HARLAN -- The leaves have fallen, the days are shorter and the Iowa high school football playoffs are in session.
That can really only mean one thing: Harlan Community and Sioux City Bishop Heelan are set to clash again on the gridiron.
In what seems like a natural progression of autumn, HCHS and Heelan will meet in the Class 3-A playoff quarterfinals for the third straight year Friday night with a 7:00 p.m. kickoff set for Merrill Field.
The top-ranked Cyclones (11-0) earned the home field based on their 24-6 victory over the No. 6-ranked Crusaders (10-1) back in early September. That win snapped a three-game losing skid in Harlan's all-time series against Heelan, which now stands even at three wins apiece.
The seventh meeting of the 3-A powers in the last four years will send one team to the UNI-Dome for a November 16 state semifinal, while the other will look ahead to basketball and wrestling season.
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When Friday's game kicks off, however, will any of that really matter?
"We just have to play with confidence," said HCHS head coach Curt Bladt. "They didn't get to keep any points from those two playoff wins, and we didn't get to keep any from the first encounter this year, so everything is kind of even.
"Our guys are pretty resilient. They're tough kids, they play hard. No matter what happens, they won't have anything to be ashamed of. They're a good group of kids . . . tight-knit. They look out for each other, and that's good."
Friday's contest pits the machine-like Cyclones - who lead all of Class 3-A in scoring offense (467 points), scoring defense (51) and yards per game (423.7) against a Heelan team which seems to have scored in every way imaginable this season.
The Crusaders have tallied a whopping 11 touchdowns on either special teams or defense, compared to one for the Cyclones. The scorecard includes five touchdowns off takeaways, five kickoff return TD's (four by the speedy Preston Ives) and a 99-yard punt return by Michael Malloy.
With their lead cut to 17-7 just before halftime Monday night, the Crusaders turned a Denison-Schleswig squib kick into a touchdown that propelled them to a 34-14 first-round victory.
"These guys have got some wheels, no doubt about that," says Bladt. "And we know they didn't get any of those (scores) against us the first time, so that even narrows it down to only 10 games that they did all that in."
When Heelan head coach Roger Jansen looks at video of HCHS, he is impressed by a physical defense and a balanced offense which ranks sixth in 3-A in both rushing (247.5 ypg) and passing (176.2 ypg). Cyclone tailback Dylan Barrett has already scored 29 total touchdowns on the year and rushed for 1,514 yards, while quarterback Michael Kaufmann has passed for 1,691 yards and 15 touchdowns against just four interceptions. Kaufmann also has seven rushing TD's to his credit.
"They're about as sound of a football team as I've seen," said Jansen. "Defensively, they get after you. Offensively, they can hit you running and throwing, and there's not a whole lot of high school teams that can do that. It really creates a lot of difficulty for the defense."
In the first meeting between the teams this year, Heelan got off to a fast start on both sides of the ball and took a 6-0 lead, but finished with just 207 total yards as the Cyclones gradually took control. Only 12 of those yards were netted on the ground, and Jansen knows that his team must run the football Friday to complement the passing attack of veteran quarterback Zach McCabe (2,071 yards, 19 TD's, 5 INT's).
"In that first game, Harlan made us one-dimensional in throwing the football," Jansen said, "and I don't care how good you are, when you can make a team become one-dimensional you've got a pretty good chance to win the football game. If you've got to throw it 40 times or so, I think in high school you're in trouble."
The Cyclones' first-round playoff opponent, A-D-M, can vouch for that after throwing 40 passes on Monday and losing, 48-0. HCHS sacked Tigers' quarterback Gavin Glenn seven times and took away the deep pass effectively for the most part.
Coach Bladt was asked if facing A-D-M's spread offense Monday would be a good defensive tune-up for Heelan's explosive passing game four nights later.
"A-D-M is one-dimensional - they throw - but Heelan is going to come at us with both," Bladt said. "They're going to run and throw the football. They're going to mix it up and cause us some problems."
One of the big reasons for that is the emergence of sophomore tailback Michael Malloy - a six-foot, 160-pound burner who hits the hole with authority. Malloy averages 6.2 yards per carry and has totaled 811 yards and 15 touchdowns. No one else on the Heelan roster has more than 158 yards rushing.
"They've developed a running game (since last time), and their defense is still tough," Bladt said. "They get after you. They're mean and nasty little buggers."
Another concern of the Cyclone coaching staff is Heelan's multitude of offensive formations that revolve around getting the ball to speedster Preston Ives (31 catches, 662 yards, 8 TD's) and Nick Berger (53 catches, 735 yards, 7 TD's) in the open field.
"They've got more formations than the Army," Bladt said. We went over formations (Wednesday); we had about an hour and 45-minute practice and we never even got to the unbalanced stuff."
If that's not enough to worry about, Cyclone defensive coordinator Ken Carstens points out that the Heelan coaching staff always has a knack of bringing out something entirely new against HCHS.
"Who knows what Heelan will do - they'll run something different," Carstens said as he thumbed through a thick manila folder. "Look at that - that's all on plays from Heelan. Try to figure out which of those things they'll run. They change something every time we play them. Last year up there, they came out in power I. They had never run power I before, and we had a lot of films on them."
