Cyclones blanked by Warriors on road 42-0
It didn’t take long Friday night for the Sergeant Bluff-Luton Warriors football team to prove why they’re ranked #2, using their running game to dominate the HCHS Cyclones. With less than two minutes into the action, they scored a touchdown en route to a 42-0 victory keeping themselves undefeated and handing the Cyclones their second loss.
“There’s only a couple of decisions you can make after a game like that,” said Cyclone Head Coach Todd Bladt. “You can either let things go and fall apart, or you can start rebuilding, and that’s what we’ve got to do. Right now we’re kind of broken. That was not a fun contest for anyone involved on our side. We got beat in every facet of the game.”
With over ten minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Warriors scored when Senior running back Zayvion Ellington went on a 39-yard touchdown run putting his team up 6-0. Senior Cyclone Jozef Reisz was injured on the play, and did not return for the remainder of the game. Senior Warrior Necco Rojas kicked the extra point.
“Injuries happen in football,” Bladt said. “It’s a contact sport. It’s going to happen. You don’t want it to happen. It happened a little more than we would’ve liked to deal with on Friday night. It’s unfortunate, and we’re going to have to deal with it.”
When the Cyclone offense took the field, it didn’t take long for the Warriors to get the ball back in their possession when Junior quarterback Gabe Arkfeld threw an interception caught by Senior Warrior Bo Koedam, which put the Warriors back on offense at the 46-yard line.
The Cyclone defense was able to make some stops courtesy of Dallas McDowell, Bryce Van Baale and Brett Heese, but the Warriors kept inching their way closer to the end zone, which led to another touchdown, this time by Koedam, putting his team up 13-0. Rojas added the extra point.
In the second quarter, the Cyclones were hoping for some magic, but couldn’t stop the Warriors run game. With over eight minutes remaining on a 1st and goal, Junior quarterback Isaiah Jervik ran for a 5-yard touchdown, expanding the lead to 20-0. Rojas added the extra point.
The Warriors scored once more before the half, when on a 1st and goal, Jervik committed a shovel pass to Junior Joe Hardy, who came up with a 1-yard touchdown run making it 27-0, followed by the extra point by Rojas. The Cyclones trailed by 28 at halftime.
“We were focused on maybe trying to get a couple of scores on the board, and that didn’t happen,” Bladt said. “Stopping the running attack didn’t really happen either.”
When the third quarter began, Sophomore Cyclone Landen Nihsen received the return carry and got to the 26-yard line. Unfortunately, a few plays later, another Warrior interception occurred when Junior Gavin Warren got the ball. However, a positive moment occurred for the Cyclones when Van Baale came up with a tackle stopping the Warrior offense temporarily from gaining more ground.
“He’s flying around and he’s a very vocal leader,” Bladt said of Van Baale. “Defense is a team effort. You can have great players out there leading guys in directions of where they should be or what they think is going to happen, so they can help them out.”
Not long after Van Baale’s tackle, Jervik scored again on a 1-yard touchdown run putting his team up 34-0. Rojas kicked the extra point for the final point and the Cyclones trailed 35-0.
The Warriors managed to score more touchdown approaching the midway point of the final quarter when they continued to utilize their running game, coming up with another touchdown run by Sophomore Carson Jager making it a 41-0 game. Rojas kicked the extra point.
Later in the quarter, it looked like the Cyclone offense might have a chance to score when Arkfeld found McDowell on a few plays, getting multiple first downs.
“They had a couple of really nice connections tonight,” Bladt said. “Dallas is a big body. He even fell down on a play, got up and still reeled in a catch after that. We’d like to get that going if we can and get them to have a connection, so we can utilize it.”
The Cyclones move to 2-2 on the season. They return home Friday night for homecoming hosting the 0-4 Creston Panthers, who are coming off a 50-7 loss to Carroll. Offensively, the Panthers are led by Tanner Ray with 352 passing yards, Weston Trapp has 424 rushing yards, and Xander Drake has 136 receiving yards. Defensively, Lucas Travis has 32 tackles.
“It’s going to be good to be back in Harlan, I can tell you that,” Bladt added. “We’re looking forward to that. Homecoming is usually a special game. Hopefully a lot of people come out, and we can put a good product out there on Friday night.”