Storm Lake Times Pilot

Ridge View looks to stay in hunt with win over physical Emmetsburg club



After dropping its first four games of the season, Emmetsburg has turned things around by winning its last two games.

One game the E-Hawks did it with offense (63-21 over Sibley-Ocheyedan) and the other with defense (28-6 over Sioux Central).

Ridge View coach Dale Tokheim, whose team hosts the E-Hawks tonight in Holstein, said they are a typical Emmetsburg team.

“Emmetsburg is a physical team,” he said. “They are big up front and they want to run the ball. They do run a few more formations than the Emmetsburg of old, but they want to run the ball. Their quarterback is very fast and he is a great compliment to their pound-the-ball-off-tackle because as soon as you commit too much to stop the fullback belly play, he is running outside with the ball.”

The E-Hawks average 22.5 points a game on offense. They are led by running back Seth Freeman, who has 599 yards and nine TDs. Lane Auten adds 336 yards and quarterback Ryan Brennan 300 yards and three scores.

“They want to run the ball,” Tokheim said. “They have several different formations and make you play assignment defense to stop them.”

The Raptors will need to do their job on defense to have success limiting the E-Hawks.

“We must play assignment football, do our job and trust our teammates to do their job,” Tokheim said. “We must be physical, intense and swarm the ball.”

Emmetsburg is allowing 29 points a game on defense.

“They run an old school 5-2 monster and then just move the strong safety and drop end off to help cover the spread,” Tokheim said. “They are physical and very aggressive.”

The E-Hawks’ defense will create some problems for the Raptors’ offense.

“Their size up front and their scheme will be tough to run on,” Tokheim said. “We have to execute. We want to run our basic plays and execute them better. Our offensive line has to play better than they did last week.”

There are a few things the Raptors will need to do better this week than a week ago.

“We have to come ready to play, we need to be more aggressive on defense, and we need to tackle better,” Tokheim said. “We had several mistakes on alignment and knowing our assignments and we gave up big plays because of it. We must be focused on every play, communicate and execute. Offensively, we need to block better and give a better effort at every position.”