Whoa Baby: State Champs again

Dowling Catholic 38, City High 31. (image by Paul Yeager)

“Whoa Baby.”

That’s the way my broadcast parter Dave Marcoulier described Friday’s Class 4A football final that saw West Des Moines Dowling Catholic lay claim to their 3rd State Football title. It was the 10th time in the finals for DCHS. Prior to 2000, the Maroons were 0-7. Now they’ve won the last three championship games they’ve played in.

The “Whoa Baby” came after the 4th and goal pass from the line of scrimmage at the 19 was intercepted by Eric Lee. At that moment the City High players, who had outgained the Maroons until the last frame, and up until the third play of OT, left the field in defeat. Their 27 game win streak was snapped, but they played in one whale of game. (live blog review)

City High was very successful in running the ball in the first half. They were also able to run it very well for most of the second half as well, racking up 238 yards on 49 carries.

Justin Hayworth/The Register Dowling quarterback Connor Bravard runs away from Iowa City City High's Ryan Kroeze in the first quarter during the Class 4A Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

Dowling came close to that by the end of the game, but it just didn’t feel that the Maroons gained 208 yards on 38 carries. It was the passing game that put Dowling in the championship round of the 4A playoffs and it was the passing game that coach Tom Wilson called on several times for key catches in the 4th quarter with Connor Bravard throwing for 269 yards passing on 25 attempts and 18 completions. Bravard would have 20 carries for 153 yards or 422 total yards (Passing + Rushing). The Maroons would win the total yardage game 477-400.

The big target for the Maroons was their go-to receiver, Amara Darboh. His 6 catches for 94 yards came mostly in the 4th quarter in clutch situations. Darboh was get open just enough to warrant a throw. We’ll get to Darboh’s other big play later in this story.

Justin Hayworth/The Register Dowling's Ben Boesen jumps over Iowa City City High's Andrew McNulty and into the end zone for a second quarter touchdown during the Class 4A Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

Ben Boesen was the earlier target for Bravard, as Boesen, the senior TE caught 2 touchdowns in the first half, both well-executed plays. Boesen finished the game with 75 yards, 2 TDs over 5 catches.

But the real big catch was made by Andrew Pick in the overtime frame. Bravard rolled to his right and round Pick on a simple out route. It was his only catch of the game, but those 9 yards set the table for Dalton Parrott to put his head down and get his 3rd touchdown of the game. I was pulling for Pick to get his first TD of the season, but he’ll have to settle for knowing his catch set up the win.

The play call to Pick seemed to be stolen from City High’s play sheet as Andrew McNulty found fullback Adam Prybil 2 times for 32 yards. Not big in yards, but big in situations. Prybil also ran the ball 6 times for 22 yards and a score in the 3rd quarter that gave the Little Hawks a 21-13 lead with 8:06 remaining.

City High’s biggest weapon was Cedric Readus. The senior running back finished with 171 yards rushing yards and a TD catch. The receiving grab put the Little Hawks up at half 14-13. Readus gained 76 yards on a right haymaker to DCHS. The Maroons has just tied the game behind a 7 yard TD run by Parrott that was set up by huge runs by Bravard of 16, 9, 6 and two passes of 15 and 18. Dowling seemed to have the swagger back, but then Readus ran wild to the south endzone making the score 28-21 City High.

The Maroons went 3 and out and followed up with a 14 yard punt by Bravard. The Maroons bit their own lip on the drive.

But then the defense held City High on a short field and three plays from ten before Drew Cornwell kicked a 27 yard field goal to give the Dan Sabers bunch their biggest lead of the game with :33 left in the 3rd Quarter.

Dowling’s defense was on the field twice as long in the first half, but made ground up by putting the City High D on the UNI-Dome turf for most of the 3rd quarter. That to me and Mr. Marcoulier would be a telling tale.

Crowded House at the UNI-Dome. The visiting team was getting nervous.

The Maroons were driving on the first series of the 4th quarter behind All-State quarterback Connor Bravard. But a fumble at the 10:39 seemed to have many Maroon and White faithful grabbing for air.

The defense forced City High to punt after 3 plays.

Then Bravard found Darboh for passes of 21 and 15 yards. Bravard run of 11, Parrott for 16 and maroons were again marching to the goal line. When Parrott scored at the 6:03 mark the score was 31-28.

