Scott City's defensive identity built by a group of senior 'pluggers'

The Scott City Rams entered the season knowing what their bread and butter is.

Seniors Mark Panagos and Tyson Underwood lead the offense to the point where whether or not they win or lose is based on how they play or if they play.

The defense, on the other hand, was an unknown going in. There were a plethora of seniors who were receiving playing time for the first time and are now being counted on to be leaders.

"We've got a whole group of seniors that never got to play a whole lot because we graduated a lot of seniors last year that were our starters on defense," Scott City head coach Jim May said. They've stepped in and taken ownership of their roles and I'm happy with where they're at right now."

Linebacker Lawson Graff and defensive back Nathan Ham were two seniors who intercepted St. Vincent quarterback Christian Schaaf during the Rams' 16-14 win over St. Vincent Indians last week.

"I went from playing zero minutes to starting on three different sides of the ball," Ham said. "I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot for myself and our team, and I think I'm a big part of this."

"We were untested," Graff said. "We're just trying to play as a linebacker unit, not just an individual player.

Graff said he was afraid to make a mistake as a backup last season. Now as a starter, the experience has been converted into confidence and the fear of failure reduced.

"If I make a mistake, just doing it 100 percent, being calm, having confidence in myself because in this sport, you're gonna make mistakes," Graff said. "This year, I definitely think I've stepped up into the role that I was a backup in last year and just trying to fill their shoes."

It's still too early in the season for a star to emerge from the defense. There are some candidates so far; Ian Weber, Ham, Graff, Levi Senn, Blake Wilburn and Torrin Johnson, to name a few. As a whole, the defensive unit is trying to build an identity on sheer effort.

"We're pluggers, we're fighting and that's one thing I'll say about this defense, they got a lot of fight," May said. "They may not be the biggest, fastest, or strongest, but they're gonna play with everything they got."