Amara who? Don’t ask Ankeny

Dan Hartlieb in action against Ankeny. (Des Moines Register photo)

West Des Moines Dowling Catholic Head Coach Tom Wilson found out what life is like without Amara Darboh on his team last week in a loss at Southeast Polk. He lived the real-time adjustment of a football game plan.

Fast forward a week and Wilson had a full seven days of preparation of a new 2011 offense to throw at unbeaten and 4th ranked Ankeny.

Dowling Catholic came out and threw multiple formations, personnel and plays at the Ankeny defense en route to a 28-16 win Friday night at Drake Stadium.

Dan Hartlieb started the game and got a workout running from the huddle to sidelines as freshman Ryan Boyle came in to run an offense that looked a lot like the 2010 offense, one that featured among many things, running quarterback Connor Bravard.

The Maroons’ first play from scrimmage was a pass to TE Jon Wisnieski, but a chop block penalty would bring it back. DC would see this happen a few times during the course of the night, a big play wiped out by penalty.

But new wrinkles would be stopped on a 4th and 1 on a great defensive play by Cole Myers in the opening drive.

Ankeny would have a short field but would be forced to punt.

Brandon Ogden scored on 2 pass plays for DCHS. (Des Moines Register Photo)

Hartlieb’s strength is throwing the football. He found SE Brandon Ogden who made a move to get the ball, then a juke to the outside and he was gone for a 75-yard TD run for the game’s first score. Ogden would add another TD pass reception on the second half. Hartlieb was 8-12 passing for 139 yards and 5 of 35 rushing. Ogden had 6 catches over 123 yards and 2 TDs for his stat line Friday night.

Dan Hartlieb would cap a drive with a touchdown set up by Ben Goaley’s 63 yard run to put the Maroons up 14-3 with 9:51 to play before halftime. Goaley had 100 yards at half, finishing with 126 yards over 23 carries for the game.

Ankeny would start possessions on their 49, 41, 42 and 45 and only get 9 points coming on the leg of kicker Cole Netten. Those drives featured a few big pass plays to Marshall Clark, but Joel Lanning was limited in his effectiveness against the Maroon defense all night. He would finish with 15 carries and only 29 yards. His passing stats were a little better going 20-41 for 203 yards.

Lanning engineered a drive that went 72 yards in 8 plays he would cap on a 3 yard run. The drive took very little off the clock.

Coach Jerry Pezzetti elected to kick the ball deep and not go for the on-side kick trailing 21-16 with 2:51 to play and no timeouts. The strategy worked as the Maroons were forced to punt from their own endzone after going three and out.

Alex Heckman didn't hear the "get down, get down" yells. He just kept running for the endzone. (Des Moines Register photo)

Lanning came into the game having thrown no interceptions. That stat changed late in the second half when Alex Heckman stepped in front of a Lanning pass and cashed in his pick six card to put the final tally on the board and the game in the win column for Dowling.

The Dowling Catholic win muddies up the CIML Central with three teams now on top with only 1 loss, to each other. Ankeny beat Southeast Polk, the Rams beat the Maroons, you get the idea. DCHS is now 5-2 overall with Ankeny falling to 6-1.

Freshman QB Ryan Boyle had 6 rushes for 36 yards. Chase Dowell would have 5 carries and 29 yards. The Maroon rushing effort finished with 222 yards over 41 carries. The passing game was worth 139 yards on 8-13 passing. That’s 361 total yards of offense to the Hawks’ 302.

Dowling closes out the regular home season against Johnston Friday night at Drake Stadium. Our KWKY pregame show begins at 6p. This game will also be on DowlingWebcasting.com

Ankeny rides the ‘gun’ to a 6-0 start

Joel Lanning in action against Indianola. (DM Register photo)

Ask Jerry Pezzetti to pick ten of the best 352 coaching wins in his career is like asking someone to pick a favorite among their of their children.

“They are were special and memorable,” said Pezzetti earlier this week. The Ankeny football head coach says there’s a strand of hard work and determination in all of those wins spread over 50 years of coaching.

But the game does evolve. Just like offenses.

Gone is the constant, where-is-the-ball running style and here is a shot-gun approach to offense. As Coach Pezzetti says, you want the ball in your best players hands as often as possible.

Who could blame him? Joel Lanning has done everything coaches ask. He’s a threat to throw the ball and run it. More accurately, run you over. Through six games, Lanning is 43-74-700 yards passing with 0 interceptions and 6 touchdowns. His rushing line is 64 carries for 353 yards and 2 TDs which if 1/4 of the team’s 1436 rushing yards and second best on the team.

The Hawks are 6-0 while the Maroons are 4-2.

The Hawks’ leading rusher is Trever Egli. The senior has 51 carries for 462 yards. Ryan Wendt has 20 rushes for 170 yards.

