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HCHS tailback Dylan Barrett breaks into the clear for one of his four touchdowns against MOC-Floyd Valley.
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HARLAN -- Some people like to celebrate birthdays with cards, gifts and candles on a cake.
It appears that Dylan Barrett marks the occasion by simply scoring lots of touchdowns at the expense of MOC-Floyd Valley.
Harlan Community's junior tailback was at it again Wednesday night, finding the endzone four times against the Dutchmen for a second straight year as the top-ranked Cyclones roared to a 49-7, Class 3-A Substate win at Merrill Field.
A year ago, HCHS beat MOC-Floyd Valley 58-14 one day after Barrett's birthday. This year, the same-round rematch fell on the exact date, and the results were not much different.
With some up-front help from his offensive line and valuable downfield blocks, Barrett broke loose for two 60-yard scores in the first quarter alone and added two more TD's in the second quarter as the Cyclones stormed ahead 42-0 by halftime. Despite playing less than a quarter and a half of football, Barrett finished with 201 yards on just 12 carries.
"He treated himself pretty well," said HCHS head coach Curt Bladt. "He played 17 out of 48 minutes, rushed for 201 yards and four touchdowns - I think that's pretty good. Had we been inside our own 10 on four of those carries, he'd have 360 yards because I don't think anybody was going to catch him. He just kind of glides and away he goes. He's got some pretty good wheels."
HCHS, now 5-0 in postseason games against the Dutchmen, improved to 10-0 on the year and advanced into the Class 3-A playoffs for the 28th time in the last 29 seasons. MOC-Floyd Valley finished at 5-5.
The Cyclones will now host District 8 rival A-D-M, Adel (7-3) in a first-round playoff game Monday night (7 p.m.) back at Merrill Field. The Tigers won their Substate game at Le Mars, 20-16.
The last team to score a touchdown on the Cyclones' first-string defense - all the way back in Week 4 - A-D-M passed for 345 yards that night but allowed HCHS to rush for 425. The Cyclones prevailed, 42-14.
"They'll have their shot, and I'm sure they'll come ready to play," Bladt said of the Tigers.
Just five nights after being held to a 7-0 lead through three quarters at Lewis Central, the HCHS offense was back in high gear on Wednesday, piling up 42 points and 385 yards by halftime.
In addition to Barrett's TD's of 60, 60, 34 and 23 yards, Michael Kaufmann threw scoring passes of 23 yards to Adam Cave and 18 yards to Matt Hoch. Despite throwing a first-quarter interception in the endzone on a play where it appeared the intended receiver, Cave, was held up at the line of scrimmage, Kaufmann finished the half 7-of-11 for 131 yards.
The Cyclones also amassed 254 rushing yards by halftime - most of it by Barrett, who followed his blocks, stiff-armed would-be tacklers, juked a few others and ran away from the rest.
"We did the best we could for him," said HCHS senior center Mark Langenfeld. "I wished him happy birthday today and heard someone say, 'we better get some stuff done for him tonight.'"
Langenfeld noted that the entire offensive line was motivated by last Friday's struggles at LC and wanted to atone themselves against the Dutchmen.
"We really anchored down during practice this week," he said. "We saw they were in a 4-4 (defense) and they didn't want us to run inside - they had a double stack - and we just took control."
The only Cyclone negatives came on the injury front, where two starters left the field questionable for next week's playoff opener. Versatile senior Brian Kloewer banged up a shoulder in the first half and senior right tackle Jake Brown suffered a high ankle sprain in the fourth quarter.
"I don't know what their status is going to be for Monday, but with games packed in like the state sees fit to do, you don't have much recovery time," Bladt said. "So we're going to have to play the most important game so far of the season with a couple of guys [possibly] sitting on the sideline, but that remains to be seen."
Brown's injury occurred long after most of the Cyclone starters had exited the game, but Bladt was still rotating a mix of O-line starters and reserves to give the second-string skill players a better chance to have some success.
"What we were trying to do is put some (reserve) backfield people in there. They hadn't taken their starters out, so we had to leave some people up front to make sure that we just didn't get overwhelmed," he said. "It's just one of those freak things."
Bladt added that Brown has already assured him he will be ready to play against A-D-M.
"He's the typical offensive lineman - throw a little tape on him and he'll be ready to go," Bladt said. "He's one of those kind of guys . . . a tough kid."
Not to be overshadowed by Barrett's rushing exploits, the Cyclone defense stymied yet another opponent Wednesday night and created outstanding field position for the offense. Harlan's final four touchdowns drives of the first half all started between midfield and the Dutchmen 40-yard line.
