week ready to practice and get better without hanging their heads, this speaks volumes for the character of this group of kids.
Rushing: Att. Yds. D Patt 6 6 C Dudley 11 -14 T Simpson 8 20 J Damkroger 2 9 G Sawyer 2 0 C Gade 1 5
Passing: Comp. Attempts Yds. Td's Interceptions C Dudley 8 26 102 1 5 C Gade 0 1
Receiving: Catches Yds Td's J Damkroger 3 55 1 C Gade 2 29 B Huls 2 19 J Hansen 1 -1
Punting: Yds Hang Time J Damkroger 40 1.81 20 2.8 29 2.76 41 3.7 49 3.47 71 3.69 58 3.24 7 - 308 = 44.0
Returns: Att Yds J Damkroger 3 63 J Hardin 2 21
Tackles: B Carper 13 J Jackson 11 B Huls 10 C Gade 10 T Funk 6 C Kaplan 4 J Damkroger 4 J Morris 3 J West 3 C Gratopp 3 J Hansen 2 T Grossenbacher 2 J Morris 1 T Simpson 1 T Nyhoff 1 D Norby 1 K Lococo 1 G Sawyer 1 D Granatowicz 1 J Hardin 1
Scoring: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Norris 0 7 0 0 7 Crete 14 0 7 6 27
Oct. 20 Pius X
The combination of early turnovers and a fired up Pius football team made for a very long night for Norris last Friday night. In a game which both teams needed to keep playoff hopes alive, everything seemed to click for Pius in the first half as they scored on several of their first possessions to take a large lead into half time and end up with a 43-0 victory. We knew with Pius coming off a big loss to Crete the week before and their playoff hopes in jeopardy, we would have to play some of our best football of the year and we didn’t. This effectively ended any hopes of us making the playoffs, which was a goal set by the team in the preseason. We need to regroup again this week and find the team that played so aggressively and with great emotion earlier in the season as Crete will present another tough challenge this Thursday. Kickoff for the Crete game will be at 7:00 and it is also parents night.
Rushing Att Yds
Oct. 13 Beatrice
Going into our game with Beatrice, we knew we couldn’t let them get out to a fast start, they did and we paid the price. Losing 35-7 was frustrating because we know we are capable of better and that we could have played them tighter than we did. They have great team speed and getting into a track meet with them was not to our advantage but that is what the first half turned into. Beatrice scored on 4 of their first half possessions and went into half time leading 28-0. We challenged our kids at half to pick up the intensity and they responded by playing better in the second half. We were able to score early in the 4th quarter while both varsity squads were still in the game which was encouraging. We have faced some good teams so far this season but Beatrice is by far the best team we have played to date, they have a combination of size and speed which will make them dangerous in the upcoming playoffs. We have two games left against Pius and Crete and will have to regroup ourselves and commit to playing our best football of the year, both games are at home and we have played well at home all year. Pius comes to Norris Friday for a 7:00 Kickoff.
Offense
Oct. 6 Nebraska City
Norris brought both its offense and its defense this week and we were able to put together a complete game in beating Nebraska City 20-0. This was the first time Neb. City had been shut out all year as their wide open spread offense has created match up problems for everyone who played them. I was very pleased with our efforts for the majority of the night although I would have liked to score points in the second half which would have allowed us to play more of our younger kids earlier in the game all of our games have been close this year so this has been hard to do. Offensively we rushed for 255 yards and were able to control the line of scrimmage for the majority of the game. Jon Damkroger and Dustin Patt were our leading rushers with 82 and 71 yards respectively with Dustin adding in a touchdown for our first score with a 53 yard run in the first quarter. Drew Swanson added in 56 yards rushing and one score and we showed the balance we are capable of with our rushing game on a night when we didn’t pass very often. Damkroger had the long run of the night with a 60 yard reverse which set up a Garret Sawyer 2 yard touchdown run. Jon also had a big night punting averaging 48.2 on 4 punts with a long of 78 yards. Defensively Drew Swanson, Brent Carper and Justin Jackson led all tacklers with 12,11 and 10 stops respectively. Taylor Simpson added in another 8 tackles and had several pass breakups. We were able to get a good push from our down linemen most of the night and played disciplined defense against their spread option offense. We are still battling illness and injury to some degree and will hope to get some players back this week as we enter a three game stretch which has us playing Beatrice, Pius and Crete. We travel to Beatrice on Friday for a 7:00 kickoff.
Offense
Sept. 29 Waverly
In what could be described as one of our best defensive efforts of the year, Norris came up short again in losing to Waverly 7-6 last Friday night. While we did give up some yardage, we did what a defense is supposed to do and kept them off the scoreboard. Brent Carper once again led all defenders with 18 stops with Cole Gade adding 17 and an interception returned for our only score. Trevor Funk and Jake West added in 11 and 8 stops respectively. Waverly’s ball control wishbone offense limited us to the number of offensive series we were allowed and we were not as efficient as we could have been with the football. Drew Swanson led all rushers with 56 yards on 14 carries, he also came up with a key defensive stop on 4th and less than 1 which kept Waverly out of the end zone. Jon Damkroger had a big night punting the ball, ending up with a 45.2 yard average on 5 punts, which kept Waverly with the long field most of the night. We are still looking for ways to get over just being close and finishing things better, our kids effort cannot be questioned and we have to keep working to improve each week. Nebraska City comes to Norris Friday for a 7:00 game.
