THE RIVER VALLEY REPORT FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 8.11.2024

HAROLD MCILVAIN II

SPECIAL TO RIVER VALLEY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

MOUNTAINBURG— The not-so-secret in Mountainburg is up: Junior quarterback and defensive lineman Ryan Allen is one of the best overall athletes in all of the River Valley.

Allen, fully starting for the first time last year, took over the reins as the Dragons’ main playmaker and never looked back. He rushed for 1,213 yards and 14 touchdowns while completing 45-of-92 passes for 658 yards and 5 touchdowns. If that wasn’ t enough, he also added 44 tackles as well.

“ He is a great athlete,” Mountainburg thirdyear Coach Zach Dean said.“ He is a great pitcher and can really hit the ball in baseball. He is an awesome basketball player, too. If he is on the field for us, we have a chance.”

MOUNTAINBURG DRAGONS

Allen in his freshman year accounted for nearly 1,200 yards and led the JV team to a 7-1 conference championship before getting a look at the varsity level. He scored three touchdowns in his first career start to end the 2022 year with a win and didn’ t disappoint as a sophomore in 2023.

Outside of Allen, Mountainburg features plenty of talent in Bryce Beasley, Bryson Quinalty, Sean Rizzo, and Levi Pense ready to make plays.

With just a small senior class of six players, Beasley and his classmates will be asked to play big roles both ways.

“ We don’ t have a ton of people, but we have some talent,” Beasley said.“ A lot of our guys will be coming up from junior high and we’ ll have a lot of two-way guys. I think we have a chance to have a decent season.”

* – Denotes 2A-1 conference game. All kickoffs 7 p. m. unless noted

HAROLD MCILVAIN II

SPECIAL TO RIVER VALLEY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

SUBIACO— At the River Valley Democrat- Gazette media day on July 23, Subiaco Academy first-year Coach BJ Applegate had been on the job for just two weeks. He hadn’ t seen his entire team in one room together, but that didn’ t prevent Applegate from being impressed with what he had seen so far.

“ I really like what I see,” Applegate said.“ I won’ t get to see all my kids until August 5 since that’ s when they move in and we are a boarding school. However, the kids I’ ve had up here early working, they want to be here. That’ s what I’ m liking. We have some good kids. They want to keep continuing to win. That’ s why they are here and showing up everyday. We are basically going to run what they did last year. It’ s going to be easier for me to learn what they did rather than learn something new. Why fix it if it ain’ t broke?”

Subiaco Academy is coming off an 8-2

SUBIACO ACADEMY

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* – Denotes 8-man unsanctioned conference game. All kickoffs 7 p. m. unless noted.

season. The Trojans have now won five or more games in the past four seasons since making the switch to 8-man football in 2020. Before that, Subiaco last broke that win threshold in 2010 when the program went 6-5 in traditional 11-man football.

Subiaco Academy returns just two starters back on offense and defense, so it will look for players to step up to keep its tradition going this year. John Crank, Landon Koch, John George and Griffin Frederick were summer standouts.

“ I believe John is going to have a great year,” Applegate said.“ He didn’ t play much last year, but he is going to step in and fill a key role. He is probably going to be our quarterback, running back, receiver and linebacker doing it all. I’ ve really liked what we’ ve seen from Landon. We’ ll probably work him at quarterback and other spots as well. John George has shown he has pretty good hands. Griffin has looked really good at center up front.”

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