New traditions are underway as the Griffins begin their inaugural season for every sport. Everything that happens, or has happened will be or has been the “first” of the school, and down in central Nebraska, the varsity football team took on their first opponent, the Hastings Tigers on Friday. It was a game of ups and downs, and with challenges from the weather, it was a first not like many others.

Nebraska Class-B football is vastly different compared to the style of play in Class-A. Typically, Class-B offenses utilize the run game more than the passing, using the size of linemen and running backs. 

“I think our strength of our game is going to be our run game,” head coach Justin Haberman said. “We have three tremendous running backs, but we also have some very talented wide receivers, so we’re going to be gifted; we just have to keep building together.”

The Griffins proved this and it did not take long for them to find their footing as they drove down the field on the first drive. They capitalized when sophomore quarterback Logan Kracht found the open man in sophomore tight end Carson Herrmann for the first touchdown of the season. The Tigers answered with a quick rushing touchdown to tie it up at seven. As the first quarter came to a close, the Griffins realized what was working well for them in the rushing attack and through the air.

The second quarter was far slower, with both sides trading three-and-outs. Both defenses continued to push back, and going into halftime Hastings controlled the lead at 10-7. 

After a drive that had the Griffins at the Tiger’s 20-yard line, the game took a turn when Hastings returned a fumble to put them up 17-7 late in the third quarter. 

As the third quarter turned to the fourth, storms began to brew, and the game went into a weather delay. Ultimately, the final quarter of the game was postponed to Saturday at 2 p.m., so the Griffins made the trek back to Gretna that night. 

When the game was stopped, “I thought they would just be done with the game,” junior running back Mason Gunn said. “Then, coach said we were coming back the next day so we had to come back.”

Saturday morning, the boys had to be at school by 8 a.m. to first study film, and then make the trip back to Hastings to finish out the game. The opportunity helped the Griffins to sharpen their game with knowledge from the previous night.

“I feel like the delay of game really helped us because we got to watch film in the morning,” Gunn said. 

At 2 p.m. the game picked up right where it left off, and Hastings marched down the field to push the score to 23-7 after a missed extra point. Neither team was productive, with no scores and numerous defensive stops, until the final minutes when the Griffins answered back with a score on the ground from Kracht which closed Hasting’s lead to nine. 

Time was not on the Griffin’s side, and when the clock hit zero, they fell to 0-1 on the season with a final score of 23-14. 

“It was our first game, so it wasn’t bad,” junior quarterback Aspen Gibbs said. “We’re going to learn a lot from it and get better come next game.”