Rushing: Att. Yds
Sept. 22 Fairbury
Norris finished its non district schedule last Friday with a disappointing performance at Fairbury last Friday night which ended in a 13-7 loss. After a fast start which began with a fumble caused by Jim Morris and recovered by Chip Kaplan on the first play of the game, not much else went right for us. We scored on a Drew Swanson touchdown seven plays after the fumble to take an early 7-0 lead. Fairbury used momentum from an interception to score its first touchdown, the extra point was no good and Norris led 7-6 going into the second quarter. Another Fairbury score in the second quarter put them up 13-7 going into half. The second half saw us moving the ball well between the 20’s but being unable to put it in the end zone. Our defense shut down the Fairbury offense very well in the second half and we had many opportunities to take the lead but penalties (9 for the game, 6 in the second half) took away momentum at crucial times. We had been averaging only 2 penalties per game prior to this so this is something we will have to overcome if we are to keep improving. This was our last non-district game and we will move into district play this week with our game with Waverly. We have shown that we can play very solid football to date but need to start playing at our capabilities all of the time if we are to have success in our district which includes some of the best teams in class B
Offense:
Sept. 15 Seward
On a night when our offense wasn’t as sharp as we had been the previous two weeks, our defense showed up big and we were able to put things together for our first win of the season. We felt coming in that our depth would be a big factor in the game and that we could wear them down which was the case in the second half. Drew Swanson once again was the leading rusher with 62 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. Cameron Dudley was 3 of 7 for 31 yards on a windy night which made throwing very difficult. Defensively Brent Carper led with 15 tackles along with Justin Jackson who recorded 9 and 1 sack. Tim Donner and Jordan Sullivan also had 9 tackles each Chip Kaplan also recorded a sack. Jon Damkroger came up with a very big special teams play when we faked a punt in the fourth quarter and picked up a critical first down which allowed us to kill more time off of the clock. We were very happy with the play of our defense against what was a strong Seward offense over the past couple of weeks and we challenged them at half time to shut them out the second half which we did. All in all it was a very satisfying win for our kids as we were able to play solid football against a quality team. Rushing:
Sept. 8 Plattsmouth Friday nights game with Plattsmouth featured two very evenly matched teams and it again came down to one last fourth quarter possession for Norris. There were no late game heroics this week and Plattsmouth held on for a 21-14 victory. Turnovers once again plagued us but we still were able to overcome them and be in the game at the end with a chance to score. We showed the ability to move the ball and control the clock with 4 drives of 10 plays or more, two of which ended up in scores. Once we eliminate the turnovers and finish our other drives, we should have the ability to control the tempo of the game against most anyone. Scoring for Norris were Jon Damkroger on a 32 yard touchdown pass from Cameron Dudley and Garrett Sawyer on 12 yard run. Dudley was 6 of 13 on the night for 81 yards and the one TD. Drew Swanson led all rushers with 130 yards on 22 carries. Defensively Brent Carper once again led all tacklers with 13 stops followed by Trevor Funk with 12, Cole Gade with 10 and Justin Jackson with 9, six of which were solo tackles. We need to continue to improve defensively week to week as we are young, only 3 seniors start on defense for us along with 2 sophomores. We have faced two teams which returned 1000+ yard rushers from a year ago and we will face several more with powerful running games throughout the rest of the schedule so this presents a big challenge for us. Seward comes to Norris this week for a 7:00 homecoming game.
Rushing:
Sept. 1 Gretna Norris came up 1 yard short last Friday night in a hard fought game against 4th ranked Gretna. Scoring with just 14 seconds left on the clock, we chose to go for the win and 2 but didn’t make the conversion. Norris opened the scoring with a 20 yard second quarter touchdown pass from Cameron Dudley to Tim Donner. Gretna would answer back and convert a 2 point conversion to go into the half leading 8-7. Gretna started to drive on the Norris defense in the third quarter but we stiffened up and held them to a field goal and only a 11-7 lead going into the fourth quarter. Both offenses came to life in the 4th quarter as Norris put together a scoring drive that ate up quite bit of time and was capped by a 1 yard Drew Swanson touchdown to go ahead 14-11. Gretna would answer back and scored the go ahead touchdown with under 2 minutes left on the clock. With 80 yards to go and under 2 minutes left the Norris offense went into hurry up mode and we were moving the ball down the field when Cameron Dudley hit Brian Glenn for a 58 yard touchdown strike. The failed 2 point conversion left the final score at 21-20 as time ran out. I was pleased with our execution on offense for most of the night as we have several players who had never started at the varsity level before who stepped up and did a nice job. Defensively, we gave up some yards but made several crucial stops which kept us in the game and gave us opportunities to put points on the board. We showed flashes of being a very solid football team if we can remain healthy and continue to develop some depth at certain spots. Much credit has to go out to our kids as they played as hard as any Norris team I have been associated with the past 7 years. They stayed together throughout the game and kept battling back against what appears to be a very strong Gretna team. We told the kids going in that we needed a game with a tough opponent to see where we are at and where we need to get and it appears we have the makings of a good team if we continue to improve and eliminate mistakes. A close loss at this point in the season can sometimes be a springboard for bigger successes if you learn from it and move on. Norris travels to Plattsmouth this Friday for a 7:30 game.
Offense: |
|
|
|
