Raiders Look Forward to Ogallala

Even though the Red Raiders lost to Scottsbluff last Friday by a big score, Sidney head coach Chris Koozer had some positive takeaways from the 53-3 defeat at the hands of the undefeated Bearcats.

"The this was a closer game than the score said," explained Koozer, adding, "they scored a lot of those points when our subs were in the game."

Even more importantly, Koozer stressed a few other outcomes that show the Sidney team is ready to revive their winning ways, saying, "We didn't have any turnovers against Scottsbluff, and that's huge. Hopefully, we're past the turnover bug. And we didn't let penalties totally kill our drives, which is really important. In the last few games every time we got a penalty it seemed the kids would get down, and not be able to recover which stopped a lot of drives. That didn't happen against Scottsbluff."

Koozer added the last positive to take away from the Scottsbluff game, saying, "No new injuries, thank goodness."

Sidney travels today to take on the 4-and-2 Ogallala Indians, a team Sidney hasn't played in ten years, but now faces due to Sidney's move to Class C1. The Indians don't have the size of the Red Raiders, but have a number of athletic players and a high-powered passing attack. Sidney will need a great effort from the entire team, as running back Cade Lewis will be a game time decision as he recovers from a knee injury, and Zak Weiser will be out for the game.

"It's definitely the scariest passing team we'll see all year", noted Koozer.

Quarterback Clayton Murphy, a 6'4' junior with a big arm, leads the Indians passing attack, and comes off a defeat against Chadron where he was still able to torch the Cardinals defense for three touchdowns and 246 yards in the air. Murphy has 13 touchdown passes against 3 interceptions with over 1,400 yards passing thus far in the season, and Sidney knows the Indians are a team that needs to throw in order to win.

"Their quarterback is tall and can really throw the ball, and they've got good receivers that are deep threats," said Koozer.

Koozer believes that Sidney will have an advantage of size on the line, and the Red Raiders are likely to run the ball most of the time against the Indians.

"We want to use our size up front to run the ball, but we have to stay on our blocks to be successful. If we can run the ball well and hit some timely passes, we should have a good chance to win."