No. 8 Unity defeats St. Joseph-Ogden football
By FRED KRONER
The Spartans’ football record dropped to 1-3 following a 48-16 loss at Tolono Unity on Friday (April 9).
The state-ranked Rockets (No 8 in Class 3A) built a 28-0 lead before SJ-O reached the end zone.
“Need to recognize the fact that Unity made plays that were presented to them,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “They made more winning plays than we did.
“It seemed that when we would gain any momentum, we would make a critical mistake, either a penalty, turnover or a mental error that really prevented us from sustaining momentum and it prevented us from playing winning football.”
Junior Keaton Nolan continues to be the offensive workhorse. He carried the ball a season-high 30 times and gained 159 yards. Nolan has been called upon 93 times in four games as a ballcarrier.
Nolan and Jackson Rydell scored the Spartans’ touchdowns. Rydell hauled in a 67-yard scoring strike from Evan Ingram, who eclipsed the 100-yard mark for passing yards for the third time in four games.
Ingram threw for 120 yards. Brady Buss caught two of the passes and has receptions in each of the teams four games.
The other SJ-O points came on a two-point conversion by Rydell and a safety by Jack Setterdahl.
“This season is so important for our team and program,” Skinner said. “First, our seniors having the chance to play the sport once more, and our five seniors have been giving us such good effort.
“Max Shonkwiler returned from a hand injury and played with fantastic effort and really has become a great leader. Jackson Rydell continues to improve every week and has given us some much-needed playmaking ability.”
Underclassmen are also making noteworthy contributions.
“Our young players are really getting a valuable experience and we won’t know the final story of this spring season until later this fall,” Skinner added. “All of these lessons and hard knocks we are taking, if we respond from the lessons we are being afforded to learn, then it will all be worth it.
“That will be determined at a later date. But I like the effort our guys keep bringing.”
The Spartans return to action on Friday (April 16) in their home-finale against Bloomington Central Catholic.
“There were moments I was watching to see if we were going to compete or quit,” Skinner said. “I like how we responded in the second half (at Unity). We made winning football plays.
“Now we need to work towards putting that effort forward this Friday night in our final home game and take a step forward to playing four quarters in front of our fans.”
