Indians Tame The Tigers
The Oskaloosa Indians tamed the Tigers on Friday night on the road in Grinnell.
Grinnell, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Indians were looking to even up their early season after suffering a loss to Pella the week before.
Oskaloosa put up 41 points to Grinnell’s 0, in a game that had a continuous clock the entire second half.
“We were ready,” said Oskaloosa Head Coach Jake Jenkins. “We prepared. We made a lot of adjustments and a lot of improvements from week 1 to week 2. That’s what you always do.”
“There’s a lot we need to clean up, but it was just exciting to see our guys score and see a lot of different guys score,” said Jenkins. “That was a lot of fun.”
“Defensively, I was happy,” commented Jenkins. “I thought we adjusted fairly well. We just kind of stuck with our game plan. We try to keep it fairly simple and not do too much.”
“I was really happy we got a lot of guys in at the end game. I’m very happy about that,” added Jenkins.
The game got emotional for the Tigers, and one of their own was now leading the Indians. Their friend turned adversary, Seth Howard. “I think his homecoming was coming back to Oskaloosa where he’s from,” smiled Jenkins. “He did a good job. He stayed focused.”
The emotions between the two teams have been going on for over 100 years. “We’ve been playing a long, long time,” said Jenkins.
Howard had 21 pass attempts, completing 11 for a total of 130 yards in the air. Howard had one TD pass for 26 yards.
Howard also ran the ball in twice, having eight rushing attempts on the evening.
Cole Henry lead all Oskaloosa receivers with four receptions, totaling 43 yards. Jarad Kruse had one less reception but had 55 yards on those three receptions.
Alex DeJong snagged the pick-six, returning it 26 yards for the TD. Henry, Hill, and Miller also scored TD’s in the effort against the Tigers.
Defensively, the DeKock brothers had their way with Grinnell, racking up 5.5 tackles each on the evening. Nikolas Dystra and Blake Van Veldhuizen each had 3.5 tackles for the Indians.
Jaden VanRoekel had one punt on the evening for 34 yards.
Looking towards Friday night, Jenkins said that Fort Madison is a much-improved team. “They’re a better team this year. I really like their coach. He has a lot of energy and excitement, and I like what he’s doing.”
“We need to really get focused,” said Jenkins of the district opener.
Game time is 7:30 pm at the Lacey Stadium.