MOC-Floyd Valley drove into Cyclone territory on its opening possession but turned the ball over when Kloewer stripped the ball from Nolan Blythe after a reception and Matt Hoch recovered. The next five Dutchmen drives all went three-and-out before they finally earned their third first down. Hoch also halted that drive with an interception on the final play of the first half.
MOC-FV went to intermission with just 45 total yards, including a net rushing total of eight on 17 carries.
"The defensive people just did a really good job," Bladt said. "They controlled the line of scrimmage pretty well and if you look at the stats, (MOC got) 154 yards and probably 100 of that was against the back-ups."
After a long first half of clock stoppages, the second half breezed by with the 35-point margin running clock in effect. Both teams put together long touchdown drives on their second series of the half to account for the final score. Cody Hughs scored on a three-yard run for MOC-FV and Justin Mills scored from two yards out for HCHS.
The Dutchmen TD snapped the Cyclones' long shutout streak at 20 full quarters dating back to a 48-3 win over Winterset in Week 5. The first-string 'D', however, has still yielded just one touchdown in the last eight games.
"The varsity did not give up the score and they're (on the sideline) whining, 'we want a shutout,'" said Bladt. "They always want the shutout - and that's okay, we appreciate that - but we want to see some of those other kids play too and give them a chance."
Defensive end Joe Arentson had another big game for HCHS with eight total tackles and assists on two different sacks. Ryan Fahn and Craig Connell also tallied eight tackles and Hoch had seven.
In other Substate games on the Cyclones' half of the 3-A bracket, Sioux City Heelan crushed Creston/O-M, 66-2, and Denison-Schleswig won a defensive battle at Glenwood, 14-9.
A potential third straight playoff quarterfinal showdown between HCHS and Heelan could be in the cards on Friday, November 6, but both teams must first take care of business on Monday.
"We'll have to get everybody back in the boat and try to get them healed up as best as possible," said Bladt.
HCHS 49, MOC-FV 7
Cyclones (10-0), Dutchmen (5-5)
Up Next: Monday, November 2
(Class 3-A First-Round Playoffs)
A-D-M, Adel (7-3) at HCHS, 7:00
Class 3-A Substate Scores
Sioux City Heelan 66, Creston/O-M 2
Denison-Schleswig 14, Glenwood 9
Harlan Community 49, MOC-FV 7
A-D-M-Adel 20, Le Mars 16
Clear Lake 35, Dallas Center-Grimes 17
Ballard 37, Webster City 7
Carroll 46, Hampton-Dumont 12
JSPC, Jefferson 20, Charles City 17
New Hampton 48, Vinton-Shellsburg 7
Union, LaPorte City 41, Oelwein 13
Marion 42, West Delaware 0
Decorah 24, Maquoketa 0
Pella 31, Williamsburg 24
Grinnell 27, Fairfield 7
Centerville 40, Washington 8
Clear Creek-Amana 38, Carlisle 3
Class 3-A First-Round Playoffs (Monday, Nov. 2 - 7:00 p.m.)
Denison-Schl. (6-4) at Heelan (9-1)
A-D-M (7-3) at Harlan Comm. (10-0)
Ballard (9-1) at Clear Lake (10-0)
JSPC, Jefferson (6-4) at Carroll (10-0)
Union, LC (8-2) at New Hampton (8-2)
Decorah (8-2) at Marion (10-0)
Pella (7-3) at Grinnell (9-1)
CC-Amana (7-3) at Centerville (10-0)
Game Summary
1 2 3 4 F
MOC-FV 0 0 0 7 7
HCHS 14 28 0 7 49
HCHS: Dylan Barrett 60-yd. run (Trent Wendt kick) - 1st qt., 10:25
HCHS: Barrett 60-yd. run (Wendt kick) - 1st qt., 3:40
HCHS: Adam Cave 23-yd. pass from Michael Kaufmann (Wendt kick) - 2nd qt., 10:20
HCHS: Barrett 34-yd. run (Wendt kick) - 2nd qt., 8:43
HCHS: Barrett 23-yd. run (Wendt kick) - 2nd qt., 7:02
HCHS: Matt Hoch 18-yd. pass from Kaufmann (Wendt kick) - 2nd qt., 3:04
MOC-FV: Cody Hughs 3-yd. run (Jose Anzua kick) - 4th qt., 11:22
HCHS: Justin Mills 2-yd. run (Wendt kick) - 4:05
MOC-FV ------ HCHS
10 First Downs 19
33-69 Rushes/yards 36-320
85 Passing yards 142
154 Total yards 462
5-16-1 Comp./Att./Int. 8-13-1
1-1 Fumbles-lost 0-0
6-38.8 Punts-avg. 1-35.0
0-0 Penalties-yards 5-42
HCHS Individual Statistics
Rushing -- Dylan Barrett 12-201, Justin Mills 13-48, Matt Hoch 4-34, Derek Schwartz 4-18, Dan Schaben 1-12, Michael Kaufmann 1-5, Brian Kloewer 1-2.
