Green Devils big ‘D’ boosts them to win
By Kristi Nixon
OSAGE — Five turnovers by MFL MarMac helped Osage to a 28-22 non-district victory on Friday, Sept. 9.
Fumble recoveries in the first half by all three Mullers on the team: first a Barrett Muller recovery that helped lead to a 14-0 advantage; then Mac Muller, which led to a blocked field goal attempt; and then the third, by Gabe Muller, allowed Osage to take a 21-8 score at the break on quarterback Max Knudsen’s third touchdown pass to a third different receiver before halftime.
“We felt good going into half,” Osage Coach Torian Wolf said. “They made some good adjustments defensively to stop us on offense. We came out and had a really good start to the second half offensively, but that first half we were super-energetic; we were hitting everything that we wanted to – we just weren’t able to get as many points as we thought we should have in the first half, sputtered a little bit. That’s a credit to them – they are a tough team.”
The final two Bulldog turnovers, both fourth quarter interceptions by Landon Arends to go along with his two touchdown receptions, aided the Green Devils to a 2-1 start before heading into district play this Friday night at Clear Lake.
The way that Arends, a transfer last spring from Rockford, has clicked with Knudsen and the rest of the Green Devils, it is as if he has always played with them.
“He’s like a part of the team,” Wolf said. “As soon as he got over here, I think he started clicking with everybody – it didn’t take long. Number one, the Osage kids are great kids, they are very accepting of guys when they know they are going to put in the work to make us better in whatever sport he’s in. Not just the football guys, the whole community has accepted him.
“He feels comfortable here. He’s got a good relationship with Max (Knudsen) over the summer, went out and started throwing with him. (We were) just waiting for the game for those two to make that connection. You can see that teams have been doubling him (Arends) and make sure we can’t get easy touchdowns. We finally get a game where a team wanted to man up on him, and we took advantage of it.”
Arends concurred, “Over the summer, we talked and then came out here and ran routes all summer. We did 7-on-7, we did Iowa camp, all of that stuff. We became good friends and clicked right away, instantly. I do (feel at home); it’s amazing here.”
The full story appears in the Sept. 14 print edition of the Enterprise Journal.
