(Story by Gabe Ploeger)
The only thing standing in the way of Ankeny’s ticket to the Class 5A semifinals was the powerhouse of Dowling Catholic, which had handed the Hawks one of their three losses during the regular season. This time, however, David defeated Goliath in stunning fashion.
No. 7 Ankeny pulled off a 14-7 upset on Friday at Williams Stadium to earn a trip to the UNI-Dome, where the Hawks (8-3) will meet Ankeny Centennial (7-4) on Friday at 7 p.m.
“We had obstacles every game, made mistakes, we never played a perfect game,” said Ankeny coach Jeff Bauer. “Our kids are just relentless, they improved every week and it shows. My coaches had a great game plan tonight and the kids believed that we could do it, and we did.”
Defensively, Ankeny had Dowling’s number all night long. The No. 2 Maroons were held to just 187 total yards.
Down 14-7 in the third quarter, Dowling drove to the Hawks’ 20-yard line and was threatening to tie the score. However, the Maroons muffed a handoff and Ankeny’s Andrew Haase jumped onto the ball, swaying all of the momentum in favor of the Hawks.
This sort of aggression was on display throughout the whole game as Ankeny pulled off the exhilarating upset.
From the first snap, Ankeny came out firing on all cylinders, hitting multiple completions and catching Dowling off guard as the Hawks drove 88 yards down the field with incredible efficiency, taking about 9 minutes off the clock. Ankeny took a 7-0 lead when quarterback Luke Anderson found wide receiver Mason Randolph from 1 yard out, and the crowd erupted.
Dowling forged a 7-7 halftime tie on a 4-yard scoring run by Ra’Shawd Davis, who rushed for 117 yards on 24 carries. But Davis was not nearly as effective as he was on Sept. 8, when he ran for 242 yards and three touchdowns in the Maroons’ 35-14 win over Ankeny.
“It’s a playoff game, everything changes, the atmosphere changes. We were locked in all week,” Anderson said. “We asked a lot of guys to step up, and they did. When it comes to the playoffs nothing else matters, you’ve just got to win.”
The Hawks were certainly locked in to begin the second half. Their defense forced another Dowling punt, which set the stage for the offense to score the go-ahead touchdown.
Anderson tossed a 4-yard pass to sophomore Andrew Brandhorst to give Ankeny a 14-7 lead toward the end of the third quarter. It was the third touchdown of the season for Brandhorst, and by far his biggest.
Despite the low score, this game was nothing short of exciting. The players put it all on the line, and every play mattered. Each yard gained could sway the momentum, but in the end the Hawks won–both mentally and physically.
Ankeny’s balanced attack produced just enough points to win the game. Anderson completed 13-of-16 passes for 120 yards, while running backs Caden Henkes and Daniel Larmie also had some success on the ground, combining for 122 yards.
Dowling (9-2), meanwhile, struggled to move the ball through the air. Quarterback Dante Cataldo completed just 6-of-13 passes for 49 yards.
With this meaningful redemption win, Ankeny proved that it’s here to compete at an incredibly high level. The Hawks have grown tremendously since the earlier loss to Dowling.
“We’re a different team from week 2 and 3,” Bauer said. “We learned from our mistakes, every week we’ve played a tough team and had to prepare. Come Sunday afternoon we’re going to get back to it. We did this past week and we’re not done.”
