Red Raiders Dominate Haymakers in Opener, 22-13

SIDNEY--Coming into the 2024 season, there were plenty of questions surrounding the Sidney Red Raider Football team. Success will do that, as last year's team had an outstanding season and qualified for the State Tournament. How would this year's team perform without last year's standouts? Graduated seniors Isak Doty, Luke Holly, McGuire Rolls, and others were the keys to the Raider's outstanding success last year. Many of these questions were answered Friday night with a dominant performance in a 22-to-13 win over Cozad that was not as close as the score indicated.

First, having a Doty behind center seems to be a key factor in the success of the offense. With junior Alek Doty taking over for older brother Isak, the Red Raiders did not miss a beat on offense. Doty has a strong arm and did a fine job throwing to the right receivers and pulling the ball down and running for extra yards when necessary. Senior Owen Gillham took on the lion's share of the rushing attempts in the backfield. Although he doesn't quite have the track-star speed of last year's standout Luke Holly, Gillham impressed with tough running between the tackles, elusiveness, and an ability to churn out positive yards when it seemed he would be stopped for a loss. The defense looked great, aggressively getting to the quarterback, sealing the edges, and playing tight coverage in the secondary. For its first test of the season, the Red Raiders passed with flying colors. Sure, there are a few issues to clean up such as penalties, but Head Coach Ryan Smith and his staff have a great group of athletes that respond well to coaching and should be able to build upon their successes and minimize their weaknesses as the season continues.

The Cozad team seemed a bit undersized, and although they have a talented quarterback in senior Noah Shoemaker, and a good group of receivers, if Friday's contest is any indicator, they will struggle this season against some tough competition. But you have to play the games on your schedule, and Cozad is never a team to be taken lightly, and the Raiders came into the contest focused and fired up from the starting whistle.

Doty kicked off and put the ball down the left sideline, making it difficult to field cleanly, and the Raider special teams swarmed and forced the Haymakers to start deep in their territory. After picking up only a few yards on their first two downs, the Haymakers had a third down and long to convert, and when Shoemaker dropped back to throw, junior linebacker Ben Monheiser broke through and hit the big quarterback hard, causing his pass attempt to flutter away harmlessly, forcing a fourth down punt. Shoemaker punted the ball high and deep, and Sidney started their first possession on their own 44-yard line. On their first play, Doty handed off to junior Lance Holly on a jet sweep, and the speedy receiver was able to beat the Cozad defense to the edge and run the ball down to the Cozad 16-yard line. Two plays later, senior Landon Riddle took a jet sweep in the opposite direction and broke through for a touchdown. Doty kicked the ball through the uprights for the extra point, and Sidney had an early 7-to-0 lead.

Doty's kickoff was again mishandled, and Cozad started from their seven-yard line. The Sidney defense shut down Cozad's offense and forced another three-and-out series. Shoemaker punted again, and Sidney started their second possession on their 48-yard line. Two penalties stalled the Sidney drive, and they were forced to punt and Cozad started their third possession on their 23-yard line. Cozad's drive started well, but on a third down and three attempt, Shoemaker had difficulty fielding a high snap and was brought down in the backfield for a loss, forcing another punt. Shoemaker blasted a good punt that hit the ground and took a favorable roll all the way down to the Sidney 15-yard line.

Sidney started their possession with a two-yard loss on first down, before an offsides penalty by Cozad gave Sidney the two yards back, plus an extra three. Sidney gave the five yards right back with a delay of game penalty. Faced with a third down and nine attempt, Doty rolled out and hit senior Reid Fiscus for a big gain, taking Sidney down to the Cozad 42-yard line. The drive continued as time expired in the first quarter. Early in the second stanza, on a third and seven attempt, Doty rolled out and hit Riddle in the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown, and after Doty's point-after kick was good, the Raiders led 14-to-0.

