It’s back to the drawing board for the Ankeny football team.
After cruising through the first five weeks of the season, the Hawks suffered a humbling defeat on Friday, dropping a 27-0 decision at Johnston in a showdown between two of the top squads in Class 5A.
“Our coach always says, ‘Good times make weak people,'” said Ankeny linebacker Rowan Doak. “And he’s just trying to say that when we were undefeated and winning all these games, we’ve just got to keep our head down and keep working and not think that we’re better than what we are.”
Ankeny was outgained by a 353-77 margin in its first shutout loss in the last 89 games, a streak which dates back to the 2018 season. The Hawks managed just four first downs against a Johnston defense that has allowed only 13 points over the last four games.
Ankeny quarterback Mason Machan completed just 6-of-13 passes for 20 yards and was intercepted five times, four of them by Bryce Beachem.
“It all starts with our week of preparation. We just need to come better prepared,” Machan said. “But you know, Johnston played their tails off. They’re a great team–give credit to them too. They made a lot of plays.”
Beachem picked off a pass on two of the Hawks’ first three possessions. That led to a pair of field goals by Ricardo Solis Dowling.
“We just turned the ball over way too much,” said Ankeny coach Jeff Bauer. “They handled us up front, we didn’t stay on our blocks obviously, and Mason made a couple of poor decisions. You have no chance when you turn the ball over like we did tonight.”
An interception by Isaiah Thompson near midfield set up Johnston’s first touchdown. The Dragons then drove 48 yards in seven plays and took a 13-0 lead on a 4-yard run by Dante Davis, who fought off several tacklers to get into the end zone with 16 seconds left in the half.
“We hit hard, we were physical, and we flew around,” Bauer said. “That’s a good offensive team, and we held them without a touchdown until late in the second quarter. And we gave them all kinds of field position. We put (our defense) in a lot of bad spots.”
The game was essentially over after Johnston opened the second half with a 6-minute drive that extended its advantage to 21-0.
“We try to keep it as a team loss or team victory,” Doak said. “We know both sides of the ball need to improve. The defense has some things we can improve on.”
Beachem had two more interceptions in the second half. One of them led to a 26-yard field goal by Downing that made it 24-0 with 7 minutes 11 seconds left in the game.
Downing later added a 27-yard field goal to complete the scoring.
“It was a lack of execution by us,” Machan said. “And like I said, they’ve got a lot of playmakers and their playmakers were making plays.”