The biggest series of the season saw City High move the football 14 yards and the drive appeared to have stalled out. City High was facing a 4th and 8 from their own 49. With some confusion on 4th down, City took a time out. McNulty rolled to the right on a fake punt looking for Connor Alberhasky. Incomplete. Dowling takes over on downs 49 yards short of the endzone with 2:30 to play. If you punt the football, the Maroons are likely having to drive, at the best case scenario, 80 yards with 3 timeouts and under three minutes to play.

Bravard again put the team on his shoulders all the way to the City High 5. On 3rd and 3, Bravard is tackled for a one yard loss on the right hash. Out comes Mac Chapman with a hard angle field goal attempt from 23 yards out. The line drive somehow sneaks inside the left goal post and we’re tied at 31 at the end of regulation.

Justin Hayworth/The Register Dowling Dalton Parrott slips past Iowa City City High's Jeremy Johnson to score a touchdown in overtime during the Class 4A Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

The Maroons had seen overtime before, against Valley when the Maroons rallied in the 4th quarter to push the extra time. But City High won the toss, sent their defense out first, which had been on the field for 21 plays. Pick would get that catch and Parrott the TD set up City High’s chance.

Jason McMurray would take a shot on a play and would be forced from the game. The Maroons call time out, put in Amara Darboh, but with the TO keep #15 in and bring back in McMurray. Darboh lined up at right DE on the 3rd down play and team with Josip Juric for the sack.

Justin Hayworth/The Register Iowa City City High quarterback Andrew McNulty kneels dejected on the turf as Dowling celebrates their 38-31 overtime victory during the Class 4A Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

The season came down to a 4th and goal from the 19 and McNulty’s pass came left and Eric Lee stepped in front for the INT and set the celebration motion.

You could make a case that the close games to SE Polk, Valley and Ankeny in the semi’s may have helped build this team. But conditioning may have helped this squad as well. City High had been in that close of a game but once this entire season.

But maybe the demons hanging over the team from the semi-final loss to Marshalltown in 2009 also were waiting to exhale. This time, the Maroons were on offense late and in control and not as tired.

The defensive night for Matt Eganhouse and McMurry were huge. The two had 7.5 tackles and Tommy Miller had 7 with Mathew Formanek with 6.5 and Ty Flood and Luke LaWarne getting 4.5.

Zach Swehla had 8.5 tackles to lead City High. Todd Turney had 8 and Ryan Kroeze and Amos Lavela had 5 tackles each.

Justin Hayworth/The Register Dowling head coach Tom Wilson accepts the championship trophy as his team starts to celebrate their 38-31 victory over Iowa City City High during the Class 4A Championship football game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

The state title was the first for Tom Wilson. His three previous trips ended in defeat. It also was the first for Dowling since the 2000 and 2001 campaigns, neither Wilson, or coaching legend Jim Williams were around for.

One fun view for me was see the Dowling team rush the field, including assistant coach Craig McClain do a somersault to midfield.

Dave let the Whoa Baby fly and we were in business for a happy post game show. Thanks to Brian Morris for chasing down the players and coaches from the tunnel and bring than back into microphone range.

The Maroons set a school record for wins at 14.

They open against Valley on August 19 to start the 2011 campaign. We’ll worry about that later. These 31 seniors went out on a big note.

Here’s a look at the No, Its Iowa blog post of the game. Good video by Jesse Gavin and the hoisting of the trophy.

IowaPrepFanatic.com posted this story including some post game interviews as well from this epic battle.

As always, huge thanks to Romelle Slaughter for all the work on Twitter.com/KWKYSports and the in-game stats and spotting. He truly is the man.

Dome-Bound with authority

You got the sense Friday night that West Des Moines Dowling Catholic had something to prove Friday night in their quarterfinal football game with Ames High School.

This was the same team that escaped in overtime against arch-rival West Des Moines Valley just five days before on the same Williams Stadium field turf. This time there was little doubt who the better team was on Friday.

By Nirmalendu Majumdar/The Tribune Ames defensive back Luke Swalla wraps up Dowling wide receiver Eric Lee during the first quarter Friday in Des Moines.

