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

4 goals for Goaley as Maroons roll, 41-21

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #20 Ben Goaley goes to the outside on a run against West Des Moines Valley.

Ben Goaley made Friday night even hotter for the Des Moines East High Scarlets.

The West Des Moines Dowling Catholic senior football player scored 4 touchdowns in a 41-21 win. The heat index at kickoff was in the 90s at kick-off and stayed there for most of the night. The victory put the Maroons at 2-1 for the season while dropping the Scarlets to 0-2.

Goaley scored on rushes of 12, 10, 5 and 23 yards. He finished the night with 14 carries and 132 yards.”I give all the credit to the offensive line,” Goaley told Brian Morris on the KWKY post game show. He said the game isn’t really slowing down yet for him, but that he’s feeling more comfortable in the way he’s playing.

The Maroons forced three and outs on East for the first four series of the game. It wasn’t until the 5th series, which was in the 2nd quarter, the Scarlets even got a first down. Xavier James and Abu Sama connected on a 13 yard TD pass to make it 21-7 with 4:36 to play before half. That 10-play, 76 yard drive gave the  East defense a chance to rest. They spent much of the first quarter on the field in a hot, muggy night at Williams Stadium.

Besides Goaley’s gallops, Matthew Haack scored on a 63 yard run, sprung by an Amara Darboh block. Darboh had one touchdown Friday on 6 catches for 79 yards for the Maroons. Darboh would score on his own 20 yard pass play in the 3rd quarter.

Take out the 76 yards from the East scoring drive, the Scarlets only had 15 yards of offense in the first half.

The Dowling second team played much of the 2nd half, with offense getting serious playing time against the East first-team defense. Coach Tom Wilson also played his second-team defense which did allow a TD pass from James to Davontae Buckner. James would scamper 28 yards for a score of his own in the 4th quarter.

East finished with 266 yards of total offense, 128 rushing, 138 passing.

Dan Hartlieb had a good night passing going 13-17 for 232. The Dowling Maroons would end the night with 260 yards rushing on 44 carries and 15-23 passing for 249 yards bringing the total to 509 of offense.

Haack was just shy of the century mark on his night going 2 for 98 yards.  Brandon Ogden had 3 catches for 36 yards, but his most impressive part of the night was his blocking.

The heat wasn’t the reason in a couple of Dowling injuries, but the lopsided score didn’t force the hand of the coaching staff. Andrew Clemen and Matt Merfield could return this week.

Dowling will wear their road uniforms for the first time this season in the CIML Central conference opener at Urbandale. Game time is 730. Our pregame show begins at 6p on 1150 KWKY and KWKY.com.

You can guess one player we’ll know well by the end of the night is Allen Lazard.

“Home” Domination

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER Dowling Catholic's #16 Jason McMurray, center, fired up his team following the game's opening coin flip.

The 2010 home opener for the West Des Moines Dowling Catholic Maroons was the same type of performances as the warm up road shows.

Another game, another continuous clock in the second half, another lopsided win, 52-0 at Waukee Stadium in the Maroon’s 2010 home opener.

This time the Urbandale J-Hawks were on the other side of the scoreboard. Just like against Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, the J-Hawks didn’t find the end zone against the top rated Maroon football team. But the Valley Tigers and East Scarlets only put seven points on the board in their games with Dowling Catholic.

Urbandale came into this one down their top player, Travis Perry, who broke a foot a week before against Fort Dodge.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER After faking the hand-off, Dowling Catholic quarterback #10 Connor Bravard bootlegged the ball as he would score Dowling's fifth touchdown with 2 seconds left in the first half to make the score 38 - 0 in football game against Urbandale at Waukee High School Stadium on Friday night, Sept. 10th.

The Dowling defense did their part to start the game going three and out. But the offense didn’t need more than 3 plays, scoring on a 36 yard touchdown pass from birthday boy Connor Bravard to Eric Lee.

Mac Chapman would get a chance for a long field goal and he would be true from 48 yards out to put the Maroons up 10-0 with 3:05 play in the first quarter.

Dalton Parrott would then get his first of three touchdowns to close out the quarter. Parrott would score from 36, 6 and 1 yards out Friday night for a total of 66 yards on 10 carries.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER After the pass reception, Dowling Catholic's #15 Amara Darboh, center, sprinted for about a 22 yard gain and first down that would set up Dowling's fourth touchdown in the first half.

But it was the second quarter that provided the most excitement of the night. The Maroons would start a drive on their own 27 and score on a 73 yard touchdown pass to Amara Darboh, but it would be called back because of a penalty. The Maroons would be forced into a 3rd and 22 and would convert on a pass to Darboh for 22 yards. Jake Yacinich would get a huge 38 yard pass play, then another touchdown would be called back before back to back sacks by the Urbandale defense.

