Earlham Echo

September 12, 2023

Less than a minute into the 2^nd quarter last Friday, IKM-Manning had had three possessions, scoring touchdowns on two of them. The Earlham offense didn’t even have a first down yet. That might have been an indication that it just wasn’t going to be their night—but the resilient Cardinals were having none of that. Earlham turned things around and eventually won a wild, well-played contest in Manning, 40-33.

“One of the greatest aspects of our team right now is our grit and working hard whether we’re down, up, whatever,” said Ty Forcht. “Every snap counts. We’re working 100% every snap. No plays off.”

Having been completely shut down in the 1^st quarter by a rugged IKM-Manning defense, the Cardinal offense did not panic.

“We just got to work,” said Blake Reynolds. “We thought, “We need to go down and score,” and that’s what we did. We knew we could get back in it. We were fine. We just needed to push through and get some momentum.”

Starting their third possession at their own 35 yard line, the Earlham offense got a spark from the passing game. Reynolds connected with Jeret Petersen for a 13-yard completion, then hit Caleb Smith for 3 yards. The completions seemed to get the IKM-M defense on their heels a bit and the Cardinal o-line started opening up some room for the running backs. Ryan Stiles ran for 13 yards, Forcht for 9 yards, and Stiles plowed for 15 more yards to the Wolves’ 12. After Smith ran for 9 yards, Stiles plunged for 1 yard to give the Cardinals a 1^st and goal. Smith finished off the efficient, 8-play, 3-½-minute drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. The PAT was blocked, so the Cards trailed, 14-6.

Up to that point, the Wolves had gashed the Cardinal defense for big gains with the run and the pass, but on their next possession, the Cards forced a 3 and out. After the Wolves punted, the Cardinals struck quickly again. Reynolds delivered a long strike to Walker Hale, who hauled it in for a 41-yard reception to the IKM-M 17. Forcht followed with a 14-yard run to the 3. Two plays later, Smith scored again from 1 yard out. The 2-point conversion failed, and the Cards trailed, 14-12, with 3:57 to go in the half.

The Wolves recovered the Cardinals’ onside kick and had good field position at their 47. After a short run and 2 incompletions, they had to punt again. Forcht started the Cardinal drive with a 25-yard run to their 39 yard line. A pass interference by the Wolves set the Cards up at the IKM-M 43. On 1^st down at the 30, Reynolds hit Forcht in stride on a short crossing route. Forcht was well defended, but he hauled in the pass at the 15 and ran untouched into the end zone.

The play was a simple concept that was well executed.

“I see that corner as I’m coming across and as soon as he bites down on our underneath route, I know that I can be open in the flat,” said Forcht. “I just have to beat out that safety. It’s all about busting my butt over there and trying to get open.”

Smith ran for the ensuing 2-pointer and the Cards had their first lead of the night, 20-14, with 1:10 to go in the half.

Forcht returned the 2^nd-half kickoff to the 42. On the first play of the drive, Stiles ran the ball up the middle, hit some traffic, bounced outside to the left, and sprinted down the sideline for a 58-yard TD run. The 2-pointer failed, and the Cards led, 26-14.

Down two scores, the Wolves weren’t in any mood to give up. On the ensuing drive, they took the ball 52 yards in just 2-½ minutes for a touchdown to make the score 26-20. Their defense then forced a punt by the Cardinals. Taking over at their own 40 at the 7:40 mark of the 3^rd quarter, the Wolves put another impressive drive together—capping it with a 19-yard TD pass. After the 2-pointer failed, the game was tied at 26 with 2:24 to go in the 3^rd.

The Cardinals answered with a long drive of their own. On a 3^rd and 7 play, Reynolds hit Petersen on a slant for 13 yards and a 1^st down at the IKM-M 47. Three plays later, the pair hooked up again on a 4^th and 5 pass for another Cardinal 1^st down at the 31. After a loss of 4 yards on a run and an incompletion, Coach Caskey called a timeout. The next play probably didn’t go down exactly as he drew it up, but it worked, nonetheless. Reynolds bobbled the low snap briefly, then rolled to his right. The Cardinal receivers were all covered up, and Reynolds was running out of room near the sideline. Forcht, who was on a short route in front of Reynolds, then ad-libbed a bit and took off up the sideline. Two defenders followed, but Reynolds threaded a pass between them into the hands of Forcht, who caught the ball and ran to the 17 for another critical 1^st down.

“Me and Blake talk about it all the time,” Focht said. “On any route, if he’s kind of running out of sideline there and he’s getting out to the edge, I just make an audible and go up the field. He saw me and put it right where I could get it.”

“I knew exactly what he was going to do,” Reynolds added. “I knew he was going upfield, and I trusted him to make the catch, so I put it up there for him.”

Three plays later, the Cards were faced with another 4^th down at the 9. Reynolds ran left, picked his way through traffic, and ran for a TD. On the 2-point conversion, Reynolds rolled to his right and threw to Stiles. The pass was a little behind him. But Stiles corralled it with one hand and ran in for the score. The Cards led, 34-26, with 7:36 to go in the game.

At that point in the game, the safe play would have been to drive a kickoff deep. But Coach Caskey called for another onside kick. The Cardinals hadn’t recovered one in a while—but they got this one. Kicker Klayton Wolken delivered a perfect kick. The ball skipped off the grass for about 10 yards, then took a high hop right into the arms of a leaping Stiles. The Cards were in business at the Wolves’ 47. On the second play of the drive, Smith ran to his right through a nice hole, broke a couple tackles at the second level, then ran down the sideline for a 45-yard TD. After the 2-pointer failed, the Cards led, 40-26, with 6:48 to go.

But the Wolves weren’t done. The Cardinals touched the ensuing onside kick too early, giving the ball to IKM-M at the Cardinal 49. QB Ben Ramsey, who was 15-22 for 136 yards on the night, connected on 4 passes on the drive, including a 10-yarder for a TD. With 5:42 to go, the Cards still led, 40-33.

The Wolves’ onside kick attempt went out of bounds and the Cards took over at the IKM-M 46. They picked up 3 1^st downs, moving the ball to the 2, before taking a knee to kill the clock.

A potent offense put up 33 points against the Cardinal defense. That’s going to happen. There are some good teams out there. But the Cardinal offense was up to the task in this shootout, consistently making big plays when they needed them.

“It’s just all effort,” said Reynolds. “It starts with the line. They were making great blocks. They figured out what to do. We pushed through. It took guts fighting for the extra yard, fighting for a first down, just making the extra play to get us the win.”

Several of the critical plays on offense down the stretch were in the passing game. Before the season, Coach Caskey mentioned that it might take a few games before Reynolds adjusted to the speed of the varsity game. It looks like that is happening. Reynolds looks comfortable and in command of the offense—run or pass.

“I feel really confident,” he said. “The biggest thing is I trust my receivers to get open and I just give them a chance to catch the ball. Up front tonight, we had great blocking. I had time in the pocket. We work on (the passing game) a lot in practice, getting everything tuned up. We know we can throw the ball this year and it’s something we can take advantage of.”

Reynolds completed 9 of 14 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals gained 306 yards on the ground. Smith led with 112 and 3 TDs, Stiles had 106 and 1 TD, and Forcht had 66. Forcht caught 2 passes for 47 yards and 1 TD, Petersen had 4 for 44, and Hale had 1 reception for 41. Smith led the defense with 8 tackles.

The Cardinals host Southwest Valley (2-1) for Homecoming this Friday. Earlham is #20 in the BCMoore rankings, and the Timberwolves are #43.