Maroons grind out win at Urbandale, 30-14

Markell Coleman juggles a catch and then runs for six. (Image from KCCI.com)

A football game is a series of single plays. Fans will say if just that one goes the other way, we win the game. Many Iowa fans will name you the play that cost them against Iowa State.

But ask a coach what one play determines a win or loss, they’ll point to a series of play and not one snap.

Take away two plays for the Urbandale J-Hawks and you likely take away their 14 points against West Des Moines Dowling Catholic.

Amara Darboh goes in for six against Urbandale. (Image from KCCI.com)

The Maroons scored first on a 9 play, 80 yard drive capped by a 23 yard TD pass to Amara Darboh from Dan Hartlieb.

Then the J-Hawks ran a simple option play to the left side. QB Ben Hurley faked the dive, then went wide, kept running about 7 yards and pitched it to Markell Coleman. The junior running back did the rest, sprinting past the rest of the Dowling D and was in the endzone. Just like that it was tied, the extra point was good and Urbandale had the lead.

Dowling Catholic ran three plays and went nowhere, were in punt formation. Matthew Haack took the snap, rolled to his left and kept running. He saw an opening and went 15 yards for the first down to extend the drive. Darboh would cough up the football after a catch, opening the door for the J-Hawks.

Coach Sam Anderson‘s squad would struggle for yardage before punting the ball away just before the end of the 1st quarter.

Dowling on offense at Urbandale.

Then the meat grinders went to work. A drive that started on their own 5, ended in a 28 yard field goal by Avery Mason. At the end of that series, Amara Darboh had been involved in 12 of 29 offensive plays for Coach Tom Wilson. Maroons led 9-7 with 9:16 to play in the 2nd quarter.

The J-Hawks converted on a third and five with super sophomore Allen Lazard catching a pass. Two plays later, Urbandale went to the air again, Hurley finds Coleman over the middle, a little juggling sideshow and Coleman sprints 62 yards for a score to the put the J-Hawks up 14-9 with 6:25 to go before halftime.

It took the Maroons 11 plays to go 80 yards on a mix of Goaley, Haack and Jon Wisnieski before Darboh ran it in from 1 yard out. Johnny Wiz had 43 receiving yards in two catches on the drive. Darboh would finish with 10 catches and 170 yards, his best performance of the season receiving.

Haack blocked a punt, but the Maroons couldn’t capitalize, as Lazard picked off a Hartlieb pass on the first play from scrimmage of that series that started on the Urbandale 17.

The J-Hawks moved the ball only 21 yards in their opening series of the second half, punting it to Haack who returned the football 33 yards to make it a short 52 yard scoring drive with Alex Heckman getting the call from 5 yards out to put the Maroons up 23-14.

Punter Jack Cronin would pin the Maroons back to their own 3 before the Maroons went 97 yards on 10 plays, 7 of them to Goaley, who finished the drive with a 6 yard TD run to put the boys in maroon and white up 30-14.

Goaley would help run out the clock on my running plays, he had 25 carries in the second half alone, to finish with 37 touches for the game worth 196 yards. Nick Navin got his first carries of the season for 35 yards.

The maroons orchestrated scoring drives of 80, 84, 80, 52 and 97 yards to rack up 530 yards of total offense in a 243/287 pass/rush split. The J-Hawks managed 313 on 140 passing and 173 rushing. Take out the Coleman run and that number is only 102.

The KWKY crew working in the press box.

The Maroons improve to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the CIML Central. The J-Hawks fall to 2-1 and 0-1 in the conference. They play host to Johnston while the Maroons travel to Fort Dodge.

We’ll be on the air at 6p Friday night in Webster County on 1150 KWKY and KWKY.com. We’ll have the crew on the road for you next week.

Glad to have you aboard. Send us your questions via Twitter to @KWKYSports. We’ll have our Ask The Announcers segment before 7p Friday night.

