Unbeaten Dixon not looking past winless Rockford Christian

The Dixon football team has outscored its opponents 85-7 through the first two weeks of the football season. Rockford Christian has been outscored 95-20.

But the Dukes aren’t paying any attention to that. They’re certainly not looking past the Royal Lions.

“We don’t really worry about what’s already happened in the season,” senior Trey Scheidegger said. “We just focus on the next game, and that’s a big key for us.”

Dixon (2-0) followed Week 1′s 35-0 win over Oregon with a 50-7 rout of North Boone, and is playing with confidence on both sides of the ball. Rockford Christian (0-2), meanwhile, has a 50-0 loss to Rock Falls and a 45-20 loss to Oregon.

Still, those numbers won’t even come up at practice this week.

“Of course we’re pretty confident after those wins, but we never underestimate a team,” senior Jace Lenarz said. “We know we always have to expect the unexpected. We work hard during the week, practicing and doing all of our conditioning, and we just have to keep that mindset to be ready for the games.”

It’s worked so far for the Dukes. Tyler Shaner has thrown for more than 100 yards in each game, and has five touchdown passes on the season. Rylan Ramsdell has run for more than 200 yards and three TDs to lead the ground game, and Mitchell White has a pair of rushing touchdowns. Mason Randick has three TD catches, and Jacob Gusse has two.

Defensively, Dixon allowed just 67 total yards in Week 1, and gave up less than 100 yards of offense through the first three quarters in Week 2 before reserves finished out the game.

“I’m looking for wood to knock on right now, but we have taken care of the football for the most part, and we’ve improved on our pre-snap penalties; those just kill drives,” Dixon coach Jared Shaner said. “And defensively, we’ve been more consistent and played four quarters, and we haven’t given up those one or two big back-breaking plays.”

After amassing less than 40 yards of offense in Week 1, the Royal Lions had 262 yards in a balanced attack (123 rush yards, 139 pass yards) in Week 2. Keon Leach threw for 139 yards and two touchdowns on 7-for-20 passing against Oregon, and he also led the way with 46 rush yards.

But the Dukes have remained unfazed in their first two games, answering everything their opponents have thrown at them.

“We’ve hit hard, and just kept on playing,” Scheidegger said. “On offense, when we get one big play, we don’t stop, we want another one. On defense, we just want to make every play, try to keep them in front of us and keep our pads low and tackle well.”

While Shaner doesn’t want his players focused on the past, he has used it to provide a little motivation. He has talked to the Dukes about a pair of games in recent seasons that didn’t go so well for a confident Dixon team: a Week 2 loss at Rock Falls in 2019, and a Week 9 loss at North Boone in 2017 that spoiled an undefeated regular season.

“We talked about a couple different games in the last three or four years where good Dixon teams haven’t had the outcomes they wanted,” Shaner said. “We’ve used those examples to make sure the kids are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. What it comes down to, 100%, is looking at this game and not the first two weeks, and that’s been the message all week.

“We’ve played really well the first two weeks, but we’ve been at home and felt that home-crowd atmosphere, and that’s not how it’s going to be this week when we’re on the road for the first time. We’ve got to continue to develop the practice habits – both physically and mentally – that we need during the week, and then show those off on Friday nights.”