RHS Football

Fresh off of a convincing first win against the Wind River sophs, the Wolverines sent the Warriors back to Worland with a 42-18 loss to move to 2-2 on the season. According to a team spokes person, Riverton's scoring was diverse with Johnny Reddon, Jarrett Watson, Parker Walton, Shawn Rivera, and Brandon Jennings all scoring for the young Wolverines.

Up next of the Freshman will be the Jackson Broncs in Tonkin Stadium on Saturday.

The Riverton Freshmen football team rolled to their first win of the season after disappointing losses to Evanston and Cody. Against a tough Wind River JV team the Woverines rolled to a 20-6 win. Brandon Jennings got things rolling with a 46 yd touchdown run early in the game. Late in the first quarter, John Reddon hit Jarrett Watson from about 30 yards out to put the Wolverines up 14-0. Jennings closed out the scoring to give the young Wolverines their first win of the season. The Riverton defense played greedy ball and kept the Cougar offense stalled most of the game.

And "wonder" it was. I wonder what happened to that suffocating defense I witnessed only 6 days prior manhandle a physical GR team; I "wonder" if I, like a lot of others, under-estimated a Douglas team that graduated virtually all their skilled players from last year, a year in which Riverton beat them soundly. I "wonder" if this team now has the heart and soul to put this game behind them and go on to become the team that everybody, including themselves, expected to be.



It was a game that every Riverton fan, coach, and player had to have walked away from shaking their head with lots of questions. Only time will tell if Douglas is really that good of a team, but one thing is for sure, they were definately better than the Wolverines on Friday night. But what happened to that Riverton team that had so much promise coming into the 2007 season. Did we expect too much of them? Or did they simply overlook Douglas and walk on the field with that "we'll win" attitude instead of the "we'll earn a win" attitude they needed. And, possibly, the answer is somewhere in between.



Regardless of the X and O questions of Friday night, this team is now at a crossroads in the season, only one game into it; and unfortunately now the questions are more important to the season as a whole. And they're all going to be part of the "blame game".



I'm sure most of the Riverton contingent walked out of the stadium Friday night trying to place blame for the loss, and that, unfortunately, becomes just like the ol "pin the tail on the donkey" game we all played as kids. Most of the time, we blindly pinned the tail where it didn't belong, but it was pinned on the donkey none the less.



The first thing everyone that has ever coached knows, is that you can only coach the kids to the edge of the field. Once the team steps on that field it becomes execution and heart on the kids' part; and there was definately a lack of both Friday. The playes and coaches can fix those problems; so the success, or lack thereof, of this team for the rest of the season is now in our hands....... the fans....



If we now unite together to criticize the coaching staff we will become the cancer that kills this season, because eventually the kids buy into it then can play with no accountability... which means no execution and heart.



If we remain Riverton fans, and by definition that means supporters of the program win or lose, the kids continue to work hard, the team remains united, and the coaches coach without having to second guess everything, AND this team goes on to reach the goals they set for themselves before the season.



It is now our responsibility to make the call.... I hope it's a good one.

Okay, we need to set the stage.... It was the NFL preseason game of Wyoming High School football, with kids being moved around and coaches playing close to the vest. However, with that said the Wolves and the Wolverines did strap it up, clamp in the mouth pieces, and wanted to win the game.

I think any team on the schedule this year that takes Riverton lightly is in for a head shakingly tough game. Defensively, the Wolverines look as good as I've seen in many years. They definately added the "rine" to the Wolves.... or more accurately the "ring"; because the first thing you'll notice about the 07 defense is that it's loaded with guys that like to ring players bells. The linebacker group, led by Daniel Bessey, really fly around with wreckless abandon and can flat put the stop to a running back. The D line with Travis Barton and Austin Coyle at the bookends were equally as impressive. The GR quarterback saw as much of them as he did his own center. Riverton's sack count had to have been in the double digit and when the guy had time to throw he was throwing on the run. The Wolverine secondary did a good job of coverage and all of them; Wilson, Blumenshine, Osborne, and Rodriguez; can bring the wood when a ball carrier gets loose in the secondary!!