I-G’s Ty Cutts tries to shake off a River Ridge defender. David Friesein photo.
River Ridge knew Iowa-Grant had just beaten two very strong opponents and their A game was needed to compete. Senior quarterback Blake Reynolds handled a good share of the competing with three rushing touchdowns on short yardage while adding a pass for a TD to Carl Koenig. Noah Copsey and Aaron Bedward also ran for scores. Thus the Timberwolves found the gear they needed and outlasted the Panthers 39-26 in a match-up in the highly competitive Six Rivers Conference.
Panther quarterback Brock Hinderman tried to keep the Panthers in it whe he ran for three short yardage touchdowns with eight yards on seven carries. But it was through the air he really bothered the Wolves while completing 20 of 27 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown toss to Landon Friesen.
Friesen was a huge target for Hinderman as the senior wideout grabbed eight passes for 129 yards. Hinderman mixed it up a bit with Ty Cutts netting five catches for 61 yards, Hayden Aultman three for 37, Owen Wyatt two for 26, Cole Schauff one for 20 and Grant Schauff one for eight.
The passing game was a big part of coach Hayden Link’s game plan.
“We wanted to spread them out, so our passing attack was always on the forefront of my mind,” Link said. “But credit River Ridge. They prevented a lot of big plays. There were also all the penalties. We looked very undisciplined and perhaps we were. I have to correct that.”
The Panthers only ran 16 plays on the ground and picked up 35 yards. As an afterthought Link felt it may have been a little early to go away from the run.
“We also abandoned the run game just a hair prematurely in the second half,” he said. “Cole Schauff was just hitting his stride when we took the ball out of his hands.”
Schauff accounted for 26 of the yards on eight carries.
Link had praise for Hinderman’s performance.
“Brock was great Friday night and I appreciate all he does for us,” Link said. “He still has room to improve. We all do. But no one is questioning what he gives us. 20 out of 27 is tough to do against anybody, much less a team like River Ridge.”
He also pointed out Friesen’s contributions.
“On any given night, any one of our receivers can explode.” Link said. “We actually looked for Friesen a little too often and sometimes left Ty Cutts, Hayden Aultman, and Owen Wyatt out to dry a bit. We definitely left meat on the bone as far as our offense goes. But Friesen is special and he’s looking to have another huge year.”
When it came to the way the lines played Link gave the edge to the Wolves.
“They were simply more physical in the trenches,” Link said. “On film, we look gassed up front, on a consistent basis. It might be from the gauntlet of games we have been through (Black Hawk, Potosi, and the Ridge) and we might be a little road weary, I don’t know. We took the following Monday off and hopefully we are well-rested now. Their lines were QUICK. Coming into the game, I was afraid their center (Tony Hernandez) would give us trouble and he absolutely did. Again, kudos to those guys.”
As for the way the Panthers handled three straight games against the conference’s best Link summed it up this way.
“If you’d told us at the beginning of the season that we’d come out of
that stretch of games 2-1, we’d be elated,” he said. “But now we are extremely disappointed and I think it speaks volumes for the hearts of our guys on this 2026 IG team that we expect more from ourselves.”
This week it is back to work against a Boscobel team with an unpredictable approach.
“We are expecting to see a little bit of everything,” said Link. “Those coaches really try to innovate and make the game fun for those kids. We’ll see if we can keep up.”