The Maroons picked off the second pass of the game and cashed it in for points 4 plays later and never looked back sprinting to a 48-10 win. Eric Lee made the big first play against and Valley and against Ames, he stepped in front of a Kyle Anderson pass to get the first turnover of the game.

The Maroons would be in the end zone just four plays later after the hero of Monday’s game, Dalton Parrott into the house. The 4 play, 55 yard drive was one 8 scoring drives for the boys in Maroon and White.

The defense came up big again on the next series forcing a punt after only 6 positive yards over 5 plays. Two of those plays were running, the first to Hansen Breitling, the other, a sack of QB Anderson. The Little Cyclones would only rush the ball 3 times in the first half. The third ‘rush’ was another sack of Anderson. KWKY Analyst Dave Marcoulier kept saying how rare that was in high school, let alone any level to not be running the football anymore than that. Ames would finish was 12 rushes for 21 yards, but 9 of those came in mop up duty in the continuous clock of the 4th quarter.

Not only was the rush defense working, but the pass defense came to play. Anderson was looking at all his receivers, but none could break free. 5 Ames receivers all caught multiple passes with Nathan Cruise, Adam Maher and Bo Brammer all catching 5 passes. But only Thomas McKiernan found the end zone for his team. Anderson would finish with 24-42 passing for 244 yards and 2 INTs. The Little Cyclones only had 21 rushing yards to push their total offense to 265 yards.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #27 Dalton Parrott, right, gave a stiff arm to Ames' #16 Jake Mills, left, after Parrott escaped from Ames's #8 Ryan Griffith, on the ground in second half action in Class 4-A football quarterfinal playoff game at Williams Stadium on Friday night, Nov. 5th.

The saying goes a great defense is a great offense, and the Maroons used that theme Friday night using sustained drives to keep the Ames offense off the field. The second offensive series covered 51 yards in 9 plays (Connor Bravard 1 yd TD run), 7 plays, 75 yards (Bravard to Dalton Parrott 45 yard TD run) to end a 21-0 first quarter.

Then the Maroons used 13 plays to cover 68 yards capped by Dalton Parrott’s 2 yard run. But that was made possible by a 20 yard pass catch by Andrew Pick. Dowling would go to the locker room leading 28-10.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #46 Andrew Pick, left, broke away from tackle attempt of Ames' #25 Jordan Best, right.

The big play machine came out in the 2nd half as it only took 4 plays to get back into the end zone as Parrott scampered 28 yards for the score. But one of the most exciting plays of the game was a great scramble by Bravard and the line holding blocks and then downfield blocks as Parrott caught the safety valve pass and then went 64 yards for the score. In reality, he ran about 84 yards as Bravard was almost back to his ten when he got rid of the ball. That fifth touchdown of Parrott’s got the continuous clock running and Bravard would end the scoring on a 5 yard run late in the 3rd quarter.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic quarterback #10 Connor Bravard, center, pick up big yards on a run against Ames.

Bravard would finish 13 of 18 passing for 228 yards and take 13 carries for 94 yards and two scores. Parrott has 21 carries and 151 yards. Eric Lee caught 5 of those passes for 83 yards.

Take out a couple of runs for losses late in the 4th quarter and the Maroons would have finished with 500 yards total offense.

So, for the second straight year, the Maroons go marching to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls with a 12-0 record and a date in the semi-final game. This time, it is Ankeny that awaits. The Hawks escaped the upstart Urbandale J-Hawks. Ankeny and Dowling met in week 6 (game 7) and it was not pretty for Ankeny as Dowling rolled to a 42-0 win. Turnovers were a big part of that game.

But things are different right now. The Hawks are healthy, they’ve abandoned much of the passing game and gone back to the great rushing attack they’re historically known for. Ankeny lost to Indianola, Dowling Catholic and Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln this season. It is their first trip to Cedar Falls in two seasons. They know the way, the lights, the heat, the intensity and what is at stake, date in the finals with either City High of Iowa City or Bettendorf. Either the Little Hawks or Bettendorf are also familiar with the UNI-Dome.

Friday’s 730p game will not stream on KWKY.com, but will only be heard on AM1150 in Des Moines. That is an association rule, not KWKY.

Little Cyclones love the air, want redemption

Friday’s weather forecast is a cold one. A night with some wind, some cold and a warm bus ride to Cedar Falls and the UNI-Dome is on the line. Also for DCHS, the shot at a second-straight 12-win season.

