Quick strike versus 'ground and pound'

Friday night's football season opener between highly-rated West Sioux and Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn at Hawarden was a stark contrast in offensive approaches.

West Sioux (Class 1A No. 2) scored six touchdowns and none of those drives lasted more than 2-1/2 minutes. The Hawks (Class A No. 3), on the other hand, had two scoring drives with a combined 38 plays that took over 21 minutes of game time.

Hawk coach Jay Eilers felt the 38-18 loss came down to a few key moments.

"High school football comes down to seven plays," he observed. "We never know when those seven plays are, but how those seven plays play out usually dictates what that scoreboard says."

H-M-S appeared to be the first team to score, and to do so quickly, as Ethan Diehm returned the opening kickoff. However, a penalty negated the runback.

Once West Sioux gained possession of the football, they wasted no time getting it to the end zone. Their first-half scoring drives were: six plays, 2:35, 1-yard run by Brady Lynott; three plays, 0:42, 23-yard pass to Lynott; and two plays, 0:59, 43-yard pass to Lynott.

"We had three plays that we just misassigned by alignment," Eilers acknowledged.

The Hawks ate up nearly 11 minutes midway through the first half with an 18-play drive. Travis Kamradt scored their first touchdown of the season on a three-yard run.

H-M-S did have one quick score, coming on quarterback Kooper Ebel's 67-yard run with 3:56 remaining in the half.

The Falcons led 21-12 at half time while having run 15 offensive plays to the Hawks' 41.

""The positive of that is we were keeping the ball away from an extremely explosive offense," Eilers noted. "I feel very confident about the guys that we have up front doing their job blocking."

West Sioux continued to score quickly in the second half. Lynott caught a 21-yard scoring pass play early in the third quarter and a 19-yarder early in the fourth. The Falcons' final score was a 27-yard field goal by Omar Rivera.

H-M-S's only second-half score – a 1-yard run by Trenton Vollink – capped a 20-play, 10-1/2 minute drive with 10 minutes left in the game.

The Hawks had two turnovers and four penalties. West Sioux was penalized twice and did not have a turnover. No other stats were available as of press deadline.

• Next Up: Gehlen Catholic

H-M-S, ranked No. 6 in this week's Radio Iowa poll, opens Class A District 1 play against Gehlen Catholic at LeMars. The ninth-ranked Jays were 21-13 winners over Unity Christian last Friday.

Eilers expects Gehlen Catholic will present several challenges, especially on offense.

"They'll have one of the fastest kids on the field in [Keaten] Bonderman. Their O-line is going to be very good. I think Gehlen Catholic's quarterback [Conner Kraft] is phenomenal," Eilers said.

The Hawks' formula for success will not change.

"We want to be physical week in and week out, no matter who our opponent is," Eilers noted. "We want to out-physical them. The way we practice will allow us to do that, in my opinion. We've got to do it."