Cedar cranks it up in season-opening shutout of Tekamah-Herman

TEKAMAH — Any trepidation Cedar Catholic head coach Chad Cattau felt about Tekamah-Herman sneaking up on his team to open the 2023 campaign vanished early and left often as the Trojans rolled to a decisive 55-0 win over the Tigers to open the season.

Cedar Catholic dominated on both sides of the ball to post the first win of the year.

“We did the things we needed to do and worked on some things for later,” Cattau said. “All-in-all, it was a successful start, but we have plenty of work to do.”

Breiton Whitmire took advantage of additional playing time compared to last season as he ran through and around the Tigers for 106 yards on just 10 carries and a touchdown and he also raced 79 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return.

The Trojan ground attack used 38 attempts to accumulate 282 yards and quarterback Braeden Reifenrath was an efficient 6-of-10 through the air for 90 yards with no interceptions.

In fact, the entire offensive attack was efficient as he amassed the yardage with limited time of possession.

Hunter Benson added 50 yards on his three carries and scored a touchdown, Ty Thoene had 45 yards on four carries and added a 35-yard kick return to his evening.

Easton Hochstein went for 40 yards on four carries and scored; Carson Albers, Reifenrath and Brady Hochstein all had rushing touchdowns.

As impressive as the offensive showing was, the Trojan defense was arguably even better.

Cedar Catholic held the T-H offense to just two first downs, a single yard rushing and negative five yards throwing the football.

The Trojan defense also recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass on the night.

The defensive effort was by committee as 16 players were involved in tackles in the contest.

Cedar Catholic will be on the road again this week traveling to David City to take on the Aquinas Catholic Monarchs on Friday.

Aquinas Catholic was defeated by Scotus Central Catholic 3-0 in Columbus in the first game of the season for both teams.

The Trojans are trying to make it two straight wins over Aquinas Catholic, after defeating the Monarchs 33-3 in last year’s contest. The Monarchs hold a 7-3 edge in the all-time series against the Trojans, however.

T-H Cedar First Downs 2 22 Rushes-Yards 23-1 36-282 Rec-Yards 4-(-5) 6-90 Comp-Att 4-13 6-10 TD-INT 0-1 0-0 SCORE 0 55

RUSHING: Breiton Whitmire 10-106-2TD; Hunter Benson 3-50-1TD; Ty Thoene 4-45; Easton Hochstein 4-40-1TD; Karsan Albers 3-16-1TD; Braeden Reifenrath 6-15-1TD; Brady Hochstein 3-4 1TD; Ben Kleinschmit 1-0.

PASSING: Braeden Reifenrath 6-10 90. TACKLES: Nolan Becker 2-1INT; Bodie Hochstein 1.5; Hunter Benson 3.5; Ryan Pick 1.5; Karsan Albers 2.0; Keyton Arens 3.5; Quinn Hochstein 1.0; Brady Hochstein 3.5; Langston Christensen 1.5; Sam Wiebelhaus 1.0; Easton Hochstein 1.0; Matthew Loecker 1.0; Jared Rutar 1.0; Ty Thoene 1.5; Ben Kleinschmit 1.0; Hunter Kuchta .5.