Ames comes to East High’s Williams Stadium looking to advance out of the quarterfinals, unlike in 2008 when Ankeny stopped the Little Cyclones. Or last year when West Des Moines Dowling Catholic stopped  the Little Cyclones season in the sub-state game with a 31-27 win. Ames was the 16th seed and had a record of 3-6, Dowling was 9-0 and the top seed in western Iowa. These teams have a strong post season history with Dowling beating Ames in the 1998 semifinals 28-20 and in the 1995 semis, 35-34.

This year, the Maroons are again top seed who barely survived against Valley on Monday night, 23-20 in OT.

By Amy Vinchattle/The Tribune Ames' Kyle Anderson tries to run though a tackle by Sioux City East linebacker Brad Stapleton Monday in Ames.

Again this season the Maroons are perfect, this time carrying a 11-0 record, but the Cyclones are 9-2. Their QB  situation has been consistent all year with Kyle Anderson starting all year, not being a mid-season adjustment.

Just like season, the team clicked with Anderson under center or out of the shot-gun formation. Anderson is big at 6-2, 200 lbs and can throw the football wherever he wants to.  He’s 198 of 324 for 2275 yards passing for 15 touchdowns. He’s not afraid to tuck the ball and run either with 495 yards on 108 carries including a 49 yard touchdown run in the 1st quarter against Sioux City East on Monday night.

By Nirmalendu Majumdar/The Tribune Ames High returning starters, from left, Kyle Anderson, Nathan Cruise, John Elsenbast, Dane Jensen, Luke Swalla, Tony Rush and Darin Blum will lead the Little Cyclones this season, starting with Friday’s season opener at Des Moines North. The Polar Bears were winless in 2009, scoring the leas points (64) in Class 4A and allowing the most (399).

Anderson has a lot of targets to spread the ball to. He’s got 3 receivers with 30 catches in Adam Maher (48-613 6 TDs), Darin Blum (33-437 2 TDs) and Nathan Cruise (31-437 4 TDs). Plus another receiver with 22 catches for 210 yards in Bo Brammer and Corey Thompson the running back with 17 catches and 127 yards plus Thomas McKiernan with 14 grabs and 113 yards. So, this team can throw the football to a lot of targets. Anderson also plays basketball as he was the first guy off the bench during last year’s state title run that included some guy named Harrison Barnes.

Dowling has Amarah Darboh with 35 catches, Eric Lee 27 and Ben Boesen with 15 grabs for a little comparison.

Thompson gets the majority of the work in the backfield with 122 carries and 607 yards and 6 scores. Also look for Hansen Breitling to get significant carries Friday night as he’s run the ball 48 times for 261 yards and 4 TDs.

The offense alone concerns Maroon head coach Tom Wilson a lot, a team that can throw the ball all over the field.

The defense is a 4-2-5 for Ames. They put a little smaller look up front, or as Coach Bruce Vertanen says, a lot of safety bodies put playing outside their size that all love to play football.

The heart of the defense is Nate Cruise. The 6-1, 190 pound senior has 70 tackles and has returned two interceptions for touchdowns this season. Coach Vertanen calls Cruise one of the best he’s coached during his 20 years at Ames High. Cruise will take every snap on defense and about 2 of 3 on offense. He takes most snaps at linebacker but could play anywhere on the field if needed.

By Amy Vinchattle/The Tribune Ames defensive back Davis Dixon runs after making an interception against Sioux City East Monday in Ames.

Safety Davis Dixon had a huge return against SC East that sealed the win for the Little Cyclones.

Coach Vertanen says his team matches up well with Dowling and says the Maroons are a complete team.

The Little Cyclones two losses came against Ankeny (Week 2, 20-7) and Fort Dodge (Week 5, 30-28). They opened the playoffs by beating DM East 51-14 and then disposing of Sioux City East and the Alex Imming show 24-14.

Our pregame begins at 6p on AM 1150 KWKY. This will be the last game we can stream on KWKY.com this football season as IAHSAA rights come into play for semi-finals and finals at the UNI-Dome. Maybe you’ll hear Dave “Wahoo” Marcoulier make another famous call. We hope sideline reporter Brian Morris stays warm and Romelle Slaughter, fresh off his write-up on Des Moines’ Juice for his Twitter abilities, will be active on our feed of Twitter.com/KWKYSports and chasing scores down for the broadcast.

