(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Iowa high school football’s all-time winningest coach has checked off a milestone no other coach has reached.
Ankeny Centennial co-head coach Jerry Pezzetti is just one of three coaches to pass the 400-win threshold, but thanks to the Jaguars’ 31-14 road win over Cedar Falls on Friday, the Ankeny legend became the first coach to reach 450 career victories.
“A lot of players, great coaches and people who’ve stood behind me,” Pezzetti said after the game.
Pezzetti, who started his head coaching career at Murray and Melcher-Dallas, coached the Ankeny Hawks for 42 years before moving across town to start the Centennial program in 2013 alongside his son, Ryan, who co-coaches the team.
He entered the 2024 season with 447 victories and with the Jaguars opening the season with a 3-0 record, Pezzetti reached the 450-win milestone as second-ranked Centennial solidified its status as a Class 5A title contender.
“We just played great,” Jerry Pezzetti said. “We came back, and came back, kept blocking and kept tackling. I’m proud of them. Big win for us in the third game of the year.”
There weren’t fireworks to open up the game as both squads dealt with some slow starts. The Jaguars and Tigers combined for five punts, a missed field goal and a fumble on the game’s first seven drives.
Once the Jags got the wheels turning in the second quarter, there was no stopping the offense thanks to the running back tandem of Braeden Jackson and JJ Morgan.
Centennial responded to its slow start by recording points on five consecutive drives spanning the second quarter and second half. Jackson had a trio of rushing touchdowns for the second time this season, Morgan found the end zone once, and Ryan Bendezu came through with a long field goal.
On top of an already dominant ground game, the Jags are starting to feature the arm of senior quarterback and safety Chase Kluver more and more each week.
“Once you get deeper into the season and people have film, you gotta balance it out,” said Kluver, who completed 14-of-19 passes for 190 yards. “Tonight, I think we found our balance and it showed.”
Kluver was coming off of a 155 yard and three touchdown game on a perfect 6-of-6 passing during last week’s win over Ames and proceeded to make some important throws to help the Jags’ offense line themselves up for success against the Tigers.
On Centennial’s first scoring drive of the game, Kluver converted three third downs through the air with Morgan and senior receiver Caleb Reed hauling in passes. It helped Jackson find the end zone for the first of three times.
Even when Cedar Falls attempted to steal the momentum back on a 90-yard touchdown drive with under a minute left in the half, Kluver found Morgan and Reed to move the ball down the field for Bendezu to split the uprights on an impressive 52-yard field goal to take the lead and momentum right back going into halftime.
“I couldn’t be happier for (Bendezu),” said Ryan Pezzetti. “He’s really worked hard to get where he’s at. To get in that position at the end of the half, we were going to try to gamble to get five more yards. But we weren’t sure, with 5 seconds, if we could get it, get it off and get out of bounds. He made those in pregame, and he came through.”
Jackson gave the Jags their first separation of the game by recording his longest touchdown run of the night from 31 yards out to give Centennial a 17-7 lead to open up the second half.
Kluver’s arm came back into play on their following drive when a big screen pass to Morgan on a 2nd-and-23 got called back with a penalty. Facing a 2nd-and-32 from the Jags’ 9-yard line, Kluver dialed up a deep ball to Sam Heither that ended up with the senior getting tracked down on the Tigers’ 27 after a 64-yard gain.
It didn’t take long for Morgan to cruise past defenders on the sideline for a 23-yard touchdown run to put them up 17 points.
“We don’t have a lot of 2nd-and-32 plays,” Ryan Pezzetti said. “I don’t think anybody does. We felt we maybe had a matchup there on the boundary and to take a chance. The safety was playing toward the middle of the field and not the hash, so we knew we might get a 1-on-1 opportunity. Sam’s a very gifted athlete and made a great play, and Chase made a great throw.”
Cedar Falls attempted to claw back in the fourth quarter with its second touchdown drive of the game, but it was promptly answered by Jackson’s third rushing touchdown following a kick return that allowed the Jags to start in Tiger territory.
The Centennial defense had a strong night forcing two Tiger turnovers and four punts. Kluver helped seal Pezzetti’s milestone victory by intercepting Cedar Falls quarterback Leyton Wolf with under 6 minutes left to play.
“It feels great,” Kluver said. “We came here knowing what we wanted to do. We wanted to beat them in their home stadium, come in here and get a big win. To have this be (Pezzetti’s) 450th and our team to start hot like this, it’s incredible.”
The first third of the season is done, and Centennial is poised to take over the top spot in the Class 5A rankings after No. 1 Dowling Catholic lost at Ankeny. But things only ramp up with the next slate of games.
The Jaguars return home on Friday to host three-time defending Class 5A champion Southeast Polk (1-2) before going on the road to face Des Moines East (2-1) and Dowling (2-1).
