Spartans rattle Redhawks in regular-season finale

TRAER – Eight weeks ago, Grundy Center football came to South Hardin for their first game after making their third-consecutive state championship game appearance last season.

The Tigers held the Spartans to a scoreless tie at halftime.

“I think the kids were surprised,” Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said. “They realized what we do here isn’t easy. We learned that lesson real early.”

To the Spartans’ credit, as Zajac noted, that half of football is in the rear view; well out of sight.

Two months later, Grundy Center continues to accelerate, polishing off an undefeated regular season with a 42-0 win at North Tama.

“We’ve gone from that first game against South Hardin to a big win against D-NH, another against Wapsie Valley, and it’s been one week after the other,” Zajac said. “The kids have responded every week.”

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Grundy Center will host at least the first round of the playoffs, with an opponent to be determined on Saturday morning when pairings are released for classes 2A through 8-player.

After those scoreless 24 minutes in Eldora, the Spartans went on to win that game 27-6 and have since outscored opponents by an average of about 30 points per game.

“Earning our record is indicative of what happens behind the scenes, 12 months a year, the work that the coaches and kids put in to prepare themselves for this,” Zajac said. “Multiple sports the kids have played, competitiveness in other sports.”

After forcing a punt on North Tama’s first drive on Friday, Justin Knaack scored on a 44-yard run on the first Spartan play from scrimmage.

Another Redhawk punt turned into another Spartan touchdown on a 22-yard fling from Colin Gordon to Tiernan Vokes.

A Tanner Laube fumble recovery set up the Spartans at the North Tama 12, and Gordon scooped a wide snap and took it in for a 9-yard rushing touchdown. Grundy Center led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.

“We talked about having no letdown from last week in preparing for North Tama,” Zajac said, “and the kids responded all week with a great week of practice. … North Tama was a little handcuffed with injuries and we were able to contain them pretty solidly early and ran a lot of offensive plays to deny them opportunities to touch the ball.”

Ben Wegmann had a long interception return on a North Tama deep ball and Vokes snagged his second touchdown pass of the night on a 15-yard crossing pattern to haul in a Gordon toss on the goal line.

The Spartans got one more score before halftime when a 20-yard Tate Jirovsky reception set Grundy up on the 1-yard line. North Tama nearly had Grundy stopped on the doorstep, but Gordon outran his pursuers to the far corner of the end zone on 4th-and-goal to make it 35-0 at halftime.

Justin Knaack added one more score in the second half on a 5-yard run, 42 seconds before the end of the third quarter.

There’s a fine line to walk with a team that goes undefeated in the regular season, but to still strive to be the kind of team that can win games in the UNI-Dome.

“It’s the details,” Zajac said. “We try to deliver that message to the kids in the most appropriate way possible. We’re playing well, we’re winning football games. But things creep in that we want to eliminate over the course of a season. At the beginning of the year we weren’t very efficient offensively, turning the ball over when we didn’t have to. Defensively, we wanted to prevent those big plays. And the kids have responded - that’s all you can really ask for.

“… We know the level of competition is significantly more difficult in postseason play. But our team’s seasoned, we’ve played big, physical games, and we’re ready for the playoffs.”