Rudder drops district opener 42-13 at Magnolia

Source: The Eagle, Bryan, TexasSept.迷你倉出租 14--MAGNOLIA -- There was finally some good news for the Rudder football team.For the first time this season, the Rangers scored a touchdown. A second quarter pass from Brady Batten to Isaiah Johnson did the trick.However, Rudder started 18-4A district play the way it began its season -- with a loss. Magnolia made just enough big plays and limited Batten and the struggling Rudder running game to cruise to a 42-13 win.After completing just four passes in the first two games, Batten was very solid against a stout Magnolia defense. As coach C.M. Pier said earlier this week, "Everybody wants to run the ball."However, Rudder decided early on that it was time to give up on that aspect of the game and try to beat Magnolia through the air. Batten finished the game with two touchdown passes.Going into the half, Rudder seemed to have the momentum, despite trailing 28-13. After Robert Lee's third-quarter interception, the Rangers had the ball in Magnolia territory with an opportunity to make it a one-possession game.But on the ensuing drive, Batten's pass to a wide-open Johnson in the end zone hit off his fingertips. It was a nice pass but Johnson slowed down. Then two false starts in a row put Rudder outside of field-goal range, and facing a third-and-15 rather than a makeable third-and-5. Lee followed that up with a 10-yard gain, but it wasn't enough to get the Rangers back into field goal range. The Rudder running game continued to struggle and Magnolia overloaded the line of scrimmage and held Lee to a 1-yard gain to stop Rudder and end the threat.Rudder's defense improved 迷你倉mmensely after two weeks of struggling. The Rangers limited most all of the Bulldogs' drives. But later in the third quarter, Rudder gave up a big third-down conversion at their own end of the field that could have kept Magnolia out of field-goal range. Facing another third-and-long, Magnolia running back John Grunkemeyer ran for 10 yards and set up a fourth-and-1. From that point. Greg Solomon took a direct snap and ran around the right edge untouched for a 15-yard touchdown that effectively put the game out of reach.On its next drive, Rudder drove down the field, taking up precious time, going 14 plays, but got nothing out of it. Again Rudder went for it on fourth-and-short, and Batten found Devin Johnson across the middle to move the ball inside the Magnolia 30-yard line. It was the first completion from Batten to Johnson. However, two incompletions and a short run set up another fourth down. Batten continued his strong play with an 8-yard scramble, ut a penalty, a sack and an incompletion ended the drive early.Batten completed 10 of 28 for 164 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown to Johnson on a simple pass to the flat. Rudder also broke the century mark on the ground for the first time this season, going for 130 yards. Rudder's offense did make strides, getting 13 first downs a week after managing just five.Magnolia's fast-paced offense went for 510 total yards, including 351 on the ground. Grunkemeyer led the way with 171 rushing yards and two touchdowns.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) Visit The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) at .theeagle.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