JAMESTOWN — First-year coach Ryan Haines said it was the longest game he’d ever coached, and he said it felt like the longest week of practice as well. But all that time paid off as the Greeneview Rams handed Haines his first victory as a head coach, Friday night Aug. 25 in a 31-0 win over Arcanum.
“There was some bludgeon ball out there tonight, but this win is a testament to my assistant coaches and my players,” Haines said.
The score might look a bit lopsided, but the Arcanum Trojans made Greeneview earn this victory. Playing tough, hard-hitting defense throughout the game, a few big plays were what the Rams needed to earn the win.
And a passing game.
Quarterback Nick Clevenger put the on-charging Arcanum defense in arrears several times with planned out screen passes that got behind the Trojans’ defense for big yardage. Clevenger completed six of eight pass tries for 156 yards and a nifty 46-yard screen pass TD to Jacob Green, who glided down the Greeneview sidelines behind a convoy of big Rams linemen for the easy score.
The Rams jumped out in front on their first possession of the ball game. Greeneview marched 66 yards on nine plays for the score, a Clevenger run from a yard out. Jon Brakeall booted the extra point and the Rams wound up having the lead for good.
Senior Griffin Mangan unofficially rushed for 93 yards on a dozen carries. He also snagged a Clevenger pass for 33 yards. Haines said there’s a very workman-like quality to this season’s Rams team. There’s no hootin’ and hollerin’, it’s all business.
“We’re a lunch pail group. We keep our mouth shut and get to work. (Shouting and whoopin’ it up), that’s just not our mentality,” he said. “They’re a bunch of hard working young men who give me everything they’ve got, and I can’t appreciate it more.”
Arcanum was held to 59 yards of offense. Greeneview churned its way for 193 on the ground and 156 in the air.
Brakeall knocked in a 36-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, to give the Rams a 17-0 lead.
And when Arcanum had recovered a second-half fumble on the Rams’ 28-yard line and was unable to score on the possession, Greeneview took the wind out of the Trojans’ sails two plays later when Clay Payton took what looked like a routine run to the left side, and routinely rumbled 42 yards for the final TD of the night.
Arcanum will host National Trail on Friday, Sept. 1 for its next game. Greeneview hits the road, heading south to take on Waynesville.
“There will be no easy weeks for us. We’ve just gotta hit the practice field and continue to get better. We were in a compact formation tonight, but Waynesville will spread things out against us. We’ve got to clean some things up on both sides of the ball, but we’ll come to work,” Haines said.
Score By Quarters
Arcanum 0 0 0 0 — 0
Greeneview 14 3 7 7 — 31
Scoring PlaysG — Nick Clevenger 1 run (Jon Brakeall kick)
G — Clevenger 16 run (Brakeall kick)
G — Brakeall 36 kick
G — Jacob Green 46 pass from Clevenger (Brakeall kick)
G — Clay Payton 46 run (Brakeall kick)
