HIGHLAND – Coach Wade Winkers and his River Ridge Timberwolves opened the 2023 football season on an exciting note, using a last-second touchdown pass to defeat the host Cardinals in a low-scoring 14-7 final.
Trailing Highland 7-6, with 20 seconds to play in the contest, River Ridge quarterback Brandon Davis took the snap on third-and-10, sprinted to his right, and delivered a strike to junior wide receiver Carter Copsey coming across the middle on a post pattern.
“It was into traffic with two defenders, and somehow he came out of there with it. I have no clue how,” coach Winkers said of Copsey’s catch.
From there, Copsey sprinted the last 15 yards into the end zone, securing River Ridge’s season-opening victory in dramatic fashion.
Matthew Nies added the two-point conversion run, while the River Ridge defense followed with an interception to put the punctuation mark on the victory.
Things started off a little rough for the Timberwolves though, who lost three fumbles on their first four offensive possessions of the game.
“It’s very frustrating because you don’t put points up early like we were capable of, and then you let a team hang around long enough and they believe they are going to beat you,” Winkers said. “They had every chance to, and probably should have.”
With a balanced offensive attack, the Timberwolves managed 284 yards of total offense, gaining 147 on the ground and 137 through the air.
Splitting time at quarterback for coach Wade Winkers’ offense were returning senior Matthew Nies and sophomore Brandon Davis.
Asked after the game, which quarterback he was leaning on to lead the team throughout the upcoming season, coach Winkers was at a loss for an answer.
“It’s a great question, I don’t know,” Winkers said. “We’re in discussions about it right now on how we want to move forward. Both guys earned the opportunity to play coming into this week.”
“It’s a tough decision, and we’re very lucky and fortunate to have two quality kids that are competing for that position,” he added. “I know other teams would love to have one. We’re kind of working through that decisions as we speak.”
“They both posses different traits that they bring to the table, and they both run the offense the way we want. They understand the option part of it,” Winkers added.
Davis completed 6-of-14 passing attempts for 124 yards and the one touchdown to Copsey, while also rushing for a team-high 48 yards on 11 attempts, and catching one pass for a 23-yard touchdown.
Nies, who started the game under center, got the Timberwolves on the board late in the opening quarter with a 23-yard TD pass to Davis. The missed extra-point kick left River Ridge with a 6-0 lead with 4:01 to play in the first quarter. Nies, who was 2-of-4 passing, also went on to have six rushing attempts for 29 yards and two receptions for 46.
Highland answered late in the second quarter on a five-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bennett Smith to wide receiver John Dreischmeier. The extra-point kick by Dreischmeier gave the Cardinals a 7-6 advantage going into halftime.
Neither team managed a score in the third quarter, or throughout most of the fourth, until Davis and Copsey connected on the game winner to send the River Ridge faithful into a frenzy.
For Copsey, it was only his second reception of the game, the first going for 18 yards in the first quarter, as he finished with two receptions for a team-high 63 yards.
While the two quarterbacks combined for 77 of their team’s 137 rushing yards, River Ridge fullback Andrew Nies rushed for 35 yards on seven carries, while Ty Adrian added 17 yards on four attempts. Fellow senior Brady Bunge had two yards rushing on two attempts and nine yards receiving on one catch.
“They did pretty much everything to try and take away our fullback and our quarterbacks made the right decisions to pull the ball and run,” Winkers said. “We’d like to figure out a way to get (Andrew Nies) the ball a little more, because he’s the guy we want carrying it.”
Highland concluded the contest with 236 yards passing and negative three yards rushing, giving them a total of 233 yards on 54 offensive plays for a respectable average of 4.3 yards per play.
The bend but don’t break defense of River Ridge was led by Matthew Nies with nine tackles, and followed by Ty Adrian with eight and Andrew Nies with seven. Andrew Nies and Elliott Thornton also combined for the team’s only sack.
“They couldn’t run the football on us, that was nice to see from our front four,” Winkers said of his defensive line.
Coach Winkers and his Timberwolves will look to add another non-conference victory to their record when they host Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca this Friday night. The Hornets are coming off a 35-0 shutout loss to Potosi/Cassville.
