Glenwood suffers first loss of season

Sergeant Bluff-Luton came back from a first-half deficit to knock off Glenwood, 14-10, in a hard-fought, defense-dominated, non-district football matchup at the Glenwood Activities Complex Friday night.
The setback was the first loss of the season for the Rams, who saw their record slip to 3-1.  The Warriors improved to 3-1 win the win.

“A lot of credit goes to Sergeant Bluff – they beat some good teams already this year, so we know they’re a good team,” Glenwood Coach Cory Faust said in a postgame interview. “I think we can look back at the film and say we were one play away from winning it and there were some plays that we could do a lot better in the future.”

Glenwood got on the scoreboard first – reaching the end zone early in the second quarter on a 9-yard touchdown run by Scott Reed. The Rams’ lead was short-lived, however, as the Warriors answered later in the quarter on a 25-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Isaiah Jervik to Gavin Warren.

Glenwood looked like it was going to reclaim the lead and the momentum in the final minute of the half after picking up a first down at the Warrior 2 yard line, but the Rams failed to come away with points. The half ended with a third down sack of quarterback Ben Carlo. The

Rams were out of timeouts and not able to stop the clock for one final play before halftime.

“Our idea was it was either going to be there or we were going to throw it away, but it didn’t work out that way,” Faust said of the missed scoring opportunity. “We could have put our guys into better position. I could have put our guys into a better position with the play call.”

Both offenses continued to find the going tough in the third quarter, but the Warriors capitalized on a field position advantage to mount a 25-yard scoring drive, culminated by an 18-yard touchdown run by Beckett Verros.

Glenwood mounted a scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter, aided by a fourth-down quarterback sneak by Carlo that resulted in a first down at the Warrior 30 yard line. A 23-yard run by Scott Reed took the ball to the Sergeant Bluff-Luton 7 yard line, but that was as close as the Rams would get. Aaron Christian kicked a 30-yard field goal on fourth down to cut the deficit to 14-10.

The Warriors picked up a pair of first downs on the ensuing possession and were successfully running out the clock until the Rams forced a fumble, recovered by defensive back Gaven Abbott at the Glenwood 37 yard line with 2:36 left in the game. Glenwood’s chances for a late comeback ended a minute later, however, with an interception by Warren.

Despite the outcome, Faust found positives in his team’s performance, including the effort of his defense, which limited the Warriors’ potent flexbone offense to 208 yards.

“I think it shows how good our defense is,” he said. “That’s really a good offense there. It’s tough to defend a unique offense like that on one week’s notice. I think it showed how much our players cared about preparation and how good they are to be able to do that.”

The final statistics were reflective of how evenly contested the game was. Glenwood finished with 211 yards of offense (94 rushing, 117 passing) and Sergeant Bluff-Luton tallied 208 (151 rushing, 57 passing).

Reed rushed for 101 yards for the Rams, while Carlo completed 17-of-25 passes for 117 yards. Kaden Crouch had 6 pass receptions for 55 yards. Defensively, Drake Buthe recorded a team-high seven tackles, including one for a loss.

The Rams will try to get back on the winning track when they travel to Council Bluffs Friday night for the Class 4A, District 6 opener against longtime rival Lewis Central.

“I think we’ve got a really good team. I think Lewis Central has a really good team, so we’re looking forward to a good challenge next week,” Faust said. “You try to play nine one-game seasons. We’re thankful we get to play good competition. This is what’s fun about football.

It’s fun to compete against people that are similarly good.”

The Titans will bring a 2-2 record into Friday night’s game.

Scoring Summary
SBL    00  07  07  00-14
GLN    00  07  00  03-10

Game Summary
GLN – Scott Reed, 9 run (Aaron Christian kick).
SBL – Gavin Warren, 25 pass from Isaiah Jervik (Landon Panowicz kick).
SBL – Beckett Verros, 18 touchdown run (Panowicz kick).
GLN – Christian, 30 field goal.