Ellsworth Independent-Reporter

Ellsworth boys rescued from train car
Two five-year-old Ellsworth boys were rescued from the inside of a coal car July 28 on the rairoad tracks in Ellsworth. No injuries were reported.

Friday July 30

After Harvest Czech Festival

Wilson
Wilson celebrates its 50th annual festival this year. The festival continues Saturday, July 30, and include a large parade and many other activities.

Joe Kratzer sacks the quarterback in the Nov. 13 victory over Victoria.

Sports thoughts
Mark McCoy
Last Updated: November 25, 2009

In case you've been in a canyon searching for lost bandit treasure, the Quivira Heights Thunderbirds play the defending 8-Man Division II champion Hanover Wildcats at 2:45, Saturday Nov. 21 at Fischer Field, 220 Grandview in Newton.

As Ron Etchison does a good job covering the T-birds, I don't get to as many of their games as I'd like to, so post-season T-bird games are a real treat for me.

However, I did get a chance to see Hanover when they met the valiant Wilson Dragons Nov. 2 in the northern FLint Hills near the Nebraska border at Hanover.

Hanover leaves no doubt that they are a championship team. They have plenty of horses on the offensive line and they stack and move defenders around at will. They often run an unbalanced line, and take wide, 3-foot splits as they line up on the ball. The Wildcats are in the habit of taking up most of the field as they line up for an offensive play.

Jerod Diederich, the senior quarterback who wears number three, takes most of the snaps directly behind the center and likes to keep the ball, picking and choosing either a hole in the line or sweeping around the end with his blazing speed.

Sophomore Ethan Diederich, the Wildcats' running back, is also speedy and knows how to follow his blockers as well as throw good running blocks.

Both Diederichs are good passers and the Wildcats use the running back pass quite a bit in their game plan.
Their favorite target is number 80, senior tight-end Chad Alexander. Alexander not only is big and fast, he can catch the ball if it is thrown within 15 feet of him.

The Wildcats like to run the Diederichs at you — and when you think you have them contained — they zip the ball to Alexander for either long or short yardage.

Defensively, the Wildcats are a team effort. They like a man-to man defense in the backfield and their cornerbacks play clean and hard. They can slip into a zone defense, but rarely do.

The defensive line and linebackers simply punish their opponents, with the scrimmage line usually moving backwards instead of forwards. They know how to contain the end run and sack quarterbacks like stock-boys sack groceries.

I never saw a Wildcat try an ‘arm-tackle' in the game against Wilson. They hit low, they hit hard and they wrap-up the runner or receiver.

However, towards the end of the Dragon game, it became apparent that the Wildcat defense is susceptible to a good, scrambling quarterback. As Dragon quarterback Kenny Steinle began to make yardage on broken plays, the Wildcat defense seemed a little confused.

Which could be an advantage for T-bird quarterback Gunner Phelan. Like Steinle, Phelan is also an adept scrambler and seems to enjoy playing out of the pocket and thinking on his feet. His receivers are used to this style and come up to meet the ball as opposed to just running verbatim pass plays.

The T-birds also seem to have a larger arsenal of offensive weapons with Taylor Siemsen, Jacob Ingham, Tyler Riedel, Lucas Bosquez, Jordan Trevino, Brandon Jones and Matt Weber.

The Thunderbird line is equally balanced with Brent Jezek, Brenton Turner and Joe Kratzer who block as well as any line that I've seen all season.

The T-birds have wracked up 606 points versus their opponents this year while Hanover has made 594.

Defensively, the Wildcats have given up a total of 160 points compared to the Thunderbirds' 194 points.

The T-birds have also played in one of the toughest 8-man schedules in the state against the likes of Victoria, Macksville and Otis-Bison.

MAXPreps has the Wildcats listed as the fifth best best 8-man team in the nation and the second best team in the state. The Thunderbirds are listed as the 29th best 8-man team in the nation and the fifth best in the state.

How they derive that is beyond me, as on their own website, the T-birds lead in every category (except in points allowed) and since there are but four 8-man teams left playing in the state, how can the Thunderbirds be ranked fifth?

This Saturday, I predict that the Thunderbirds will once again defy the pundits and take the 8-Man Division II championship. They simply like to win and that is an edge in its own right.

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