CEDAR FALLS – Matt Jansen could hear the Saint Ansgar sideline yelling for someone to cover him.
The Saints were out of position, and Jansen and the Grundy Center football team made them pay.
Trailing Saint Ansgar early in the second quarter, Jansen hauled in a screen pass from Logan Knaack, slipped around a quick block from Jensen Clapp and sprinted down the Grundy Center sideline to the end zone.
The Spartans never trailed again in what would be a 23-21 victory over Saint Ansgar in a Class A state semifinal at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls on Friday afternoon.
"In that moment, I think we let them know that we weren't going to roll over," Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said of the Jansen touchdown, which followed a lengthy Saint Ansgar scoring drive.
Grundy Center (11-1) advances to the Class A championship game on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 1:30 p.m. in the UNI-Dome against West Hancock (12-0), 49-20 winners against Woodbury Central in the other Friday semifinal.
It's the first state title game appearance from Grundy Center since a 1988 victory against Pekin, and a makeshift rematch of the 1987 state title game won by Grundy Center against Britt prior to the consolidation with Kanawha that formed West Hancock. Grundy Center also defeated Britt in the 1988 semifinals.
Zajac – in his first year as head coach coming over from Dubuque Wahlert – couldn't help getting choked up thinking about what the victory meant to Grundy Center.
"To see their faces after the game, it's pretty special," Zajac said. "… Part of our job as coaches is to help raise young men, and I take that very seriously."
The city of Grundy Center has had the football fever all fall long and a loud and proud group roared in victory from the sideline to the stands on Friday afternoon.
And when the Spartans are going for a fourth state championship?
"It's gonna be big," Jansen said. "If we put all our effort into this, anything can happen."
Grundy Center's Zach Opheim rushed 21 times for 62 yards and a score, Knaack added 10 runs for 21 yards and a rushing touchdown and completed 8 of 13 passes for 140 yards and the score to Jansen.
Cale Hendricks hauled in five catches for 57 yards and kicked what was the eventual game-winning field goal, a 24-yard boot with 9:57 left in the fourth quarter that put Grundy Center up 23-14.
The Saints averaged nearly 400 rushing yards per game coming into Friday's contest, but the Spartans held Saint Ansgar to 222 yards on the ground. Jack Sievert carried the ball 39 times for 173 yards and three scores.
Jansen's touchdown highlighted an all-around...
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