Rural Retreat conquers Blue Devils 20-14

By SUSAN WHALEN/Correspondent

The Rural Retreat Indians took a 20-14 non-district win over the Grayson County Blue Devils Friday night in Independence.
Rural Retreat’s offense was led by Jake Whalen at quarterback and Tyler Hash and Terry Fields as running backs.
The line worked hard to open holes for them. The defense had several stand out players. Michael Smith, Eric Reasor, Daniel Baggerly, Drew Sult, Tyler Hilton, Jeremy Cregger and Kyle Testerman played tough against the Devil’s offense. Lukas Langston came up big in the field, stopping at least two GC scores.
Reasor took an on sides kick at RR’s 46 to start the game. Hash had a big run called back with a penalty. Hash, Fields and Whalen used the next six minutes to press the ball downfield with Hash striking pay dirt from the 6. Zayne Williams added the PAT to put RR ahead 6-0.
The Devils used a pass to advance from their 35 to RR’s 38. Grayson turned the ball over on downs, thanks to a penalty and Smith, Hilton and Reasor’s stops. The first quarter ended with RR in possession of the ball and a 6 point lead.
Whalen, Hash and Fields moved the ball into Devil’s territory. A nice hole on the left side allowed Hash to move on down to the 24.  While in the shot gun formation, Whalen handed off to Fields, who took it in for another 6. The PAT failed. With 10:43 left in the half RR led 13 – 0.
Jeremy Stepp’s kick was fielded at the 20 and advanced to the 32. Langston stopped a TD run at RR’s 42. After a stop for a loss and a short pass, Langston stepped up again for the TD saving run. Isaac Hayes and Smith were credited with tackles on the next few plays.
The Devils advanced the ball to the 6 on a carry by the quarterback Osborne. The Indian’s line held the Devils near the 5 yard line for two plays, forcing Grayson to turn the ball over to RR. The Indians were forced to punt on their next series.
Grayson took over with less then 2:30 left in the half. A few short yards on the ground set up a QB toss to Harvey who pumped to throw, but was rudely taken down by Fields for a huge loss. Faced with 4th and 24, Hernandrez punted the ball away. RR kept control until the end of the half going into the locker room with a 13-0 lead.
The second half began with a block in the back penalty on the Devils, sending them to their own 16.A few short gains later,  Hash stopped Hernandrez at the 48.Testerman came up with the defense, holding Grayson to a few yards. Larreta advanced to RR’s 41. Another yard rush and two incomplete passes forced the Devils to punt the ball away.
RR’s next series ended with Harvey intercepting a pass at RR’s 42.  Smith, Baggerly and Testerman had some nice tackles,  but the Devils would not be denied again. Osborne found the end zone for 6. The two point conversion sailed off the finger tips of Harvey. The Indians led 13 –6 late in the third.
RR took the ball at the 38. A bad snap to the punter gave Grayson excellent field position on RR’s 35. The Devils advanced to RR’s 19. Reasor recovered a fumble for RR on their 23.
Fields,Whalen and Hash ran the ball to Grayson’s 29. The line opened a hole in the middle for Hash to dash through all the way to the end zone. Williams added another PAT to up RR’s score to 20. With less then 3 minutes left, Blake Holman intercepted a pass to put RR back in control.
RR was forced to punt. Grayson blocked the punt and took over at RR’s 3. Osborne completed a TD pass to Harvey in the end zone adding 6 for Grayson. The two point conversion was successful for the last points scored in the game.
The Indians took an on sides kick at their 41 with less than a minute left. Whalen took a knee on the next two snaps to assure the 20-14 victory.