Ankeny's Marshall Clark tries to catch a pass as SE Polk's Brandon VanHeeswyk and Jordan Coates defend in the second quarter during their game in Ankeny Friday night. Clark was unable to make the catch. (Justin Hayworth/The Des Moines Register)

The passing target is Marshall Clark, a sophomore with 16 catches worth 264 yards, 4 TDs and a season-long of 47 yards. The biggest passing play of the season was to Cole Meyers who has a 75 TD in his scrapbook to pump his season total to 112 yards and 5 catches. RB Trevor Egli and TE Drew Lindamen also catch passes in the offense.

The defense has carried the team this season allowing only 6 points per game versus the 35.5 points per game the offense is scoring. They also had the majority of the returning players including key positions in the linebacking corps and secondary. Jorden Studer and Ty Ash are back. The duo lead the team in tackles with 47 each. The Hawks will play 5 up front. Coach Pezzetti says this defense has played well. They may be small, he says, but they do what is asked of them by the coaching staff. Drew Carlson and Jordan Bauer also have significant amounts of tackles for the Hawks.

The secondary features twins Cole and Cory Meyers. The duo also are basketball players who have already committed to play that sport at Truman State.

Turnovers forced against Urbandale lead to 3 touchdowns in the first half for the Hawks, but after that, the offense was hard-pressed to move forward. They J-Hawks took control of the second half, forcing Ankeny to punt on nearly every second-half possession. Urbandale outgained Ankeny by a 333-187 margin.

Ankeny lost both meetings with Dowling Catholic last season. One was a lopsided affair, but the other was a great, football game in the semi-finals of last year’s playoffs.

These teams are different. So are the Maroons. Standout receiver Amara Darboh was injured in the game’s 3rd play of the game in a 27-9 loss to Southeast Polk. What will the game-plan look like in trying to stop the Maroons?

Coach Pezzetti says it doesn’t matter who plays, the Maroons are always good and always ready to play the game. He’s reminded his players that the Maroon sophomore program was undefeated without Darboh, so the remaining players know how to win.

This is homecoming for the Maroons. The game will be at the great venue for HS sports, Drake Stadium. Our pregame show begins at 6 on 1150 KWKY, KWKY.com and back for a home game DowlingWebCasting.com

We’ve got some fun things cooked up for this game, including right off the bat for the newest member of the Hall of Fame, Mr. Mark Amadeo.

Turnovers you can take to the bank

STEVE GIBBONS/SPECIAL FOR THE REGISTER Dowling's Luke LeWarne recovers a fumbled kickoff during Friday's game at Ankeny.

The West Des Moines Dowling Catholic 2010 football team keeps on making teams pay for turnovers. That’s just what good teams are supposed to do.

Friday night the Maroons cashed in Ankeny Hawk turnovers for big-time pay. Two times the Maroons forced a fumble on a kickoff that resulted in a Dowling touchdown. Plus the Maroons scored a TD following an interception en route to a 42-0 win at Ankeny.

The Hawks could not find any offense. The Dowling defense deserves a lot of credit, but the Hawks just didn’t seem to click any level. They misfired on passing and rushing worked on a few plays, but was abandoned. Coach Jerry Pezzetti told me before the game that they’ve scored fewer points when they’ve tried to pass the football, a statement in a nod to pressure to throw the football more because of good athletes at key positions.

Sophomore quarterback Joel Lanning was frustrated the entire night. He made one long pass to top receiver Greg Raney, but that was the Hawks’ biggest play of the game. Lanning was held to 75 yards passing and 30 yards rushing.

STEVE GIBBONS/SPECIAL FOR THE REGISTER Dowling quarterback Connor Bravard throws a pass toward receiver Amara Darboh during Friday's game at Ankeny.

The Connor Bravard Show was back on the main stage running in full slash and dash style, with 9 of 32 rushing and 2 TDs plus 17 of  22 passing for 195 yards and 1 TD through the air. He was contained last week against SE Polk, but was back to his old ways. Which has been a big reason for the Maroon’s success. That and nearly every other part of the team is excelling. That just makes it that much more fun.

STEVE GIBBONS/SPECIAL FOR THE REGISTER Dowling receiver Amara Darboh hauls in a 50-yard pass from quarterback Connor Bravard during Friday's game at Ankeny.

One of the most exciting offensive plays of the night was a deep pattern pass to Amara Darboh. The junior receiver had one long pass slip through his hands, but he caught a pass worth 50-yards in the 2nd quarter. Darboh finished with 4 catches and 80 yards. He really was a big part of the offense Friday night. So was Eric Lee who had 7 catches and 65 yards. Ben Boesen was more of an offensive player again this week as he had the ball thrown to him on a couple of screens. Boesen grabbed 4 catches for 41 yards and one touchdown.

Dalton Parrott made one of his longest runs on the season (36 yards) to get a score in the 2nd quarter. He finished with 11 carries for 91 yards and a score.

Ty Flood did great short yardage duty again for a score and a couple of other great pack runs where he just kept the feet moving. Ben Goaley, Steven Licktieg, Alex Heckman and Jake Yacinich also got a chance to run the ball in the second half during the continuous clock.

The Maroons tallied 162 yards rushing on 36 carries with 195 yards passing.