Passing -- Kaufmann 7-11-1, 131 yards; Zach Osborn 1-2-0, 11 yards.
Receiving -- Adam Cave 2-47, Joey Buman 2-43, Hoch 1-18, Kloewer 1-12, Eric Croghan 1-11, Schwartz 1-11.
Punt returns -- Croghan 4-64, Lucas Musich 2-26.
Kickoff returns -- Croghan 1-19, Musich 1-14.
Punting -- Trent Wendt 1-35.
Kickoffs -- Wendt 8-418 (52.3)
Field goals -- None.
Total Tackles (Solo-Assist) -- Craig Connell 8 (3S-5A), Ryan Fahn 8 (3S-5A), Joe Arentson 8 (1S-7A), Hoch 7 (1S-6A), Schwartz 6 (1S-5A), Schaben 6 (1S-5A), Alex Markham 5 (1S-4A), Taylor Assmann 5 (5A), Mitch Anderson 4 (4A), Kloewer 3 (2S-1A), Michael Klein 3 (1S-2A), Joseph Klein 3 (1S-2A), Dillon Kramer 3 (3A), Anthony Hough 2 (2A), Rob Larson 2 (2A), Alex Brown 2 (2A), Tyler Beck 2 (2A), Jesse Petersen 2 (2A), Jon Kaufman 1 (1S), Matt Mages 1 (1A), Aaron Sondag 1 (1A), Marcus Streit 1 (1A), Rob Erlbacher 1 (1A), Brandon Weis 1 (1A), CJ Seaman 1 (1A), John Schwarte 1 (1A), Ben Bruck 1 (1A), Denny Kramer 1 (1A).
Tackles for loss -- Arentson 3, M. Klein 1, Fahn 1, Schwartz 1, Schaben 1, Brown 1.
QB Sacks (3) -- Arentson 2 assists, Fahn 1 solo, Schwartz 1 assist, Brown 1 assist.
Fumble recovery -- Hoch.
Forced fumble -- Kloewer.
Interception-return yds. -- Hoch 1-19.
MOC-FV Individual Stat Leaders
Rushing -- Michael Vander Broek 13-33.
Passing -- Davis Bloemendaal 5-15-0, 85 yards.
Receiving -- Nolan Blythe 2-54.
HCHS 49, MOC-FV 7 - Scoring Drives
HCHS - 4 plays, 80 yards, 1:30 T.O.P. (Barrett 60-yd. TD run, 1st qt., 10:25).
Key play: Buman 12-yd. catch.
HCHS - 1 play, 60 yards, 0:10 T.O.P. (Barrett 60-yd. TD run, 1st qt., 3:40).
HCHS - 10 plays, 49 yards, 3:44 T.O.P. (Cave 23-yd. TD catch, 2nd qt., 10:20).
Key plays: Kloewer 12-yd. catch; Kaufmann 5-yd. run on 3rd & 2; Barrett 4-yd. run on 3rd & 1; TD pass on 3rd & 6.
HCHS - 2 plays, 45 yards, 0:30 T.O.P. (Barrett 34-yd. TD run, 2nd qt., 8:43).
Key play: Croghan 11-yd. catch.
HCHS - 2 plays, 47 yards, 0:22 T.O.P. (Barrett 23-yd. TD run, 2nd qt., 7:02).
Key play: Cave 24-yd. catch.
HCHS - 6 plays, 41 yards, 2:28 T.O.P. (Hoch 18-yd. TD catch, 2nd qt., 3:04).
Key plays: Croghan 20-yd. punt return; Mills 1-yd. run on 3rd & 1; Hoch 11-yd. run.
MOC-FV - 12 plays, 91 yards, 7:20 T.O.P. (Hughs 3-yd. TD run, 4th qt., 11:22).
Key plays: Bloemendaal 2-yd. run on 3rd & 1; Vander Broek 9-yd. run on 3rd & 5; Blythe 47-yd. catch.
HCHS - 13 plays, 70 yards, 6:39 T.O.P. (Mills 2-yd. TD run, 4th qt., 4:05).
Key plays: Mills 12-yd. run & 10-yd. run; Schwartz 11-yd. catch on 3rd & 4; Schaben 12-yd. run on 3rd & 2; TD run on 4th & goal.
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