The winner of this game will plays either upstart Urbandale or Ankeny. That game is at Frerichs Field. The semi-final game is in Cedar Falls next Friday night.

My name is Paul Yeager, see you at 6 on the radio.

Perfection, Take 2

HOLLY MCQUEEN/THE REGISTER The Dowling Catholic High School boys varsity football team heads onto the field at the start of their game against Indianola High School Oct. 15 at Waukee Stadium.

Most teams would be more than thrilled with a 9-0 season.
For the Dowling Catholic Maroons of the 2010 football team, it is just a beginning.
They want to add 5 more wins to make a perfect 14-0.

They took another step Friday night with a 30-6 win over the hard-hitting Indianola bunch. The Indians played like there was no tomorrow and were not intimated by the state’s top-rated team. The Indians already took out the giant Ankeny earlier this season and started the game with Dowling playing error-free football.

Coach Eric Kluver said before the game he was planning on starting Kody Foust and Brad Boden at running back to keep Ryan McCoy and Branden Abernathy fresh for defense. That plan worked early, but it was starting QB Kale Render who was the big playmaker, both with his arm and feet. Coming into the game, Render only rushed the ball 27 times for 10 yards. He had 3 yards in two of the first 7 plays on the first drive of the game. Render would finish with 14 carries for 18 yards.

Indianola had started a few games with trick plays, but it was all basic football. The risk-taking came on 4th down. Facing a 4th and 5 from the Dowling’s 39, Coach Kluver ran Render for 9 yards. But the Indians would face 4th down again and this time the Dowling D would hold. 3 plays later the Maroons were celebrating in the end zone with a 62 yard touchdown pass from Connor Bravard to Eric Lee running a post across the middle of the field. That was after two passes to Amara Darboh went incomplete.

HOLLY MCQUEEN/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic High School's Eric Lee (2) reaches to take down Indianola High School's Brennan Davey (20) during their game Friday, Oct. 15.

The Indians would run another sustained drive would end with a 39 yard pass play to Brennan Davey. The point after attempt would hit the uprights and the Maroons clung to a 7-6 lead. But the Indians would try the on-side kick and succeed, but on a fake punt, Eric Lee would step in front of a Render pass to stop the drive.

Not long after that score, Coach Tom Wilson called timeout to give his team a chewing. Our sideline reporter Brian Morris reported that Wilson called the time out. Wilson said later he was trying to help deliver an attitude adjustment to his team.

Ben Boesen would make a great defensive play to take the ball away from the Indians. The drive would be on a short field that the Maroons cashed in for points on a Bravard one yard run, but Mac Chapman, who didn’t start because of illness, would miss his first point after attempt of the season that left the Maroons leading 13-6 at halftime.

The Maroons got the ball to start the second half and would open up their bag of tricks for a half-back pass from Dalton Parrott to Eric Lee for another score. The senior combo made it 20-6 with 5:31 to play in the 3rd quarter.

Chapman added a 23 yard field goal and senior Connor Bravard would scamper 27 yards for a score to put the Maroons up 30-6.

The fresh defense strategy appeared to have worked in the first half as Abernathy seemed to be everywhere in the second half. The Indians would hold the Maroons to their 2nd lowest offensive point output since the SE Polk game. Dalton Parrott has had his lowest output of the season with 39 yards on 16 carries. The defense only gave up 210 yards, but offense only gained 255. No individual Maroon rushed, passed or received more than 100 yards, the first time all season that’s happened.

HOLLY MCQUEEN/THE REGISTER Indianola High School's Kody Foust (32), left, tries to move past Dowling Catholic High School's Josip Juric (70), right, during their game held at Waukee Stadium Friday.

The Indianola fans gave their team a standing ovation coming off the field following the game. As Dave Marcoulier pointed out, its likely the coaching staff was telling their players they can hang with anyone. That speech could come in handy if the playoff pairings and seedings stick, the Indians could get their rematch with Dowling in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the off-week comes at a good time for Dowling. It gives the boys a break from football, a chance to clear their heads, heal their bodies and regenerate their interest in football.

