Ankeny couldn’t have asked for a better start in Friday’s Class 5A championship football game.
Unfortunately, the Hawks needed a lot more than a 90-yard kickoff return from Evan Irlmeier to knock off mighty Southeast Polk at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
The top-ranked Rams got five touchdown runs from CJ Phillip, forced six Ankeny turnovers and rolled to a 49-21 victory for their third consecutive state title.
“I told some of their guys, ‘You played lights out today,'” said Ankeny linebacker Connor Kayser. “We were going to have to play perfect, and we just didn’t and that’s it. Our offense played well, but our defense picked a bad day to have a stinker.”
Ankeny finished with a 9-4 record under first-year coach Jeff Bauer. The Hawks earned runner-up honors for the second time in three years and the third time in school history.
“I’m so proud of this group of young men. They gave everything they had, and there was never an easy day,” said Bauer. “It’s amazing what we’ve done. I’ve got three guys with torn labrums. They all needed surgery, but they kept playing with the injuries. It’s been a fantastic year.”
Southeast Polk completed a perfect 13-0 season under former Ankeny coach Brad Zelenovich. The Rams are now 47-3 since the beginning of the 2020 campaign.
“They all feel good,” Zelenovich said of the threepeat. “You don’t want to compare them, but we went 13-0. We answered the challenge with the schedule we played. Beating two teams (Valley and Ankeny) up here that are really good (for the 2nd time), it feels great. That says a lot about our kids.”
While Phillip rushed for 147 yards on 29 carries, senior defensive back Trey Lust led the Rams’ defensive effort. He intercepted two passes and also recovered a fumble.
“It feels great,” said Lust. “Our team went out there and just left it all on the field. It’s my senior year, and I just tried to give everything I could for my team.”
The Hawks finished with 364 total yards, just one fewer than Southeast Polk. But the turnovers were just too much to overcome.
Trailing 21-14, Ankeny had a chance to tie the game right before halftime when it drove the ball to the Rams’ 28-yard line. The big play on the drive was a 33-yard pass from Luke Anderson to Devon Akers on 3rd-and-29 from the Hawks’ 3.
However, Southeast Polk linebacker Caleb Chebuhar then picked off an Anderson pass at the Rams’ 4. Ankeny never again had the ball with an opportunity to tie the score.
“We were right there, but the turnovers really hurt us,” said Irlmeier. “That, and some dumb penalties. I didn’t get lined up correctly a couple of times, so I’ll take the blame on that.”
Southeast Polk got a long kickoff return from Sam Zelenovich to open the second half. Six plays later, Zelenovich caught a 21-yard scoring pass from Connor Moberly on third-and-20 to extend the Rams’ lead to 28-14.
After an interception by Lust, Southeast Polk drove 45 yards in nine plays and built a 35-14 advantage on a 7-yard run by Phillip with 2 minutes 57 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We were doing all we could,” said Ankeny defensive back Kinnick Vos. “We were battling until the end. Obviously, we had a lot of turnovers and short fields (for Southeast Polk). But we battled, and that’s what we’re made of. We always battle until the end.”
Ankeny responded with a nine-play, 90-yard drive that included passes of 37 yards to Mason Randolph and 23 yards to Akers. Caden Henkes scored on an 8-yard run to close the gap to 35-21 with 14 seconds to go in the period.
After forcing a punt, the Hawks had a chance to make it a one-score game. But the kick by Southeast Polk’s Hunter Chanthaphon deflected off an Ankeny player and was recovered by the Rams.
The Hawks eventually forced another punt, but then Southeast Polk’s defense got a stop midway through the fourth quarter. Ankeny elected not to go for the first down, and a bad snap on the ensuing punt led to a 4-yard touchdown run by Phillip on the next play.
Another interception by Lust on the Hawks’ next possession essentially sealed Southeast Polk’s victory. Phillip found the end zone again on a 1-yard run with 2:55 left to complete the scoring.
“They’re big and strong, and the quarterback is good,” Bauer said of the Rams. “We’re undersized up front, and when a team gets into us like they did tonight, it’s tough to stop the 4- and 5-yard runs, and they get longer as you get tired.”
Moberly completed 14-of-19 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a 43-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Carson Robbins midway through the first quarter to offset Irlmeier’s game-opening fireworks.
Irlmeier had electrified the crowd when he dropped the kick at the 10-yard line, picked up the ball and then raced down the right sideline to the end zone.
“That was my first (drop) this year,” Irlmeier said. “I was a little frantic, but sometimes they get off schedule (when you drop it). They don’t know where they’re going and they just go to the ball, and I went to the outside and got good blocks. I knew I had (the score) once I followed my friend Mason–he got a good block on the outside and then I cut it up. And then I had Sam (Sandvig) and Henkes right there with me.”
Vos watched the play unfold from the sideline.
“That was just a fantastic moment,” he said. “That’s what you get in the Dome. You get some awesome moments.”
After Phillip scored on a 2-yard run with 1:27 left in the first quarter, Ankeny answered quickly. Anderson tossed a 63-yard bomb to Henkes to tie the score at 14-14 with 11:06 to go until halftime.
However, Moberly threw a 49-yard pass to Robbins on the ensuing possession. That led to a 13-yard scoring run by Phillip that put the Rams ahead for good with 8:07 left in the half.
Anderson completed 21-of-30 passes for 302 yards in the losing effort. Akers caught nine passes for 118 yards, but his fumble on Ankeny’s next drive was scooped up by Lust and returned 11 yards to the Hawks’ 38.
“We thought we could compete, and the way we started off with the kick return was great,” Bauer said. “But we made too many mistakes tonight. And we haven’t been doing that the last couple of weeks.”
Still, the Hawks enjoyed a memorable postseason journey that they’ll never forget. They upset No. 2 Dowling Catholic in the quarterfinals and then defeated crosstown rival Ankeny Centennial to reach the title game for the third time in four years.
“No one believed in us but ourselves and our coaching staff,” Irlmeier said. “Bauer took the job–he believed in everyone here and the coaching staff. I think we exceeded expectations, as much as we wanted to win this game.”