It was pretty clear by this point that the Raiders were having little difficulty shutting down the Cozad offense, and the Raider's biggest challenge driving the ball was their penalties. The teams exchanged possessions without scoring until Cozad finally had a successful drive. However, Cozad should have been forced to punt early on as Shoemaker was sacked on a third-and-seven attempt, but a face-mask penalty gave them 15 yards and a automatic first down. It was a questionable call as, while there was clearly a hand on Shoemaker's face mask as he was going down, there seemed to be no grasping or twisting that would make the foul a fifteen-yard penalty. Regardless, Shoemaker was able to complete a few more passes to drive the Haymakers down to the one-yard line. It took three attempts against the tough Sidney defense, but Shoemaker was finally able to gain the yard and get into the end zone giving Cozad its first points of the game, narrowing the Sidney lead to 14-to-7. With 2:35 left in the half, Sidney drove to midfield but turned the ball over on downs when Doty's sideline run came up a bit short. Cozad started a drive with 28 seconds left in the half, but their first play ended in a sack by Sidney senior Connor Hurt for a nine-yard loss. Cozad was also hit with a holding penalty on the play, which Sidney declined. Cozad opted to let time expire and went into the halftime break down seven points.

Sidney started on offense in the third quarter, and a drive highlighted by a Doty run which he ran into a referee and kept going for a big gain was capped by a touchdown reception by Fiscus snaring a pass at the 15-yard line and beating a couple of Cozad defenders to get into the end zone. Doty's extra point kick had a bad snap, but Doty recovered the ball and passed to Riddle in the end zone for a two-point conversion, giving Sidney a 22-to-7 lead. Sidney forced a turnover on downs during the next Cozad possession before mounting another drive of their own. At this point in the game, both teams had players suffering from cramps, which continued through most of the third quarter. Sidney used big plays by Keian Kaiser to gain big chunks of yardage. On Kaiser's second reception of the drive, he ran over two tacklers on his way to a 20-yard gain. That was followed by Gillham picking up nine yards on a run, and with a chance to go all the way for a touchdown, but leg cramps forced him to the ground. As the Raiders crossed into Cozad territory, sophomore Rhys Dorcey had a big run, capped off with extra yards with Sidney players pushing the pile to gain extra yards, but a penalty was called on Sidney for "pushing the runner". Although pushing the pile is legal, directly contacting and pushing a player is a five-yard penalty. It seemed that Dorcey was not pushed directly, but the pile of players was, which along with multiple delay of game penalties, was another questionable call by the referees. The drive continued deep into Cozad territory, and the third quarter expired, with Sidney holding the ball in the quarter for over 10 minutes. Sidney eventually faced a fourth and goal attempt from the eight-yard line, but Doty's pass to Holly fell incomplete. Cozad took over on their eight-yard line, and on first down, Fiscus batted away a Shoemaker pass. Two more incompletions forced a Cozad punt, and Shoemaker got all of it and, along with a favorable bounce for the visitors, put the ball at the Sidney 17-yard line for a 75-yard punt.

Cozad was able to hold Sidney and force a punt. Doty's punt seemed to hit Cozad junior Chayden Hoffmaster on the arm, and Sidney recovered. But in another questionable call, the referees blew the play dead and Cozad retained possession. On their first play, Shoemaker passed to junior Olliver Davis, who made a spectacular one-handed grab, and was able to get behind the secondary and go all the way for a 69-yard touchdown. Cozad attempted a two-point conversion and failed, narrowing the Sidney lead to 22-to-13.

Sidney got the ball back and was able to drive the ball slowly down the field, using up all of the time on the clock. Cozad expended all of their timeouts to stop Sidney and get the ball back, but Sidney's rushing game, highlighted by tough running by Owen Gillham, made sure Cozad never had another chance to score. Time expired and Sidney took the 22-to-13 win.

Doty had a fine first outing as starting quarterback, seemed in control all game, and made very good decisions. Neither team had a turnover in the contest. Sidney rushed for 170 yards on 36 attempts.

Sidney's next game is on September 6, a road contest against the Minden Whippets, who beat Adams Central 18-to-15 Friday night. Minden finished with a 5-and-4 record last year and features a standout running back in senior Orrin Kuehn and a tough defense that does a good job getting in the backfield.