Explosive Woodbury Central offense awaits Grundy Center in semifinal rematch

Woodbury Central may have revenge on its mind on Thursday against Grundy Center in the Class A semifinals.

The Wildcats lost to the Spartans, 28-7, in last year's Class A semifinals. Kickoff for the rematch is 1 p.m.

Leading rusher and tackler Max McGill is one of the top returners from last year’s team, with 1,408 rushing yards and 21 scores to go with 81.5 tackles, 10 for a loss, this season. And the Wildcats have reloaded around him.

Drew Kluender is Class A’s most prolific passer with 35 passing touchdowns this season and is far and away the Class A leader in passing yards with 3,105 yards through the air.

“The way they play pops out on tape,” Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said. “They’ve got a swagger to them and they’re explosive, and have good athletes all over the field.”

Zajac feels like the Spartans will be able to control the line of scrimmage as they have this season, but how that translates against a pass-happy team like the Wildcats remains to be seen.

“They’ll stress us in the back end throwing vertical shots,” Zajac said. “They’ve got three or four wide receivers that are very talented. We want to prevent them from getting the ball as much as possible, but when they do, we need to rally to the ball and get some pressure on their quarterback.”

The winner will play either West Hancock or Lynnville-Sully in the state championship at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17. West Hancock is the returning Class A champion; Lynnville-Sully is making its first appearance in the UNI-Dome since 1986. All four remaining teams in Class A are undefeated.

A band of brothers

When Grundy Center football breaks a huddle with a shout of “Family!”, the Spartans could very well mean that literally.

It’s not unusual for small schools to have sets of brothers playing together on the football team. Maybe even a couple.

Grundy Center has seven.

Juniors Dylan and Justin Knaack are the most recognizable on the stat sheet as two dynamic options on both sides of the field for the Spartans.

But there’s also Austin and Aiden Betts; Ben and Eli Wegmann; Tate and Judd Jirovsky; Cooper and Jacob Hoy; Tiernan and Elliot Vokes; Trent and Elias Cakerice.

While it’s a unique situation, Zajac feels like, at the moment, it’s not at the forefront of any of the minds of the sets of brothers.

“We spend so much time together that the team probably feels like an extension for them,” Zajac said. “As they’re going through it, I think you get lost in the routine. But 10, 15, 20 years from now, these will be some special memories for them. And that to me is everything, trying to give kids opportunities to play together in a team sport. And there are some lifelong memories for those siblings, no doubt.”