ABOUT THE COWBELL — The Perry-Jefferson football series is believed to be the longest-held rivalry in Iowa High School sports history, dating back to a 34-5 win by the Perry YMCA over Jefferson High on October 15, 1898. In 1928 the Perry and Jefferson Rotary Clubs offered a traveling prize, “The Cowbell” to the winning team. The teams will be meeting for the 84th time since the inception of The Cowbell Trophy, with the Rams holding a 53-28 edge. The game was twice ended in a tie. The past five seasons has seen the prize change hands four times, with Perry winning in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and Greene County in 2011 and 2014.
LAST YEAR — Heartbreak struck Dewey Field as a last-second 42-field goal attempt that would have forced overtime hit the crossbar and bounced back, giving Greene County a 24-21 victory. Greene County threw for 77 yards and ran 52 times for 212 yards and three touchdowns while Perry passed for just 34 yards but ran for 216 yards and two TDs on 37 carries. Senior Nic Wilhelmi returned a Ram kick off 92 yards for Perry’s other score, with the difference in the game Nick Schroeder’s 22-yard field goal early in the contest.
ABOUT THE RAMS — Greene County opened with a 42-28 win at South Central Calhoun and a 35-21 win over Kuemper Catholic. Three losses by a combined 13 points followed — 35-28 at Algona, 36-32 at Creston and 36-34 against No. 4 Webster City. The Rams fell to host Humboldt, 14-0, last week, but were without all-everything quarterback Daric Whipple.
Whipple, an elusive and speedy 5-11, 185-pound senior, has accounted for 84 percent (1,662) of Greene County’s 1,979 yards and 19 of their 25 total touchdowns.
He is 56-113-6 for 972 yards and 10 TDs passing in the Ram spread offense, and has rushed 97 times for 690 yards and nine scores, all in five games.
Nick Schroeder (18-358, 4 TDs), Reid Lamoureux (12-309, 4 TDs), Max Neese (11-157, 1 TD) and Tyler Beger (9-124, 1 TD) have caught almost every pass.
Whipple had been fighting an illness, and in his absence the Ram offfense stalled, with freshman quarterback Clint Dennhardt 4-20-3 for 74 yards last week.
Neese (69-214, 2 TDs) is the only other Ram with any significant rushing yardage.
Keyden Pollock has 50 tackles, Noah Juergensen 38 and Neese 37.5 to lead the defense, which has nine interceptions and seven fumble recoveries, returning one of each for a score. The Rams have also returned a kick for a score.
ABOUT THE BLUEJAYS — Perry has been shut out twice and has scored just 50 points while allowing 193 in going winless through six games. The defense, which was simply overpowered in losses of 52-14 to Algona and of 34-13 to Carroll, will find an opponent more suited to what Perry does best — play well in the secondary.
Only Denison-Schleswig (49) has scored fewer points in Class 3A, with Perry’s 433 rush yards 80 fewer than Boone’s for the lowest in the class.
That said, the team received solid blocking on many plays last week, which opened holes for a series of long runs from both Eli Saemisch and Taviar Lucas.
Saemisch has 226 yards on 54 carries and Lucas 129 yards and two TDs on 26 rushes while Gage Welch has totaled 138 yards on 32 hauls, mostly late in contests.
Quarterback Ryan Rathje has proven effective when given time to throw and has hit on 61-of-109 passes for 500 yards and three TDs.
Lucas has, far and away, been the main target. His 31 receptions in fifth-best in 3A and has resulted in 255 yards and three TDs.
Jacob Thompson (8-81), Marcus Meri (7-118) and Adan Medina (7-49, 1 TD) have been the other leading receivers.
The defense has made six interceptions and recovered four fumbles, with a TD resulting from one of each kind of turnover. Solomon Pierce’s 40 tackles leads the team, with Mark Campos adding 38.5 stops and Joe Olvera 30.
PROBABLE STARTERS
PERRY Offense GREENE COUNTY Defense
No. Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt. No. Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt.
72 LT Joe Olvera 12 6-2 270 66 DE Noah Juergensen 12 6-5 240
67 LG Tyler Soll 11 6-0 265 64 DT Matthew Gordon 12 6-2 250
79 C Gil Garcia 12 5-8 245 56 DT Ben Lint 12 5-10 180
71 RG Alonzo Zarate 12 5-8 210 91 DE Mitchell Gorsuch 12 6-0 205
66 RT J.R. McCord 12 6-0 255 52 MLB Keyden Pollock 12 6-1 190
84 TE Marcus Meri 12 6-1 180 11 OLB Tony Cunningham 12 5-11 165
4 QB Ryan Rathje 12 6-4 170 6 DB Trey Tucker 11 6-0 185
35 FB Adan Medina 11 6-1 185 1 CB Chase Stoline 11 5-8 150
27 TB Eli Saemisch 12 6-0 190 5 CB Reid Lamoureux 12 6-2 185
22 WR Jacob Thompson 12 5-10 160 23 S Max Neese 12 5-11 180
13 WR Tavier Lucas 12 5-10 190 34 S Logan Lansman 11 6-0 180
8 PK Ivan Garcia 12 5-5 145 5 P Reid Lamoureux 12 6-2 185
PERRY Defense GREENE COUNTY Offense
No. Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt. No. Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt.
83 DE Solomon Pierce 12 6-3 190 66 LT Noah Juergensen 12 6-5 240
72 DT Joe Olvera 12 6-2 270 64 LG Matthew Gordon 12 6-2 250
67 DT Tyler Soll 11 6-0 265 74 C Joe Thede 12 5-10 195
53 DE Tanner Darr 12 5-11 185 56 RG Ben Lint 12 5-10 180
26 OLB Nic Fellom 11 5-8 150 55 RT Hunter Ruth 11 6-1 210
35 MLB Adan Medina 11 6-1 185 10 QB Daric Whipple 12 5-11 185
27 OLB Eli Saemisch 12 6-0 190 23 TB Max Neese 12 5-11 180
22 CB Jacob Thompson 12 5-10 160 5 WR Reid Lamoureux 12 6-2 185
15 FS Brandon Juarez 11 5-9 155 9 WR Tyler Beger 12 5-9 165
2 SS Kade VanKirk 12 5-8 140 8 WR Nick Schroeder 11 6-3 180
8 CB Ivan Garcia 12 5-5 145 1 WR Chase Stoline 11 5-8 150
22 P Jacob Thompson 12 5-10 160 8 PK Nick Schroeder 11 6-3 180
DISTRICT 2
| District | Overall | Point Diff Avg |
|||||
| Win | Loss | Tie | Win | Loss | Tie | ||
| Webster City | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8.00 |
| Carroll | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7.50 |
| Algona | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Humboldt | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Boone | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | -4.33 |
| Greene County | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | -7.33 |
| Perry | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | -13.00 |
Friday’s Games
Perry at Greene County, 84th Cowbell Game
Algona at Boone
Bishop Heelan Catholic at Carroll (ND)
Humboldt at Webster City
