Daugherty’s career night boosts Rams in win over DMC

By Brandon Hurley
Managing Editor
news@beeherald.com

Greene County’s Patrick Daugherty was due for a breakout.

His moment arrived in a big way last week.

The senior tailback helped spark an explosive, 20-point second quarter as the Rams knocked off Des Moines Christian, 30-22 Sept. 16 in week four action.
Daugherty rushed for a career-high 234 yards and three touchdowns, producing a yards per carry average of 9. The running back tallied a yards per carry average of 10 last fall in limited action. And while he had yet to break the 100-yard mark in the three previous games to open the 2022, his time was coming.

Daugherty was nearly untouchable, carrying the ball 24 times, highlighted by a 33 yard touchdown run.
Daugherty’s performance was the most individual rushing yards by a Greene County athlete since Colby Kafer tallied a school-record 361 yards in a win over Nevada in 2019.
Greene County head coach Caden Duncan was pleased with the Rams’ collective play up front, providing plenty of room for Daugherty’s huge night.

“The line and our other running backs did a good job opening up some holes and then Patrick did the rest,” the coach said. “He was running very hard and also made some guys miss when they had a chance at him. Patrick very rarely ever goes down on the first contact and that was definitely the case on Friday.” 

Overall, Greene County (3-1) tallied 353 rushing yards in their Class 2A, District 8 opener, producing a 6.5 yards per carry average. The Rams have won nine straight district games, dating back to the 2020 season.
Last week’s victory was Greene County’s narrowest district title since that 2020 campaign. They defeated all five of their opponents by at least 30 points, including a 55-point victory over Des Moines Christian.
The Lions were a tad more feisty this time around. The Rams built a 20-3 halftime lead before DMC kicked into gear. They visitors scored 11 unanswered points, aided by a two-point conversion to pull within 20-14.
The Rams thusly scored the next 10 points, regaining a 16-point lead before DMC punched in a late touchdown and two-point conversion.
Greene County opened their district title defense with a gritty win, slowing down the Lions while putting up points of their own.

“We accomplished our goal of playing a more physical brand of football, which was great to see,” Duncan said. “We were able to control the clock and then for the vast majority of the game, we were able to contain their high powered offense. 
If we can continue to improve on our consistency and focus we feel that we can really get rolling now.”

Greene County’s defense held DMC quarterback Tate Platte to just 163 yards passing and an interception. The junior gun-slinger entered the contest averaging nearly 300 yards passing in three games to go with a state-best 14 total touchdowns. In all, the Lions managed 274 total yards to go with a pair of turnovers.
It was a much-needed bounce-back victory for the Rams, who were coming off their first loss of the season, a 35-point shutout at the hands of Kuemper Catholic.

“We had a great week of practice and we improved a lot during that time,” Duncan said. “We worked on ourselves and really focused on responding to adversity and that really showed during the game. DMC is a quality team so it was a good win for us.”

The Rams attempted just nine total passes, with quarterback Gabe Ebersole completing five for 58 yards. Gavin Scheuermann was the Rams’ second leading rusher with 62 yards on 13 carries.
Defensively, Cody Allen led the way with seven tackles while Michael Rumley came away with 2.5 tackles for loss in addition to a fumble recovery. Trey Schilling snagged the lone interception.
Daugherty has now rushed for 377 yards and three touchdowns in four games this year. Ebersole has rushed for 193 yards to go with 403 passing yards and seven total touchdowns.
Allen leads the team with 30.5 tackles while Scheuermann has recorded 30 of his own. Rumley has secured a team-best eight tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries.