Rams 7-0 after comeback victory

ADEL - Down several starters, including its starting quarterback, the Glenwood football team didn’t get tight when the score got tight on the scoreboard.

Tied up at 13-13 heading into the final quarter, fill-in quarterback Andrew Blum engineered a pair of touchdown drives to lift the Rams to a 27-14 victory over A-D-M in Class 3A, District 8 football Friday in Adel.

“I am very proud of our team for having the poise, mental toughness, and unity they showed in the face of a lot of adversity,” said Glenwood coach Cory Faust.  “We had several players go down, at least for a portion of the game, with various tweaks and bumps, including Kolten.

Blum came in at quarterback and did an outstanding job considering he has not taken any reps at that position since August.”

After losing Wilwerding, who entered the game leading all of Class 3A with 20 touchdown passes, Faust turned to Blum, a sophomore who hadn’t taken any snaps under center since fall camp.

While the Rams’ offense did have a few rough series, the game was tied at 7-7 after a quarter. But Blum, who is the Rams’ second leading receiver on the season, took to his new duties quickly, connecting with Carter Von Essen on a 22-yard touchdown pass to give Glenwood a 13-7 lead at the half.

Utilizing the 6-foot-2, 180 pound Blum’s running ability, the Rams switched up their offense to a more run-oriented attack in the second half.

After the Tigers tied the game on a Frank Weiland four-yard scamper, Glenwood went back to the ground. Blum plunged in from one yard out and Cole Loeffelbein added an eight yard TD run to ice the game.

Glenwood finished the game with 297 yards, 241 of which came on the ground. Loeffelbein finished with a career-high 110 yards on 19 carries and Blum picked 96 yards on 22 attempts.

“We talk a lot of winning by controlling the thing we can control, like our
preparation, attitude, unity and effort,” Faust said. “Doing that gives you the best chance of winning on the scoreboard. In a year where our first six games all reached the mercy rule running clock, I was concerned with how we would respond to adversity.  Whether we would have scored more points that ADM or not, our guys were winners on Friday.”

Faust commended the play of Jon Stavas and Kyle Griffin on both sides of the ball and especially on defense. Both finished with five tackles each.

Wilwerding will like miss Friday’s game against rival Harlan in Glenwood.