In addition to slowing down the running game with Malloy, Coach Bladt says the best thing the Cyclone defense can do Friday is make McCabe as uncomfortable in the pocket as possible. HCHS might not get seven sacks like it had against A-D-M, but the front four cannot let McCabe keep his jersey clean for too long at a time.
"We'd like to be able to get some pressure on the quarterback occasionally," Bladt said. "We'd like to make him run a little bit more than he would like. We'll see how they cooperate with that."
While Heelan's offense has become more balanced throughout the season, Jansen says the biggest improvement on defense has been playing pass coverage. The Crusaders have 27 takeaways to their credit, including 13 INT's.
Jansen's keys to success on Friday include taking care of the football and preventing the Cyclones from breaking big plays.
"Obviously we've got to put more than six points on the board," he added, and we've got to try to limit Harlan's big plays. They hit us on some big pass plays that either led to touchdowns or were touchdowns, so we've just got to make people earn the yardage and the scores that they do get instead of giving it to them on big plays."
Jansen believes the fact that Heelan has won the only two playoff meetings between the two schools is somewhat of a wash when it comes to confidence.
"It helps, but on the other hand, Harlan can use that as a greater motivational tool," he said. "The bottom line is: the team that executes their game plan and takes advantage of the breaks in the football game is probably going to win this one."
Sioux City Heelan at Harlan Community
Friday, November 6, 7:00 p.m. (Class 3-A Quarterfinal)
Series History
All-time series: Tied, 3-3.
at Harlan: HCHS leads, 2-1.
at Sioux City: Heelan leads, 2-1.
Playoffs: Heelan leads, 2-0.
Last 4 Meetings
2007: Heelan 21, HCHS 17 (at Harlan)*
2008: Heelan 28, HCHS 13 (at Heelan)
2008: Heelan 38, HCHS 21 (Sioux City)*
2009: HCHS 24, Heelan 6 (at Harlan)
* Playoff Quarterfinals
Probable Starters
OFFENSE
Sioux City Heelan (10-1)
LT: 59, Tyler Cutler (6-2, 215, sr.)
LG: 53, Justin Baker (6-2, 235, jr.)
C: 54, Nick Wankum (5-10, 205, jr.)
RG: 58, Jared Weaver (6-2, 210, sr.)
RT: 51, Jack Fitzsimmons (6-1, 210, sr.)
TE: 3, Brady Van Dusen (6-0, 190, jr.)
QB: 7, Zach McCabe (6-7, 210, sr.)
FB: 14, Nate Berger (6-1, 170, sr.)
TB: 26, Michael Malloy (6-0, 160, so.)
WR: 10, Nick Berger (6-0, 165, sr.)
FL: 2, Preston Ives (5-10, 150, sr.)
PK: 63, Zach Maxey (6-4, 230, jr.)
Harlan Community (11-0)
LT: 76, Marcus Streit (5-10, 240, sr.)
LG: 50, Joe Brummer (6-1, 235, so.)
C: 52, Mark Langenfeld (6-2, 255, sr.)
RG: 60, Jon Kaufman (6-3, 200, sr.)
RT: 67, Jacob Brown (6-0, 250, sr.)
TE: 80, Adam Cave (6-3, 200, jr.)
QB: 5, Michael Kaufmann (5-11, 155, sr.)
FB: 9, Matt Hoch (6-4, 245, sr.)
TB: 32, Dylan Barrett (6-0, 185, jr.)
SE: 42, Brian Kloewer (6-1, 190, sr.)
FL: 31, Luke Lansman (6-2, 190, sr.)
PK: 15, Trent Wendt (5-9, 150, jr.)
DEFENSE
Sioux City Heelan (10-1)
LDE: 59, Tyler Cutler (6-2, 215, sr.)
DT: 53, Justin Baker (6-2, 235, jr.)
DT: 51, Jack Fitzsimmons (6-1, 210, sr.)
RDE: 7, Zach McCabe (6-7, 210, sr.)
LOLB: 14, Nate Berger (6-1, 170, sr.)
ILB: 60, George Wakeman (6-3, 200, sr.)
ILB: 58, Jared Weaver (6-2, 210, sr.)
ROLB: 26, Michael Malloy (6-0, 160, so.)
FS: 10, Nick Berger (6-0, 165, sr.)
LCB: 2, Preston Ives (5-10, 150, sr.)
RCB: 16, Derek Tigges (5-11, 160, sr.)
Punter: 24, TJ Obermeyer (6-2, 190, sr.)
Harlan Community (11-0)
LDE: 70, Joe Arentson (6-0, 190, sr.)
DT: 47, Alex Brown (5-11, 195, jr.)
DT: 76, Marcus Streit (5-10, 240, sr.) and 77, Mitch Anderson (5-10, 215, jr.)
RDE: 6, Ryan Fahn (6-3, 195, sr.)
LOLB: 46, Dillon Kramer (6-0, 170, sr.) and 17, Dan Schaben (6-0, 185, sr.)
MLB: 9, Matt Hoch (6-4, 245, sr.)
ROLB: 12, Derek Schwartz (6-0, 185, jr.)
S: 31, Luke Lansman (6-2, 190, sr.)
S: 4, Craig Connell (6-2, 150, sr.)
CB: 42, Brian Kloewer (6-1, 190, sr.)
CB: 7, Anthony Hough (5-8, 150, sr.)
Punter: 15, Trent Wendt (5-9, 150, jr.)
