POTOSI – When the field conditions warrant a straight-ahead, downhill, physical runner, Potosi/Cassville football coach Mark Siegert can thank his lucky stars to have someone like Roman Friederick in his corner.
The 6’’1” - 225-pound senior fullback carried the bulk of the offensive load last Friday night for the Chieftains, who defeated visiting River Ridge, 24-6, in a level-two division 7 playoff contest.
Friederick, who missed five games this season with a knee injury, returned to the team just in time for the playoffs, and has certainly been making his presence known.
After rushing for 103 yards and two TDs a week earlier against Hillsboro, Friederick rushed for a game-high 219 yards and two touchdowns on a whopping 36 carries last Friday night.
Following a couple days of rain leading up to Friday night’s contest, coach Siegert had a hunch he may just have to lean heavily on his senior fullback Friday night.
“You kind of know ahead of time when you’re practicing and it’s really greasy and wet. Going East or West on sweeps, or counters, or anything like that is really tough,” explained Siegert. “But going in a straight line from point A to point B is a lot easier.”
“Coach (Tony) Leibfried has that package in our playbook when we need it, so it’s great to be able to have that and to lean on someone like Roman. He ran really, really hard, and of course the offensive line did a great job too,” Siegert added.
Without their power fullback and top linebacker, Andrew Nies, the Timberwolves found it a little more difficult to not only move the ball between tackles, but to also stop the interior runs by the Chieftains.
While the Timberwolves concluded the contest with 160 yards of total offense, the Chieftains managed 422 total yards, 407 of which came on the ground.
Aside from Friederick’s 219 yards, senior halfback Eli Adams rushed for 98 yards on 16 carries, while quarterback Braden Fishnick added 79 yards on 10 rushing attempts.
“When we were on defense we just couldn’t really get a stop,” said River Ridge coach Wade Winkers. “I think they had one 30-yard run play, other than that nothing really big, just a lot of five, four and six yard runs.”
“Obviously having Roman Friederick back for them was a big piece,” Winkers added. “He’s a really good runner in between the tackles. We tried to plug a lot of pieces and tried to do some different things to slow him down. You still have to have a responsibility-sound scheme, which I feel ours is, but they kind of impose their will a little bit with some of their size, and with the size of their backs.”
On Potosi/Cassville’s first offensive possession of the game, the Chieftains drove 62 yards on 13 plays, only to turn the ball over on downs at the Timberwolves’ three-yard line.
Their second possession resulted in a 15-yard passing score from Fishnick to Adams, capping off an eight-play scoring drive that covered 40 yards in just under four minutes.
On their third possession of the half, the Chieftains again drove down the field inside their opponent’s five-yard line, only to lose a fumble at the one-yard line on a quarterback sneak.
While the Timberwolves had their first offensive possessions end on Potosi/Cassville’s side of the field, they had a hard time moving the ball against the Chieftain defense, and trailed at the half, 8-0.
“We dropped a pass that we normally would convert in the end zone, and then we had that fumble on a sneak at the one-yard line, so we left some points there,” Siegert said of the first half. “But we were moving the ball, and we were controlling the line of scrimmage. Especially in playoff football, when there’s opportunities, you’ve got to convert them, otherwise it could come back to haunt you.”
Coming out to start the third quarter, coach Siegert’s squad marched the ball down the field yet again, using 10 rushing plays to reach the end zone, and taking 5:49 off the clock. Friederick’s one-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion by Eli Adams, gave the Chieftains a 16-0 advantage.
“That was important, because we know they can move the ball,” Siegert said of extending his lead over the Timberwolves. “They’re explosive and they have kids that can hit pay dirt at any time. We wanted to make sure we continued to control the line of scrimmage and do the things that we needed to.”
River Ridge answered with a deep offensive surge on their next possession, but a stand by the Potosi/Cassville defense prevented the Timberwolves from getting on the scoreboard.
With both teams getting limited possessions throughout the contest, Potosi/Cassville essentially sealed the win midway through the fourth quarter on another one-yard touchdown plunge by Friederick. With the addition of a two-point conversion run by Adams, the Chieftains extended their lead to 24-0 with 5:24 to play in the contest.
River Ridge did find the end zone soon after, getting a 26-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Brandon Davis to junior wingback Ty Adrian, with just under four minutes showing on the clock.
Running in place of Andrew Nies was sophomore fullback Brock Bunge, who finished with a team-high 90 yards on 15 carries for an average of six yards per attempt.
“Brock did a real nice job filling in there, we just didn’t keep drives going enough,” said coach Winkers. “I thought as a group we had a great effort against a really good football team. They’re a really good football team, and we were going to have to play really well to beat them, and we didn’t play up to that level.”
After gashing the Chieftains for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 12 rushing attempts in their regular-season meeting on Oct. 6, sophomore quarterback Brandon Davis was limited to just three yards rushing on four attempts last Friday night.
“With option responsibilities, and us having a sophomore fullback in there that isn’t the normal starter, maybe they were a little more focused on quarterback play and allow the fullback to get a little more of a crease?” Winkers questioned. “Obviously they were more worried about him after the performance he had last time against them he said of Davis.”
“We just went in preparing the same way, but knowing that Brandon would be really, really a key part of it if they were going to be super explosive, because he is so fast,” Siegert said. “If you make one mistake, he’s gone, and we saw that the first time.”
Through the air, Davis completed 3-of-8 passing attempts for 52 yards, including the 26-yard TD pass to Adrian, who finished with a team-high two receptions for 34 yards.
Defensively for the Timberwolves, Davis had a team-high 15 tackles and one sack, while Matthew Nies had 11 tackles and Drake Barrineau 10.
Coach Winkers, who had six sophomores playing on varsity this year, is excited to see what the future holds for River Ridge football, but at the same time must say goodbye to four seniors on this year’s squad, three of whom started on both sides of the ball since they were sophomores. Playing in their final game last Friday night were Matthew Nies, Brady Bunge, Jayden Cathman and Owen Callahan.
“It’s going to be really tough to replace our seniors,” said coach Winkers. “They’re not rah, rah guys, or loud guys, or anything vocal like that, but they just come to work and lunch-pail it, and that’s a great example for our younger players to see. They’ve had a huge impact on our program.”
“It’s a young team, I think they did a lot of really nice things this year and we’re excited to see what they can do next year,” Winkers concluded.
Leading the Potosi/Cassville defense with 19 stops was Isaiah Groom, followed by Friederick with 14 and Heath Rauch with 10, to go along with two sacks.
While the Timberwolves concluded the season with an overall record of 7-4, the Chieftains improved to 10-1 and will advance to level three where they will take on another familiar foe in Black Hawk/Warren (10-1).
During their regular-season meeting on Sept. 30, the Chieftains beat the Warriors, 41-20, after holding a 22-0 lead at halftime. Coach Siegert’s squad rushed for 313 yards and three touchdown, while also throwing for 125 yards and two more scores.
“You know what you’re going to get, and they know what we’re about,” Siegert said of their date with the Warriors. “It’s just going to be a matter of all those things like turnovers, explosive plays, special teams and field position, all of that stuff is going to play a huge roll.”
The winner of Friday night’s contest will move on to the state semifinals against either Reedsville (11-0) or Randolph (9-2).
