(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
For just a brief moment, the Ankeny football players thought they’d put the dagger in what would have been a season-opening victory over Waukee Northwest.
An untimely holding penalty wiped away an Ankeny touchdown and opened up the opportunity for the Wolves to snatch a 25-24 win from the jaws of defeat during Friday’s game at Ankeny Stadium.
“We know we’ve got a good team,” said Ankeny coach Jeff Bauer. “The boys played their tails off; they played hard. We made some mistakes that you’d expect but wish wouldn’t happen the first week. Both as players and a coaching staff, we have to get better for this week.”
Ankeny had the blueprint for success right in front of it when the Hawks found themselves with the ball on their own 40-yard line and 7 minutes 24 seconds left to play: just burn some clock and put the game out of reach.
Behind standout running back Daniel Larmie, that’s exactly what they were doing.
Ankeny burned nearly 5 minutes of clock getting into Northwest territory before nearly putting the dagger into the Wolves.
New starting quarterback Kael Roush faced 4th-and-6 from Northwest’s 25-yard line and found one of his top targets in returning receiver Andrew Brandhorst down the middle of the field for what should’ve been the duo’s second touchdown connection of the night.
The score to put the Hawks up two touchdowns with 2 minutes left got brought back on a holding penalty, which ultimately led to Ankeny turning the ball over on downs and giving Northwest a chance to respond.
“We had that game in hand, and I felt like we dominated the second half physically,” Bauer said. “Then a bad timing holding call on a touchdown that’d put us up two (scores). That’s football, it’s crazy.”
Northwest quarterback Mack Heitland proceeded to throw a deep completion to Isaiah Oliver for 46 yards on just the second play of its must-score drive.
Heitland threw a jump ball that receiver Jordon Green came down with just inside the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown on the very next play. He went 15-of-23 through the air for 188 yards and two scores.
Instead of kicking the extra point to tie it, Northwest gambled on a two-point conversion and was rewarded with Heitland scrambling into the end zone to put the Hawks down by a single point.
“They’ve got a good team, they got a lot of talent and Heitland is a good quarterback,” Bauer said.
Ankeny’s chance at a game-winning drive started off well for the Hawks with a run by Larmie and receptions by Brandhorst and Tayzn Lando-Alfafara getting them to midfield. But an incompletion on fourth down sealed the loss for the Hawks.
Going into the game, the Hawks knew they had one of the top running backs in the state in Larmie and the senior went to work.
Larmie helped lead Ankeny down the field on its first drive of the game, and it ended with Larmie powering his way in from 5 yards out. He scored a second touchdown on the first drive of the second half following a pair of receptions from Brandhorst and Hayden Carlson.
Larmie ran 37 times for 241 yards on the night.
“He’s the heart and soul (of the offense),” Bauer said. “He’s a tough, hard-nosed, competitive and a high-character kid. You won’t get anyone better than him. We have to try to limit his carries more. We rode him probably too much.”
Roush showed some flashes as the Hawks’ new quarterback following the graduation of Luke Anderson. Despite a pair of interceptions in the first half, Roush found a couple big connections with the wideouts to help keep a few scoring drives going.
He dropped a deep ball into a bucket for Brandhorst while facing 2nd-and-20 from their own 10-yard line to start the drive following Larmie’s second touchdown. The 47-yard connection ultimately led to a 6-yard touchdown pass from Roush to Brandhorst that put the Hawks up a score with 9 minutes to play.
Roush completed 15-of-21 passes for 163 yards. Brandhorst had eight catches for 108 yards.
“We have a lot of weapons,” Bauer said. “Kael is going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the state, I promise you.”
Junior Canden Ganahl took over kicking duties and drilled a 23-yard field goal in the first half while also going 3-for-3 on PATs.
The Hawks had a few mistakes that helped Northwest keep the game close.
The Wolves converted on 4th-and-10 in Ankeny territory during the first quarter, which led to Heitland scoring from the goal line to tie the game.
The Wolves were also able to intercept Roush on Ankeny’s half of the field and that allowed them to score right away and take a 14-10 lead before halftime.
Ankeny is confident it’ll bounce back from the loss as the Hawks shift their focus to Northwest’s crosstown rival. The Hawks will play at Waukee on Friday.
The Warriors are also coming off a loss in their season opener after falling on the road against Johnston, 13-3.
“I told them that we just have to take care of the little things and be better,” Bauer said. “There’s a couple of mistakes that don’t seem like a big thing, but they ended up being big things.”