Special teams also made noise with a blocked FG.

The Maroons are now 7-0 and have won 19 straight regular season games. The Hawks fall to 5-2 with both losses coming in the conference. A good measurement game will be their regular season finale at Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln.

STEVE GIBBONS/SPECIAL FOR THE REGISTER The Dowling fans pack the visitors' bleachers for Friday's football game at Ankeny.

It was just one of those nights were everything weird was happening, including behind the scenes. Traditionally, there’s only one press box and it is on the home side of the stadium. But at Ankeny Stadium, visiting radio is sent to the visiting side and also is next to the visiting coaches in a tiny, dark, hard-to-get-to box. Getting to the box, you have to crawl over 20 people, and I do mean crawl over. Our broadcast sounded like we were in the middle of a QuikTrip dumpster while being driven by a flat-bed diesel fired truck without mufflers. That’s putting it nicely. It would have been better if we were surrounded by the Ankeny Marching Band, at least then we would have had good tone. We were broadcasting off the cell phone and something just doesn’t seem to be working correctly. There is a phone line, but that was not live Friday night. I spent the second half holding my cell phone and just talking into it. Good thing we had a continuous clock, otherwise Dave was getting a little tired of the situation.

Next week we have a phone line at Johnston, so hopefully you can hear us. We’re on the air at 6p on AM1150 KWKY.

Jerry and Joe still rolling, so are the Hawks

Jerry Pezzetti is the 15th winningest active coaches in the US. (image from AnkenyHawkReport.com)

The dean of Iowa High School football is past the half-way point of his 49th season at Ankeny High School.

The dean of the Big Ten is returning to Iowa this weekend. He’s 83. Joe Paterno brings Penn State to Iowa City Saturday.

Both men have heard whispers about the end.

Both men are still here.

Both still know a lot about football.

Jerry Pezzetti is the 37th winningest coach all-time in high school football and 15th on the active coaches list. He’s 342-135-1 since 1968. That’s a 71.5% winning percentage.

His Hawk team is 5-1 this season with a 2-1 record in the CIML Central conference. But as coach told me earlier this week, they could be 6-0 or 1-5, things have been that close all year.

The one loss came to Indianola, at Ankeny Stadium back on September 21st by a score of 21-10. It marked the first night Eric Kluver beat his old coach. Indianola led most of the way as the former player from the early 1990s beat his coach for the first time in 6 meetings.

Last week, the Hawks bounced back, escaping at Urbandale 14-12. This season the Hawks have also beaten Waukee, Ames, DM North and SE Polk. They’ve outscored opponents 150-60 making the average game 25-10. The Maroons average score is 46 to 6.

Coach Pezzetti said before the season that he wasn’t a fan of the early start or the bye. But as the 2010 campaign marches on, the Hawks keep falling victim to injuries. Now, Coach Pezzetti says next week’s bye will be a welcome break from the CIML season.

But first, the Hawks have to get through Dowling Catholic who escaped a 24-23 win against Southeast Polk. The Maroons allowed the most points of the season (23, 7 was the previous high 2 times before) and gave up 265 yards passing by sophomore quarterback Kyle Starcevich.

#2 QB Joel Lanning is another sophomore that could give the Maroons fits. (image from AnkenyHawkReport.com)

The Hawks have their own super sophomore in Joel Lanning. The 6′ 170 lb Lanning played in almost every game as freshman on the varsity squad, moving into the quarterback roll midway through the season. This year Lanning has been injured off and on, but is in the starting line up for the tilt against Dowling. Lanning 71-222 rushing with 3 touchdowns and 34 of 68 passing for 643 yards, 4 TDs and 2 INTs.

Pezzetti’s backfield has yet to have the same starters for any of the first six games as Alex Holmes is out for the season with an injury he sustained in the first quarter of the 2010 season.

This week the Hawks plan to send out Rob Myers (38-215 rushing), Carter Brandt (68-450 5TDs rushing) and Trevor Egli (21-197 rushing yards).  Brandt has been the leading rusher 3 times this year with a season high 113 yards against Ames.

Greg Raney is the top receiver with 22 catches and 555 yards and 5 TDs. Drew Lindaman is the starting TE with 5 catches and 57 yards.

The Ankeny offense has been built on deception for decades and now mixes in the pass. But the Hawks still have run the ball 246 times for 1439 yards vs. 76 passes and 739 yards.

The defense is again a tough line up with Rob Myers in the middle. His 46 tackles leads the team. Ty Ash (41 tackles), Zach Thompson (36 tackles) and sophomore Drew Carlson (35 tackles) lead the Hawk defense.

Coach Pezzetti heaps praise on West Des Moines Dowling Catholic Maroons calling them an excellent team that is great all over. He knows the next man has to be tough to stop the Maroons or it could be repeat of last year’s 38-7 Dowling win.

We go on the air at 6p from Ankeny Stadium. We’ll be on AM1150 or KWKY.com. You can also get game updates at Twitter.com/KWKYSports.