I’d say we’d have Dave Marcoulier make a bet about shaving his head, but he’s already got a close cut. Maybe Brian Morris?

Urbandale again without top player against Dowling

For the second straight season, Coach Sam Anderson will lead his Urbandale J-Hawks against Dowling Catholic without his lead player.

Last year it was QB Chad Gilson who broke a hand the week before playing the Maroons.

This season, it will be Travis Perry with the broken bone, this time it is a broken foot that has grounded a J-Hawk player in the CIML Central Conference opener for both teams.

Anderson says Perry broke this foot the second play of a 24-0 loss to Fort Dodge last week at Frerichs Field. Perry tried to play on it, but Anderson said it was obvious his star wasn’t at full-strength.

This also marks the second week in a row the top-rated Maroons play a team down one of their best players. Last week Des Moines East lined up against West Des Moines Dowling Catholic down senior quarterback Zack Jones. Jones broke his foot the week before against, you guessed it, Fort Dodge. The Maroons rolled to a 54-7 win to improve to 3-0 for the 2010 campaign. The Dodgers defense again came to play limiting the J-Hawks to 59 yards on 32 carries and 147 yards of total offense and three more turnovers.

Nigel Habben is this year’s starting QB for the J-Hawks. He played last season against Dowling after Gilson, who now is red-shirting at UNI, broke his hand against Ankeny. Habben is pass-first threat who will run if needed. So far this season, Habben has 25 carries for 95 yards and is 12 of 26 passing for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Nigel Habben #7, hands off to Jake DeHamer #5 against Ft. Dodge. Image from http://www.j-hawks.com

Connor Freeman and Jake DeHamer are the Urbandale threats at running back. Freeman is the senior with 19 carries for 75 yards. DeHamer, the junior, 7 carries 40 yards. Connor will play wingback and be put in the slot, depending on Coach Anderson’s call. DeHamer is a part of the flex-bone rushing attack to keep defenses honest.

Kellen Roberts is the team-leader in receptions with 4 for 36 yards.
Perry already had 4 catches for the season as well, all in the team’s opening season win against Hoover. Perry, a 2-sport athlete for Urbandale will likely miss the rest of the regular season. He already has scholarship offers from Eastern Illinois and a couple of other schools to play football.

Coach Anderson though has told his team this week they are facing a semi-final and final caliber teams. He says they have to play their game and not get caught up in the hype of playing the number one team in the state.

Anderson, in his 7th year at Urbandale, says his defense is anchored by Tyler Schmitt, Nick Jepsen and Jordan Augustine. Schmitt leads the team with 20 tackles from his defensive tackle position.

One thing the J-Hawks did not help them against Ft. Dodge was committing 14 penalties. Anderson said many were foolish. The Dodgers only led 10-0 at the half and only added two touchdowns late in the game to win 24-0. Coach adds the Dodgers were a hard-hitting team with good speed. It also was the first time the J-Hawks were shut out in 5 seasons.

But Anderson also knows the Maroons bring some speed of their own to the game at Waukee Stadium. Anderson says he’s familiar with Connor Bravard, as are most coaches in the state. Bravard leads the Maroon offense with 222 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns, plus 349 passing yards and 7 touchdowns.

The J-Hawks and the Maroons met two times last season. Both went to Dowling. First a 44-8 win in week 7, then the Maroons advanced to the UNI-Dome with a 31-7 win in the quarterfinals.

Waukee Stadium is the home site for Dowling against Urbandale and Indianola.

Friday will be the Maroons home opener. The game will be played at Waukee Stadium. Our pregame show begins at 6p on AM 1150 KWKY and KWKY.com. You can also send us a question through the blog or our Twitter feed at Twitter.com/KWKYSports

For Brian Morris on the sidelines, Dave Marcoulier in the analyst chair, Romelle Slaughter getting calusis on his Twitter fingers and Tim Burrow playing the hits, I’m Paul Yeager. We’ll see Friday night at 6 with kickoff set for 730p.