Rock Falls set to face vertical air attack of North Boone

The Rock Falls Rockets are looking to keep building after a season-opening loss to Genoa-Kingston.

In that game, Rock Falls put together an extended drive late in the first quarter and early in the second which saw Booker Cross come up with big plays rushing and receiving, and Dillon Schueler cap it off with a touchdown.

That drive tied things up 7-7, but the Cogs then ran off 40 unanswered points and shut down the Rockets offense from there.

“We had a nice drive there, one drive we put together against a good Genoa-Kingston team, we want to keep working on that,” Rock Falls coach Kevin Parker said. “The things we’ve got to clean up starts with guys up front. We’ve got to come out lower. We found guys standing up and not doing the fundamentals we should be doing. I think guys understand that if we do those things, we’re going to be in the same type of spot.”

Rockets lineman Lyden King said one thing Rock Falls can build on is “our energy in the second half, making sure we’re staying together as a team in the second half and making sure we all have our backs.”

Up next is the aerial attack of Logan Emanuel and the North Boone Vikings. In their opening win over Mendota, Emanuel threw for 225 yards and five touchdowns, with three touchdown passes in the first quarter.

“We’re doing a lot of defensive back drills out of one-on-ones, fighting off contact,” Rockets linebacker Kamerin McGlown said. “They like to throw the ball long, they go for Hail Marys, they go for it all. Don’t let anybody behind you, our safety stay behind everyone.”

When North Boone is throwing, the Vikings are throwing deep. A first-quarter touchdown against Mendota from Emanuel to Will Doetsch came with Doetsch running a fly route up the left side. Emanuel let the ball go standing at his own 30 in the center of the field. Doetsch caught it at the Mendota 30 right on the numbers. Emanuel’s second touchdown came on a fly route to the right.

“He’s surrounded by athletes,” Parker said. “[Doetsch] seems to be their best wide receiver, very athletic. He made some plays in traffic. [Emanuel] has a lot of good guys to throw to.”

Emanuel does have the ability to tuck the ball and run, which he did for a big gain early in the win over Mendota.

“Mainly we’re just making sure we have our gaps in case they do a run,” King said. “If it’s a pass, we get in our gaps, we see and we pursue.”

North Boone’s defense held Mendota to seven points on Saturday.

Parker said the Vikings defense will show Rock Falls a lot of the same things Genoa-Kingston’s defense did in the first game.

“They might not have quite the athletes or quite the team speed G-K does, but they have some big kids,” Parker said. “Their ends are big and powerful, so we have to be able to move those guys if we want to run the football.”