By TYLER HENRY
Little Apple Post contributor
While the Riley County football season has gotten off to a shaky start on paper, the Falcons have continued to put in the work necessary to turn several of their close past losses into hopeful future wins.
“Our effort and attitude have been tremendous and our kids have done a good job with that,” Riley County head coach Erik Willimon said. “We’ve been in every game up to the fourth quarter and our kids have never given up. I can’t speak enough to their resilience during this stretch.”
Despite a 1-4 start to the season, the Falcons have been outpaced by less than two scores on average, and know what is necessary to flip that script down the stretch.
“We still need to improve some of the fundamentals, blocking, tackling, playing to the whistle,” Willimon said. “We’ve been right there in every game that we’ve played but depth has been a concern and injuries have taken their toll on us.”
That lack of depth has led several veterans and underclassmen alike to learn new positions in a ruthlessly deep Class 2A, but despite the adversity, no grumbling has been heard on the Riley County sidelines.
“We’ve had kids playing out of position and we’ve used a lot of freshmen in special teams roles to give some of our guys a break but our kids have been very good about being adaptable and putting the team ahead of themselves,” he said.
Statistically, the Falcons have only been outgained by 300 yards through five games thanks in part to an offense led by quarterback Eli Harmison and running backs Samson Waggoner and Sam Allen.
Harmison is completing just under 50% of his passes for over 700 yards and four touchdowns while Waggoner and Allen average around six yards a carry and add eight rushing scores.
Turnovers have been an area of concern for the Falcons offensively with five interceptions and three fumbles compounding Riley County’s issues.
After losing 18 of their 22 starters from a season ago, the next generation of Riley County football has had to learn and adapt on the fly, and while their work hasn’t always equated to wins, this group has persevered.
“We all want to measure success on wins and losses but you have to look at the body of work and we’ve been pleased with the growth we’ve seen from these guys,” Willimon said. You’re not going to win every game and our guys have continued to buy in through some pretty tough stretches.”
Things won’t get much easier for the Falcons on the schedule, as the team travels to Horton before returning home to host #2 Nemeha Central, then finishes their season on the road against a frisky 3-2 Minneapolis squad.
“We want to finish out 3-0 but we know we have some tough opponents ahead of us,” he said. “We take things one week at a time and we’re going to continue to do that as we grow. These guys aren’t playing for next year they’re playing for now. As long as that continues we feel good about where we can be in the near future.”
Riley County will be back in action this Friday when they head to Horton, looking to gain some momentum against the 1-4 Chargers.