The Ankeny football team was hoping to get an extra day of rest prior to the start of the postseason.
But those plans went out the window after Thursday’s game against Cedar Rapids Washington was suspended due to lightning at Kingston Stadium.
After a long night on the bus, the Hawks were forced to return to Cedar Rapids on Friday afternoon–and they punched their ticket to the Class 5A playoffs with a 56-0 victory.
“We got back at 1 in the morning,” said Ankeny coach Jeff Bauer. “But I told the guys, ‘You have to go to school. That’s what the rules say.’ But the kids showed up at school. You’ve heard the story about the Navy Seals. They get like four hours of sleep in a week, and our guys got at least five or six (Thursday) night. And they came out today and had fun. It was a good one to have before the playoffs start.”
Daniel Larmie ran for a pair of touchdowns, and six other players found the end zone for the Hawks–who got a steady performance from backup quarterback Kael Roush in the win.
Roush completed 5-of-6 passes for 74 yards. He started in place of senior Luke Anderson, who got banged up at the end of last week’s overtime win against Valley and was held out for precautionary reasons.
“Luke could have (played) this week, and he came in at the end and handed the ball off,” Bauer said. “It was a great opportunity to get Kael out there, and it’s nice to know that we have two guys who can get the job done.”
On Thursday, Roush ran 49 yards to Washington’s 34-yard line before the game was halted with 7 minutes 56 seconds left in the first quarter. When play resumed on Friday, the Hawks scored just 17 seconds later when Zach Breitbach recovered a fumble in the end zone.
Ankeny (5-4) extended its lead to 14-0 when Larmie scored on a 5-yard run with 5:19 remaining in the half. Larmie, who ran for 113 yards on 11 carries, set up the touchdown when he broke free for a 50-yard run four plays earlier.
After forcing a punt, the Hawks drove quickly down the field–all of it on the ground–and got a 7-yard scoring run from Larmie. That made it 21-0 with 1:25 to go until halftime.
Washington moved into field-goal range in the final minute and was looking to gain some momentum heading into the break. However, disaster struck for the Warriors (3-6) on the final play of the half.
Ankeny’s Andrew Haase blocked Washington’s 40-yard field-goal attempt, and teammate Ez Pinks picked up the ball and raced 65 yards to the end zone for a 28-0 halftime lead.
“(The block) was a combination of me and my nose guard Manning Allen,” said Haase. “Manning took up the guard, and that left me untouched. Ez then had a fantastic return.”
Haase then recovered a fumble to ignite a 28-point third quarter for the Hawks. Roush threw a 26-yard pass to Andrew Brandhorst to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Caden Henkes.
Sam Sandvig intercepted a pass and returned it for a pick-six, then Alexander Zuber and Gage Lint scored Ankeny’s final two touchdowns on runs of 37 and 49 yards, respectively. The Hawks averaged nearly 11 yards per carry, rushing for 348 yards on 32 attempts.
“We ran the ball well, and we had both the offense and defense clicking,” Bauer said. “They aren’t a bad team, but we finally put something together for four quarters.”
The Hawks played without leading receiver Evan Irlmeier, who suffered an injury during a loss at Iowa City Liberty on Oct. 11. He returned for the Valley game and caught three passes for 16 yards, but was held out on Friday after reinjuring himself.
Bauer is hopeful that Irlmeier will be back for Friday’s playoff opener. Eighth-seeded Ankeny will host No. 9 Linn-Mar (Marion) (7-2) at approximately 8:30 p.m., following the conclusion of a game between No. 7 Ankeny Centennial (7-2) and No. 10 Iowa City High (6-3).
The Lions were in position to host a playoff game until dropping a 35-21 decision at Pleasant Valley on Friday.
“We all get to start 0-0 now,” Bauer said. “And we’ve played nine games and we’ve never been behind at halftime. We know we have the ability. Except for the Liberty game, where our problems were kind of self-inflicted, the last five weeks have gone pretty well.
“We’re excited to see what we can do,” he added.
