Area Coaches Sound Off After 2nd Round Of The Playoffs

Two rounds of the playoffs are now in the books for area high schools. Several coaches from the area took to the “Hy-Vee Fort Dodge Coaches Corner” Saturday Morning on “Sunny” 99.7 to reaction to the 2nd round. On Friday, Fort Dodge lost a highly competitive game 24-17 at Waterloo West. Dodgers defense would shutdown Waterloo Wets in the 1st half, only allowing a FG on a short field situation. Fort Dodge would score in the 1st half on a big pass play from Carson Peterson to Javion Jondle that went for 73 yards, they would also tack on a 35 yard FG by Gavin Schillerstrom. Dodgers would 10-3 at the half, Waterloo West’s offense would tie the game puting together a 65 yard TD drive that ate over 7 minutes of clock on their opening possession of the 2nd half. Waterloo West would hit on 2 big pass plays for scores one a 50 yard TD on a screen play to Nate Ewell the other a deep vertical pass to WR Tay Norman for a TD. Dodgers trailed 24-10 but would keep fighting the cut to a one score game on a 54 yard TD pass from Peterson to Tyler Schreier. The Dodgers trailed 24-17 and would drove the ball from their own 9 to the Waterloo West 8 yard line late. Dodgers had the tying TD called back on a hold and failed to convert on a 4th down and goal pass attempt from the 18. With that loss the Dodgers season comes to a close, here’s Coach Nik Moser’s post game comments.

The South Central Calhoun Titans outlasted Dike New Hartford in a high drama, back and forth affair on Friday. Titans would score twice in the first half and lead 14-0, Dike New Hartford answered and it would be a 14-7 Titan lead at the half. Dike New Hartford would score 1st in the 2nd half to tie it at 14. SCC would score on the 1st play of the 4th quarter to go up 22-14. Dike New Hartford would score with less than 6 minutes left to tie it at 22. South Central Calhoun would drive the field late in the game and get this play late to go on top.

Mark Williamson on the call of the Brennan Holder TD run that would lift the Titans to the 30-22 win. It was one of 2 TD’s on the night for Holder, Blake Mcalister has 129 yards rushing and a score. Titans run defense was spectacular holding DNH’s standout RB Drew Larson to 52 yards on 18 carries. Larson had over 1,200 rushing yards in 8 games coming into Friday. The win means South Central Calhoun will move on to the 3rd round they will travel to take on undefeated South Hamilton Friday. That game will be available on 105.9 “The Beach” and here on our website.

Elsewhere Around The Area

Southeast Valley was a winner in their playoff opener. They had no trouble with Belmond-Klemme 50-13. Jags run game was dominant as they ran the ball for over 380 yards and 7 TD’s. Dual Threat QB Kolson Kruse put his scrambling ability on display with 14 carries for 146 yards and # TD’s. RB Lathe Muench had 2 rushing TD’s, Kaleb Scott had a 74 yard TD run and Hunter Sorenson had a TD run. Jags defense allowed just 208 yards of total offense. Jags Coach Mike Swieter says his guys were dialed in from the start.

Southeast Valley moves on to the 3rd round they will host Denver on Friday Night, you can hear that game on “Sunny” 99.7 and here on our website.

Humboldt fell in a heart breaker at Spencer 42-35. Humboldt trailed by 34-19 in the 4th. They then put together scoring twice and took a 1 pt lead. Spencer would put together a late TD drive to go up 42-35 and go onto win it from there. Humboldt QB Caden “Mad Dog” Matson had over 300 total yards and accounted for 5 total TD’s. With that the turnaround season for Humboldt ends with a record of 5-4, the best season for the program since 2014. Here’s Humboldt Head Coach Derrick Elman on what his told his players after the game.

Webster City scored 3 times in the 4th to down Mason City 41-29 in a 4 quarter physical battle. Chase Rattenborg scored twice in that stretch and Connor Hanson had the other score in the final frame. Webster City standout Trey Mathis left the game due to injury in the 1st half. The Lynx will host Sergeant Bluff-Luton in the 3rd round Friday.

Newell-Fonda had a shutout win 20-0 over Kinglsey Pierson. The game was a defensive struggle early as neither team scored in the 1st. Newell-Fonda’s Trey Jungers found the end zone on a long TD run to give the Mustangs a lead in the 1st half. Mustangs never trailed they scored late in the 1st half on a TD catch by Hunter Christiansen to go up 13-0. In the 2nd half , Christiansen would find the end zone again this time on the ground from 4 yards out. The Newell-Fonda defense allowed just 2 first downs and 38 total yards of offense in the game. Here’s Newell-Fonda Head Coach Brian Wilken on their defensive performance.

Greene County used the tried and true formula of a productive run game and shutdown defense to blank Clarinda 24-0. It was the Rams 2nd win over Clarinda this season after beating them 22-15 a few weeks prior. Nathan Black was the workhorse in the run game toting it 39 times for 186 yards and a TD. Greene County’s defense allowed just 150 total yards of offense. The Rams have now won 6 in a row after starting the season 1-2 and Coach Caden Duncan says his young team has really grown up over the course of the season.