Keeping the eye on the prize, Greyhounds impressive in 49-14 rout of St. John's

Shorewood - Shorewood/Messmer football coach Drake Zortrman is pleased with the execution, happy with the follow-through and intrigued by the chatter he hears in his robust and confident locker room.

Especially for the noises he heard after the Greyhounds impressive 49-14 rout of St. John's/Northwestern Military Academy on Saturday.

It was a sound not heard for Shorewood football for more decades than anyone would care to count as the team improved to 3-0 on the season.

"The kids can't help but talk about it," he said of thoughts of an extremely rare Midwest Classic Conference title. "It shows that we're still hungry and that we're getting better every day. Yes, that thought is something, and it is all over the locker room.

"The guys are starting to get their eye on the larger prize, but I just try to remind them of the sign we keep right in front of us, of being 1-0 every night we go out there. We're working very hard trying not to look ahead."

Leading rusher is next foe

Especially this week, when they come off an extremely short week of preparation to take on Hope Christian Academy (0-3) in a 7 p.m. conference game Thursday at Wisconsin Lutheran College.

Hope's Anthony Poe is the leading rusher in the area at more than 800 yards but he doesn't have a lot of help around him. He was held to a bruising 119 yards on 34 carries in a 48-0 loss to Lake Country Lutheran last week.

But Zortman is keeping a wary eye open.

"We're going to make darn sure we know where number 32 (Poe) is at all times," he said.

Just like opponents are having to keep eyes wide open in following the Greyhounds quarterback Taylor Dennis, running back Alec Grimmer and end Jonathan Carson.

Quarterback remains accurate

Dennis continued his spectacular streak of accuracy as he hit all six of his passes, all in the first half. Two of them went for touchdowns, one for 26 yards to Avery Smith and the other for 38 yards to Carson.

In between tosses, Grimmer and fellow backs Smith and Andre Brown benefitted from a rejuvenated offensive line that helped both Grimmer (two yards) and Smith (three) to first half touchdown runs that made the score 28-7 at the break.

Zortman started to substitute liberally in the second half as Smith (38 yards), Grimmer (28) and Brown (eight) all ran their way to pay dirt.

"That was a good team that we beat," he said. "They have two excellent backs and we had to play well to get this done. But I was very pleased with how hard we played. The O-line was really able to get out and be effective. (Line coach) Eston Ramirez does a great job with those boys. They're really starting to come together as a unit.

"All our backs are benefiting from that. This could have been a trap game, but we didn't let that happen."