St. Louis Rams reps fair well in first day at NFL 7-on-7 tournament - STLtoday.com

The St. Louis Rams squad at the NFL High School Player Development 7-on-7 National Tournament got off to a strong start on Friday in Indianapolis by winning its first five games.

“Overall the kids are having fun,” said Matt Biermann, one of the team’s two coaches. “They are enjoying themselves. They are competing and I’d say they have jelled as a unit very well.”

The team competed in pool play against opponents from the NFC West and AFC West. The Rams defeated the 49ers squad, 20-14, in their first game. Then they beat the Seahawks 28-21 in their second game and the Cardinals 17-14 in their third game. After that came blowout victories against the Chargers (30-0) and Chiefs (41-14).

“I just felt like there’s a good calm about the team and they are competitive,” Biermann said. “If we ever got in a situation where he needed to make a play, we came up with a play either on offense or on defense.”

The squad of 12 features Ritenour junior Devin Alexander, CBC senior Bert Birdsall, Hazelwood Central senior Keith Brent, Fox senior Tyler Brewer, O’Fallon senior Greg Gibson, Mehlville junior Brendan Moore, O’Fallon senior Darius Mosely, CBC junior Zach Muniz, CBC senior Aarion Penton, Warrenton senior Devin Roberts, Francis Howell junior Brett Siebenshuh and MICDS sophomore Cole Sigmund.

The Rams team will continue with two more pool-play games tomorrow morning â€" they play the Broncos 8:45 a.m. ET and then the Raiders at 10:15 a.m. ET â€" before being seeded into a 32-team single-elimination tournament.

“We played as a cohesive unit and as a team,” said Kyle Eversgerd, the St. Louis Rams Fan Development Coordinator who serves as the team’s other coach. “In years past we’ve been told we’ve had a lot of talent but we haven’t won as much. It was just something different this year.”

The St. Louis representatives finished eighth out of 22 teams in the 2010 tournament in Tampa and then lost in the first round of the 24-team single-elimination tournament in Cleveland a year ago.

Fueling the five wins on Friday was a strong group effort.

Biermann said Siebenshuh, the team’s quarterback, had an excellent day making decisions and distributing the football to playmakers like Penton, Roberts and Brewer.

The defensive unit was a strength, led by defensive backs Penton, Mosely, Muniz and Alexander as well as Sigmund, the team’s middle linebacker.

Penton, who committed to the University of Missouri, performed well on both sides of the ball. Mosely, who recently committed to the University of Illinois, is coming off a strong showing with the United States Under-19 national team last week.

“Aarion Penton came alive,” Biermann said. “He’s been playing very well but really took over the Kansas City game. Couple interceptions. Darius (Mosely) had an interception. Zach Muniz had a couple interceptions.”

Biermann and Eversgerd, who have also served as the team’s coaches the past two tournaments, liked what they saw during the opening day games.

“I don’t know, we’re just feisty,” Biermann said. “And they’re running around jumping and acting like fools. … We’re just competing.”