For the first time in his 28 years of coaching high school football, Collins-Maxwell/Baxter coach Rob Luther will not be on the sidelines or at the complex when his Raiders host East Marshall for CMB’s final Homecoming football game in Baxter on Friday.
After multiple flags were thrown against Luther and his coaching staff last Friday in the 28-22 win over West Marshall, the longtime Raider coach was thrown out of the game.
The same rule applies to a coach that applies to a player. If an ejection occurs, that player or coach also must miss the following game.
“I cannot be on the premises,” Luther said. “It will be weird. I have not missed a Friday night game in all of my 28 years of coaching.
We are working on a gameplan for the game. A lot of my assistant coaches have been with me for several years. I have lots of confidence in them to get us through this.”
The defensive side of the ball won’t be effected much. Defensive Coordinator Jason Aker will still be in charge of his unit with the help of assistant coach Zach Hasselbrink.
Luther calls the offensive plays on Friday nights so his absence will affect that offensive side of the ball.
Offensive assistant coaches Wes Stover and Max Seeman will share play-calling duties Friday night. Stover usually spends his time on Friday nights in the coach’s box but will be down on the field with Seeman when the Mustangs come to town. That moves assistant coach Mark Schultheis into the box for one game.
“The headsets will stay the same,” Luther said. “Stover and Seeman have input on what I call, so it won’t be too big of a deal. A lot of our offense is scripted anyway.”
Luther said the first 10 plays likely will be scripted Friday against East Marshall.
Turnovers have plagued the Raiders’ offense this season.
CMB out-gained West Marshall by nearly 200 yards last week but still needed a late touchdown run by Blake Coughenour to win because it committed three turnovers. CMB has turned it over multiple times in each game this season.
“We are moving the ball. We are right there,” Luther said. “We just have too many penalties and too many turnovers to get anything accomplished. We have had four games where we could have won or lost in the fourth quarter, and turnovers and penalties hurt our chances in every game. We have to get it cleaned up.”
East Marshall’s offense is mostly aerial. The Mustangs, partly because they have allowed eight sacks, averages only 35 rush yards per game. Tyler DeBondt has thrown for 857 yards and five touchdowns with six interceptions.
“Our strength defensively is stopping the run, too,” Luther said. “Our defense has played pretty well all year. We just need to get off the field on third and fourth downs. We’ll have to change our coverages up. We can’t give up big plays. If we force them to have to complete seven to nine passes per drive, that may be an advantage for us.”
Zane Johnson is DeBondt’s No. 2 option in the passing game. He has hauled in 22 passes for 254 yards and a TD. DeBondt also likes to go to Kamren Hoskins and Dru Bolliver. Hoskins has 18 catches, 114 yards and three scores, while Bolliver has 13 receptions for 154 yards.
The Mustang defense is led by Noah Bandstra, who has 41 tackles and a fumble recovery this season.
Luther said CMB will likely stick with a two-quarterback attack. Senior Hunter McWhirter re-aggravated a knee injury last week against West Marshall, but Luther said he should be able to share snaps with junior Braydon Aker. The duo has combined to throw for 492 yards, three TDs and six interceptions.
It may be another big night for Coughenour though. He gained 182 yards on the ground last week and has 560 rushing yards and six TDs on the season.
Both teams come into the game with 1-3 records. CMB is 1-1 in Class 2A District 3, while the Mustangs are 0-2. They lost 48-6 to Roland-Story last week. East Marshall’s only win was a 6-3 triumph against Waterloo Columbus Catholic.
The last time these two teams played was 2011. That ended in a 56-8 win for the Raiders. CMB won the previous two meetings as well.
The final CMB Homecoming game will kickoff off at 7:30 p.m. in Baxter.
PCM (3-1, 2-0) at Central Lee (3-1, 2-0)
The winner of this Class 2A District 6 matchup will likely have the inside track to a district title. Both teams have won three straight games after dropping their openers.
Central Lee does most of its offensive damage on the ground. The team has attempted just 12 passes this season and rushed for a total of 1,292 yards in four games.
Four players have gained at least 160 yards on the ground, led by Adam Rooney’s 473 yards and six touchdowns. Austin Gaylord has 319 rushing yards and two scores, while Tyler Hopp has gained 160 yards in 16 carries. Hopp also has returned a kickoff for a TD.
Quarterback Blake Burgess is 3-for-5 this season with 104 yards and two scores. He has rushed for 173 yards and four scores, too. Defensively, Burgess has three interceptions.
Central Lee has picked off six passes this season and has 14 fumble recoveries. Jared Brisby leads the defense with 33.5 tackles and two sacks.
PCM will travel 128 miles to play this game. The Mustangs are two-dimensional offensively.
Senior Sheldon Speers has thrown for nearly 900 yards and is completing 75 percent of his passes. He has 10 TD passes and a rushing TD.
The running game has been led by sophomore Wes Cummings, who has 354 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.
The Mustang defense has allowed just 18 points in their last three games since losing 42-20 to Class 1A No. 2 Pella Christian in the season opener.
Sophomore Isaac Telfer leads the defense with 20 tackles, one fumble recovery and one interception. Clayton Welch has three sacks, while Luke Greiner has five tackles for loss, one sack, a fumble recovery and a punt return for a TD.
Greiner leads the receivers, too, with 21 catches, 406 yards and seven TDs.
Winfield-Mt. Union (1-3, 1-1) at Lynnville-Sully (4-0, 2-0)
The Hawks are 4-0 for the first time in at least 10 years, and the Class A No. 7 Hawks could have another banner day against a team that was defeated by Cardinal in Week 3.
In Week 4, Lynnville-Sully defeated Cardinal, 53-0, behind four TD runs by Evan Squires and two TD passes from Elijah Collins.
Lynnville-Sully has allowed just 12 points this season, and the defense has collected three shutouts. The Hawks hasn’t allowed a point during district play.
Collins has thrown for 378 yards and eight TDs since taking over for Tyler Van Zante. Squires has 274 rushing yards and six touchdowns, while Sage Zylstra has reached the end zone three times and gained 199 yards on the ground.
Caden Dunsbergen and Brevin Hansen have combined for 13 catches and six TDs this season.
Ryan Hofer leads the defense with 28 tackles, five tackles for loss, one sack and one fumble recovery.
Winfield-Mt. Union’s lone win this season came by forfeit last week to Danville. Danville started the season with 15 players but had only nine healthy bodies for last week’s game and was forced to forfeit.
Colfax-Mingo (0-4, 0-2) at Grand View Christian (0-4, 0-2)
The Tigerhawks and Thunder are looking for their first win after struggling in the first four weeks of the season.
Colfax-Mingo made significant strides last week during a loss to Class A No. 10 Belle Plaine, but the Tigerhawks were shut out in the second half during a 40-13 loss.
The Tigerhawks have been outscored 181-13 this season, but Grand View Christian has allowed 216 points and scored just 45 this season.
In Class A District 5 action, Grand View Christian has been outscored 158-25.
The Thunder have surrendered at least 369 rushing yards in each game this season. Southeast Warren rushed for 441 yards and gained 507 total yards in the season opener, while Martensdale-St. Marys gained 369 rushing yards and 573 total yards in its win over the GVC in the second week.
The district games were even worse. Against Belle Plaine in Week 3, the Thunder surrendered 466 rushing yards and 602 total yards. BGM gained 487 rushing yards and 652 total yards in last week’s win.