Andrew Haase on Ankeny football’s win over Dowling
Ankeny senior defender Andrew Haase breaks down the Hawks first win of the season, his big stops on the final drive and facing Dowling.
Three weeks of Iowa high school football are complete, meaning we’re already a third of the way through the 2024 IHSAA regular season.
The slate of games from Thursday and Friday night featured several blowout wins and some upsets too. Humboldt took down Van Meter, Sioux City East stamped out Bishop Heelan and Cedar Rapids Prairie edged out Southeast Polk.
So yeah, it was a week full of surprises and lessons learned.
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Here are 10 things we learned during Week 3 of the Iowa high school football season.
Ankeny Centennial shows no signs of slowing down
The Jaguars were truly firing on all cylinders in their 31-14 win over Cedar Falls. From Braeden Jackson doing Braeden Jackson things to the defense recovering fumbles and grabbing interceptions – and even kicker Ryan Bendezu making a 52-yard field goal – Centennial checked all the boxes.
When Centennial’s offense gets creative, the Jaguars are difficult to stop. That was evident against Cedar Falls, when JJ Morgan, Chase Kluver and Jackson looked confident on offense and the defense backed them up.
More: Iowa high school football: Week 3 top performers include Will Hawthorne, Mack Heitland
Ankeny’s defense is full of playmakers
There really isn’t one name on Ankeny’s roster that stands out as the leader on defense. Samuel Sandvig is always all over the field, LaMarious Clark is a ball hawk and Kinnick Vos is the type of player opposing offenses don’t want to see coming toward them. One after the other, a different player seems to step up every game.
More: 3 reasons why Ankeny beat top-ranked Dowling Catholic in Iowa high school football showdown
This week it was Andrew Haase – and Nathan Becker – who made two of the biggest defensive plays of the night to stop Dowling and lead Ankeny to its first win of the season.
Don’t sleep on Humboldt after win against Van Meter
It’s no easy task to face the three-time reigning state champions. But Humboldt rose to the challenge, ending Van Meter’s 26-game winning streak with a defensive effort that stumped the Bulldogs.
The Wildcats improved to 3-0 on the year after intercepting Van Meter’s quarterback twice and holding the Bulldogs to just three touchdowns. Humboldt managed to keep Caleb Moore to under 100 receiving yards and limited Jay Haley and Garrett Cole to a combined 107 rushing yards.
Dowling’s pass coverage is top-tier
Aidan Ducharme and Dylan Manning recorded 7.5 and seven tackles, respectively, in the Maroons’ loss to Ankeny on Friday. Those two players are consistently on the top of the stat sheet for tackles and are two of the best defenders on Dowling’s roster.
But it was Parker Pearson who stood out against the Hawks. He finished with five tackles, third most on the team. It was his pass coverage that shined, though. Late in the game, Pearson broke up to deep pass attempts by Ankeny that would’ve resulted in touchdowns.
His individual effort kept Dowling in the game until the final minutes, and those were just two of the passes he broke up.
Dominic Salibi is Iowa City High’s Swiss Army knife
Receiving touchdown. Rushing touchdown. Passing touchdown.
Thanks to a trick play, Dominic Salibi picked up a rare touchdown hat trick against Ames, helping the Little Hawks improve to 1-2 on the season. He scored the first touchdown of the game off a 14-yard pass, then scored again on a 26-yard run.
More: Iowa high school football: 3 takeaways from Iowa City High’s Little Cy-Hawk win over Ames
To cap it all off, Iowa City High’s trick play utilized Salibi as a quarterback, and he sent a 26-yard touchdown pass into the hands of Chayse Newton to really nail down the win.
Drake DeGroote and his group of receivers are the perfect combination
If Valley’s offense has shown anything this season, it’s that Tigers’ quarterback Drake DeGroote has plenty of options. He collected 262 yards and four touchdowns – with zero interceptions while completing 92% of his passes – in a win over Johnston.
Here’s how spread-out Valley’s air raid is: Seven different players caught at least one pass in Friday night’s game. Zay Robinson caught six passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns. Zach Schemper led with 125 yards off seven catches and picked up one touchdown. Jayden Brown rounded out the leaders with four receptions for 38 yards and one score.
Is Mack Heitland the metro’s next quarterback to watch?
Waukee Northwest quarterback Mack Heitland threw for six touchdowns in a Thursday night football game against Des Moines Roosevelt. Five of those came in the first half.
Heitland can move the chains with his legs, too, and puts his receivers in positions to be successful. Better yet, he is only a sophomore, so high school football fans could expect a couple more years of Heitland hype.
More: 3 takeaways from Waukee Northwest football’s 56-13 win over Des Moines Roosevelt
Pleasant Valley rains on Iowa City Liberty’s parade
The Spartans’ defense clicked at the right time against previously unbeaten Liberty, mostly due to Evan Barr’s ability to force turnovers. Over a three-minute span, Barr grabbed an interception and jumped on a fumble to hand the Lightning their first – and second – turnovers of the season.
Pleasant Valley’s diverse offense backed up the defense’s performance, finishing with over 500 total yards, including 365 on the ground, in the win over Liberty.
Should Pella be getting more attention after beating Indianola?
Indianola has proven difficult to beat this season, but thanks to a failed two-point conversion, Pella improved to 3-0 on Friday. Emmanuel Diers was the playmaker in this one, rushing for 208 yards and two touchdowns and picking up 123 receiving yards and another score.
Add in a physical defense that loves to spread out the success, and Pella is a team to watch moving forward.
Waukee’s receiving core is something special
Beckett Bakker is off to a solid start in his junior year, adding 221 passing yards and four touchdowns in a win over Sioux City North. That brings his season-long total to 737 passing yards and 10 touchdowns – with no interceptions – through three games.
More: 3 reasons why Waukee has established itself as an Iowa high school football state-title contender
All his receivers stepped up in the blowout win on Friday. Maverick Inman grabbed five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Jeter picked up 74 yards on four passes, while Lucas Peterson and Evan Jacobson each scored a touchdown.
With that many options on the field at one time, it’s hard for opposing defenses to know who to cover and who to leave open.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 00:02:00
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