Genoa-Kingston’s big-play offense takes on defending BNC, state champ Byron

GENOA – As good as the Genoa-Kingston defense has been the past few years, this season it’s the offense that has powered the team to a 3-0 start.

That defense gets tested Friday against defending state champion Byron (2-1), which has won two straight after dropping the season opener to Stillman Valley, 15-7.

“One of our goals was undefeated conference champs, so this is one of those games we have to win if we want to do that,” said split end Brody Engel, who had two touchdown catches last week in a 41-19 win against North Boone. “Overall we’re working out things this week. We’re going to into the game clear-minded, try to go every single play as hard as we can and just come out with a W.”

Last season, the Tigers and Cogs played a low-scoring affair, with Byron winning 7-3 at home. In this year’s tilt in Genoa, running back Ethan Wilnau, who ran for 156 yards last week, said he’s expecting a high-scoring affair.

“We think it’s going to be a shootout,” said Wilnau, who like Engel also plays in the G-K secondary. “We’re going to have to be all gears going on offense. If they get a big play on offense, we can’t let that carry on throughout the game. We have to keep our head down and keep going and not let that affect us.”

The G-K defense is giving up about 20 points a game. And while that’s still solid, and fourth-best in the conference, the 59 points surrendered is off the pace set in the past. Last season, the Cogs gave up 53 points through its first 12 games.

The Cogs still make plays on defense, as witnessed last week against the Vikings’ passing attack. Connor Grimm had a pair of sacks on a pivotal North Boone drive to stop it, then picked up a fumble and returned it for a touchdown.

Coach Cam Davekos said the Cogs defense this year has a bend-but-don’t-break mentality.

“Our defense last year was pretty studly,” Engel said. “But it’s a new year, new team, new players. It’s going to change every year. But I’m happy with our offense. We’re super explosive this year. If we’re winning games, I’m fine with it.”

Davekos said one of the main goals for the Cogs defensively is to steadily improve, something he said he’s seen from the team.

“Last year to this year, completely different teams,” Davekos said. “We had so much experience last year, and this year coming in we took a couple steps back in the experience category. But these guys are learning and getting better every day.”

Wilnau said he’s seen that improvement as well.

“The offense is so explosive, and the coaches are doing a really good job using all the pieces correctly,” Wilnau said. “On defense, it’s not as good as we’d like it to be, but we’re really just trying to focus on building that up and getting better throughout the season.”

Davekos said even with a loss, Byron is a formidable opponent.

“That blemish is nothing to hang any hats on,” Davekos said. “They are a well-oiled machine. They do all the little things right. We need to be on our A-plus game on Friday to make sure we take care of the things we can control and hopefully the ball bounces our way a couple times.”