The seniors at DCHS are now 39-1. That means as freshman, that freshman team didn’t lose, as sophomores, no loses and the only loss on their resume is 2009′s 4A IAHSSA state semi-final game against Marshalltown. 31 seniors suited up Friday night.

The Maroons will likely be the top seed in the western side of 4A. The first playoff game will be Wednesday night at 7p. That game will be on AM 1150 KWKY, but will not be streamed live if the IAHSSA stands by their previous on-line streaming policy. We’ll have in-game updates on Twitter.com/KWKYSports.

King for a Day and Night

Ty Flood, 2010 DCHS Homecoming King.

Ty Flood is having a pretty good 2010 homecoming.

First he was named homecoming king by a vote of his peers, then he took care of that little business of the football game by rushing the ball twice.

For 3 yards.

Oh yeah, they were both touchdowns, too.

Flood scored the first two touchdowns on short yardage situations to send the Maroons on their way to a 42-3 thumping of #4 ranked Fort Dodge.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #46 Andrew Pick, center, breaks up field for a big gain after an early first half pass reception from quarterback #10 Connor Bravard, left on the ground.

The Dodgers were in the best 18-game stretch of the program’s history since 1949-1950, going 13-5. Thanks to Brian Morris for that fact he found in the Fort Dodge Messenger on Friday.

The Maroons took the opening drive 80 yards on a heavily pursuing Dodger defense using cutbacks and less-used Andrew Pick for offensive variety to set up the Flood TDs.

Fort Dodge was moving the ball at will against the stout Maroon defense until a delay of game penalty pushed the Dodgers back. Then another backwards play pushed the drive to 4th down where Coach Matt Miller‘s squad settled for a 40 yard Ty Littzen field goal to pull it to a 7-3 Maroon lead. There was also a play that went against Fort Dodge on that drive that got Coach Miller excited.

The Dowling offense got moving again and started driving.

Senior Quarterback Connor Bravard set the tone for the drive with a zig-zag run for 33 yards. But the first quarter would end 7-3, the closest margin all season for the Maroons who scored 42 points against Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson. Flood would get another short yardage score to put the Maroons up 14-3. Both of those Dowling drives went 80 yards and chewed up a lot of clock.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #2 Eric Lee, center, breaks up field for a big gain after first half pass reception.

The Maroons have had short fields to work with for most of the season. They started a drive on the Dodger 24. A quick 15 yard pass to Jake Yacinich was followed by a Dalton Parrott 14 yard scamper. Parrott would finish with 14 carries and 71 yards.

Ben Boesen ran a great fade route, Bravard put it on his hands for a 19 yard touchdown pass for Boesen’s only catch of the night.

Just before half, it looked like Tom Wilson‘s team was content to take a 28-3 lead, but a personal foul penalty following a 32 yard pass to Parrott put the ball on the Fort Dodge 17. Amara Darboh would get his touchdown for the game on a 17 yard strike to send the Maroons into the locker room up 35-3.

Cake for the broadcast crew. Great treat enjoyed by all. Treats not limited to Mrs. Whipple anymore.

Bravard, whose father Bryan brought us cupcakes in the press box before the game, would score after another short field drive for the Maroons to get the 35-point rule in effect for the 4th time this season. Only the Valley game did those rules not apply so far this season.

Dan Hartlieb and the second team would get some quality snaps in the 3rd and 4th quarter but not find the end zone as the Maroons would gain a few more yards to finish the night with 330 total yards (33/183 rushing, 147 passing).

The offensive line again was again the star of the game. A great job as a unit picked up blitz after blitz to give all skill players the time to make key plays.

And don’t forget the defense who held Ft. Dodge to 73 total yards (25-66 rushing, 4-10 7 yards passing).

The 11 penalties of the Dodgers seemed to be a killer in many key parts of the game, taking them out situations where the game could have been much closer.

Next week the Maroons go back into CIML Central Conference play with another home game with Southeast Polk. The Rams had the week off and some of them attended Friday’s game at Valley Stadium. The Rams have wins over Lincoln, Roosevelt and Waukee with a 17-7 loss to Ankeny last week.

For the record, Ty’s older brother Kurt was the 2009 DCHS Homecoming King. That’s a family dynasty. Even if for a day or night.