(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Regardless of gold jerseys or white jerseys, one of two Hawk teams was bound to exit Ankeny Stadium on Friday with a much-needed victory to keep its playoff hopes alive.
And in the end, it was the Ankeny Hawks who soared past the visiting Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks, 35-16, to improve to 3-3 on the season.
“We needed (the win) bad,” said Ankeny coach Jeff Bauer. “We played our best game of the year I felt. The offense and defense at times looked good.”
Both squads found themselves in a very similar situation with 2-3 marks heading into the Hawk vs Hawk showdown.
The hometown Hawks didn’t start the season as they hoped to after coming off of a state championship appearance last year. They opened the season 0-2, but picked up wins over Dowling Catholic and Iowa City West in two of their next three games.
Meanwhile, Prairie opened its season with a loss to Cedar Falls before picking up two straight wins over Dubuque Senior and Southeast Polk. But back-to-back losses to Pleasant Valley and Iowa City Liberty put the visiting Hawks in a similar three-loss boat as Ankeny.
If either team wants a chance at making a run come playoff time, neither of them has much wiggle room on the remaining schedule to face any extra losses.
So for Ankeny to win its second straight game thanks to stellar defense and a strong first half from the offense, the momentum is starting to build up for the Hawks as three games remain on the schedule for a possible 6-3 finish.
The Ankeny defense played a tremendous role in helping the hometown Hawks to their 19-point win–their largest margin of victory this season.
Prairie had the ball for 11 total drives throughout the game and almost half of them resulted in some kind of turnover forced by Ankeny’s defense, which doesn’t include the three punts that gave Ankeny the ball back.
The Hawks forced and recovered three fumbles, intercepted two passes with one resulting in a touchdown, and forced one turnover on downs.
“It’s huge,” Bauer said of the defense’s ability to turn the ball over. “We kind of focused on that. I challenged the defense because we haven’t had a fumble all year. We’ve had a lot of interceptions, but not fumbles, so we changed that tonight.”
The first of which came at perfect timing when Prairie attempted a 4th-and-1 conversion from Ankeny’s 7-yard line in hopes of answering a three-play, 52-yard touchdown drive on Ankeny’s first possession. Nathan Becker made the stop in the backfield to force a turnover on downs.
The defense came up with another big turnover that prevented a potential Prairie score at the end of the first half. With under 20 seconds left, Manning Allen knocked the ball loose from Prairie quarterback Wyatt Eash and fellow senior Andrew Haase recovered to send Ankeny into halftime with a 21-7 lead.
The defense continued to come up with big plays in the second half, but none bigger than when former Prairie Hawk turned Ankeny Hawk LaMarious Clark intercepted a short pass and returned it 78 yards for a pick-6.
On top of that, the defense recovered two fumbles in Ankeny territory with one coming inside the 10-yard line. Senior Mason Randolph also intercepted a pass on Prairie’s final offensive drive of the game.
Ankeny’s offense is starting to put the pieces together after scoring 73 points in the last two games. The Hawks were held to just 53 total points through their first four games of the season.
Prairie had a tough time stopping the Ankeny duo of quarterback Luke Anderson and receiver Evan Irlmeier. Anderson completed 14-of-17 passes for 205 yards and all three of his touchdown throws were caught by Irlmeier, who had eight receptions for 100 yards.
Irlmeier reeled in a 29-yard strike in the end zone on Ankeny’s first offensive drive. The second touchdown came on a 15 yard screen pass in the second quarter, and they later sealed the victory with a 4-yard scoring toss in the fourth quarter.
“We have so many playmakers, you never know when it will be your night,” said Irlmeier. “You just always have to prepare and be ready for when it’s your turn.”
A solid night on the ground from Daniel Larmie and Caden Henkes, who combined for 155 yards on 23 carries, helped the offense keep moving the ball. Larmie gave the Hawks a 14-0 lead with a 24-yard outside run in the second quarter.
One area of improvement the Hawks are focusing on is keeping the offense consistent throughout the game. Out of the 28 points scored by the offense, 21 were scored in the first half.
“Still have to make it a full four quarters,” Bauer said. “It felt like our offense kind of took a break in the third quarter. The defense gave up some yards, but we got five turnovers, which is huge. There’s some things to work on still.”
Nonetheless, Ankeny took another important step forward toward a winning record, especially with some tough matchups right around the corner.
Iowa City Liberty and Valley are the next two teams up on the schedule, and both teams hold a 5-1 overall record with its only losses coming against Pleasant Valley and Dowling, respectively. The season closes on the road against a Cedar Rapids Washington team that holds a 2-4 mark.
“I fully believe our team is capable of making another deep run,” Irlmeier said. “We’ve had the talent all year, and it’s just a matter of executing consistently and making plays.”
