(Clarinda) — A dominant 45-10 victory over rival Shenandoah left a smile on the faces of the Clarinda faithful. They hope to have a similar feeling Friday night against Greene County.

“It was a complete game,” Coach Collin Bevins said. “It was fun to see the kids having fun playing football again. After some of those losses, seeing the tears and sad faces wasn’t fun. Now that we got some smiles out of them Friday night, hopefully, it continues.”

The win was a massive one for the Cardinals, who have suffered tight losses to Treynor, Panorama and Atlantic on their way to a 2-3 start. 

The Cardinals churned for 406 yards in their win over Shenandoah, 335 of which came from the rushing attack, led by the trio of Cole Ridnour, Tadyn Brown and Wyatt Schmitt. Bevins feels his backfield complements each other well despite their contrast styles between the flashy Brown and bruising Ridnour.

“Tadyn is one of those shifty, he’ll be here and then he’ll be over there kind of backs,” Bevins said. “It’s a different change of pace than when we put Cole in the game. When Cole gets the ball, he’s going to try to run somebody over. I have to remind him when he’s running the ball, he’s not a fullback anymore. He’s getting better at trying to make people miss but he still runs through contact. Wyatt — with his throwing ability — you always have to respect that, so he makes the most of it. They each bring their own pieces of the pie to the table. That’s always tough for opposing teams to try to figure out.” 

While Schmidt, Ridnour and Brown get the headlines, it’s all been possible because Crew Howard, Logan Green, Ethan Fast, Jarod McNeese and Jase Wilmes have paved the way.

“They really buckled down this week,” Bevins said. “And made sure they were all on the same page. I don’t think they like being challenged by me on Tuesday because I kind of got after them. To see them work together and play hard like they did was good to see.” 

Coach Bevins will look for a similar performance from his team Friday night when they face Greene County. The Rams are 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in district action. 

The Rams pose a balanced offense with 723 passing yards and 631 rushing yards while averaging over 30 points per game. 

Bevins feels the Rams’ most potent playmaker is senior wide receiver Jaxon Warnke, who has 13 catches for 221 yards and three touchdowns. 

“We’ve got to lock him down and key on him when it’s third and long,” Bevins said. “It will be a test for us and I’m excited for a good game.”

Offensively, Bevins feels his team needs to have success throwing the ball. 

“We’re going to need to complete passes,” he said. “We did pretty well at that the first couple of weeks. Then we got to Red Oak and Atlantic and we didn’t have to do that, but we have to get Wyatt back to throwing the football. If we don’t do that, and they can just key in on the run, I think we’ll have a long day. If we can keep them honest on defense, that will open some things up and we’ll be successful.”

Aaron Hickman will be in Jefferson Friday night providing updates as part of KMA Sports’ Week 6 coverage, which begins at 6:20 p.m. and runs through midnight. The complete interview with Coach Bevins can be heard below.