Again, the Maroons would call on Darboh to save the drive with a 29 yard catch to the J-Hawk 1. Darboh would be the game’s leading receiver with 5 catches for 123 yards and touchdown.

BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER On a punt return in the closing seconds of the first half, Dowling Catholic's #6 Jacob Stacy, left, eluded Urbandale's #40 Tyler Schmitt, right, as Stacy would return the ball to the 1 yard line and set up Dowling's fifth touchdown with 2 seconds left in the first half to make the score 38 - 0.

The Maroons would put a late touchdown before half after Jacob Stacy returned a punt to the J-Hawk 1 to put the continuous clock into effect 38-0.

The highlight of the second half was again Darboh with a pretty 58 yard touchdown pass from Connor Bravard.

Ben Goaley found the endzone to cap the scoring for the Tom Wilson-led Maroons, 52-0. Goaley would finish with 56 yards and 8 carries.

The Maroon offense rolled again, this time to 384 yards (219 air, 165 ground) while giving up 166 yards (73 pass, 93 ground). The defense has only given up 14 points all season and those points have yet to come against the first team.

Again, another great performance by the offensive and defensive lines. TJ Palme, Mitchell Woods, Dan Mahoney, Even Barkley and Jacob Hagedorn are the O-line while Evan Barkley, Josip Juric, Tyler Harmeyer and Patrick Greenfield are the D-line guys.

It is homecoming week for Dowling Catholic as the #4 ranked Fort Dodge Dodgers come to Valley Stadium. Pregame at 6, kickoff at 730. Should be a great game.

Westside night sees Dowling thump Valley 34-7

Dowling Catholic fans start to assemble at Valley.

Friday nights in Iowa are special.
It is the beginning of the weekend, the night East Side Night happens at the Iowa State Fair and it’s also known as Football Night in Iowa.

Friday night was Westside Night at Valley Stadium where West Des Moines Dowling Catholic dropped arch-rival West Des Moines Valley 34-7.

Its the second straight win for Tom Wilson‘s Maroons over Gary Swenson‘s Tigers.

Nearly 10,000 stood around the stadium to see the debut of Connor Bravard and the high-octane offense full of receivers like Amara Darboh, Eric Lee and Jake Yacinich. Darboh made a grab before half on a hail-mary heave to the end zone to set the tone for the rest of the game. Yacinich blocked a punt in the first quarter that was more of an interception. He just flat-out caught the ball off the punter’s foot. Lots of special teams plays were clicking Friday night.

The defense had questions marks coming into the season with only 3 returning starters, but that unit quickly rose to the challenge and shut down the likes of Looney and Lewis. There also was a QB change for Valley as Jeff Pullen started, but Connor Blythe finished the game. Valley was shut out until 1:27 left in the game. Most of the Valley starters were still in, which you could justify because they were working with their likely new quarterback.

The fake punt with Dowling leading by 30 points did raise some eyebrows, we’ll see who remembers that one later. That is usually a set play where the punter looks for a certain check point in coverage, if it’s not there, he takes off running for the first down.

Dowling finished with 161 yards rushing, 84 yards passing. Valley tallied 83 yards rushing and 55 yards passing.

Tom Chapman, Paul Yeager and Brian Morris in the press box at Valley. (Romelle Slaughter photo)

Dowling travels to Council Bluffs on Friday to play Thomas Jefferson. We’ll be on the air at 6 with the pregame show. Hopefully we’ll have Dave Marcoulier back in the booth after a bout of illness on Friday. You know it was serious when Dave couldn’t go. A big thanks to Tom Champan for filling in as our color commentator. He was to be in the booth anyway as he won an auction last year to be a part of the broadcast team. He thought he’d be able to watch his son Mac kick from the back row of the press box, he instead got a front row view of the action. A bit thanks to him and our trusty sideline reporter Brian Morris. Also thanks to Romelle Slaughter for his work on the Twitter feed and keeping us up to do on scores.

There are some other sources of information if you’re interested. One view is from the No, Its Iowa website I referred to in Friday’s broadcast. A plug for Jesse Gavin‘s site is to check in this week as he goes to see the head coaching debut of Alex Pollock and the Aplington Parkersburg Falcons. Alex’s older brother Andy is a new varsity assistant on this year’s Maroon squad.

A preview story on CBTJ will post Thursday or Friday ahead of the game. You can listen to the game online at KWKY.com or on AM1150 KWKY Des Moines.