Grundy Center football beats Bucs, returns to state semifinals

GRUNDY CENTER – Patrick Brown III thought Grundy Center football’s quick strike at the start of Friday’s Class A quarterfinal game against East Buchanan put the Spartans in the driver’s seat. From there, he and the other Spartan seniors kept it all on the road.

Next stop: the UNI-Dome.

Grundy Center claimed a 20-6 victory in the final home game of the season at Spartan Stadium to make their fourth-consecutive trip to the state semifinals in Cedar Falls.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be a shootout - we figured this would be a game of possessions,” Brown III said. “Scoring on that first drive, we made a statement.”

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The Spartans (11-0) will play Woodbury Central at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10, which follows the other semifinal between West Hancock (11-0) and Lynnville-Sully.

East Buchanan’s first drive ended in a three-and-out, and a fumbled snap by the punter set the Spartans up at the Bucs’ 20.

Two plays later, Ben Wegmann raced to the end zone to snag a pass from Colin Gordon for a 19-yard score and a 6-0 lead just over three minutes into the game.

“I pressed it inside and got to the right of the defender,” Wegmann said. “It was just a race and Colin put a great ball out there. … It was a great way to set the tone for the rest of the game.”

The teams traded punts and East Buchanan put together their only touchdown drive of the night, using six minutes off the clock between the end of the first and start of the second quarter before Ryland Cornell grabbed a touchdown pass - the Spartans stuffed the 2-point run to hold it at a tie game.

Grundy Center was able to immediately respond, using a balanced attack, including runs from Dylan and Justin Knaack and a catch each for Ben Wegmann and Tiernan Vokes. That put the Spartans on the verge and Gordon pushed a score across on a 4-yard keeper, followed by a point-after to make it 13-6.

The Spartans were able to get the ball back with the use of their timeouts before halftime, but had a tough break when a ball ricocheted off Wegmann’s diving body and into the hands of a Bucs defender for an interception and the Spartans settling for a 13-6 halftime advantage.

“We knew that if we could come out and score right away, they’d have all the catching up to do and we’d just have to play defense,” Brown III said.

That second-half score came to pass midway through the third quarter after another methodical drive ended in a Justin Knaack 2-yard touchdown plunge.

The rain, which had been pouring down all day only to taper off by kickoff, was back in full force. But the Spartan defense didn’t let East Buchanan slip away into the end zone again, posting a second-half shutout.

“We have the best coaching staff in the state in Class A,” Zajac said. “They do a fantastic job, pour a ton of time and effort into it, because our kids deserve that. … We’ve got things to take care of and get better before next Thursday, but we’re going back to the Dome and we’re really happy about that.”

Grundy helped their defense with a six-minute drive in the fourth quarter that, while not resulting in points, put East Buchanan’s back to the wall with time ticking away on their run-heavy offense. The Bucs responded with one of their best runs of the night past midfield. But the Spartans’ held on fourth down to close it out.

“Our preparation made us know exactly what they were going to do,” Brown III said. “But when you have a group of guys like we have that are smart enough to know how they’ll take their approach to the game, and stop them, it’s just awesome.”

The Spartans graduated an immensely talented class from last season’s squad that marked the completion of a trilogy of Class A runner-up finishes.

But if this season is any indication, Grundy Center football as a program isn’t going anywhere.

“We’re here to stay,” Brown III said. “We have the next-man-up mentality and we’re ready to keep doing that year after year.”

“This has been the goal the whole season,” Wegmann added. “But there’s still goals out there to be accomplished. And we’re really excited that we can still accomplish those.”