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AHS JOURNALISM GOLD SPONSOR

Trojans come up short on Homecoming night

by Anthony Robinson

856 yards of combined offense from the Harlan Cyclones and Atlantic Trojans kept the Trojan Bowl crowd entertained all night. The AHS faithful, wearing all black, were kept on the edge of their seats during the 2011 Homecoming football game. However, the Trojans came up on the short end of the shootout, falling to the high-powered Cyclones 38-28.

“If you could have told us we could have put 28 points on the board against Harlan, I would have taken that, earlier in the week. We just didn’t play well enough on the defensive side to get stops,” head coach Tim Duff said after the game.

The Trojans trailed by 10 points with six minutes remaining in the game. On their final drive of the game, Atlantic converted three fourth-downs before Harlan was able to get a hand on the ball and intercept quarterback Harrison Hoegh.

The Trojans’ rushing game was clicking all game long. Sophomore Jacob Dvorak finished with 114 yards on 10 carries. Junior Gunnar Blum carried the ball 10 times for 74 yards, including two touchdowns. AHS finished with 249 yards on the ground.

“They weren’t able to stop us running the ball. Scheme-wise, we just had a good running game tonight,” Duff said.

The Trojans received the opening kickoff, hoping to jump out to an early lead, but they were unable to do anything with the ball.

“We’re not afraid to take the ball first. Our offense has done a pretty good job starting off, but tonight mentally or whatever the reason, we weren’t crisp from the start,” Duff said. “[The Trojans went] three and out and then we had a penalty and Harlan had the ball on our 25 and they punched it in for the score. We spotted them their first seven points, there’s no doubt about it.”

Less than a minute after the Cyclones took a 7-0 lead, the Trojans scored on a 73-yard pass over-the-middle of the field that ended with a foot race to the end zone. The race was won by junior Dalton Franken.

The Cyclones scored 10 more points before the Trojans put together their best drive of the game during the middle stages of the second quarter.  A 38-yard run by Blum, followed by a 47-yard run by Dvorak, spurred the 90-yard scoring drive for the Trojans. Blum punched the ball in from a yard out, putting the Trojans within three for the first of three times during the game.

Senior quarterback Zach Osborn put Harlan up by 10 after a quarterback scramble, 24-14 headed into halftime.

“They scored early; we kept pulling within three and then they’d score,” Duff said.

Junior Dalton Cook intercepted the ball during the Cyclones’ first drive of the second half, giving the Trojans opportunity to pull within one score.

Atlantic found the end zone after a 37-yard run by senior Derek Stork set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Blum. The Trojans trailed 24-21 with the second half less than three and a half minutes old.

The Cyclones ate up more than five minutes of game time before scoring from five yards out on their next possession.

Early in the final quarter, junior Sam Markham caught a touchdown pass in the back corner of the end zone before the Cyclones scored again on a rushing touchdown from nine yards out.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump. We just couldn’t get a defensive stop,” Duff said.

Next Friday the Trojans travel to Council Bluffs to take on the Lewis Central Titans in a battle for fourth place in district one of class 3A.

“Our seniors had goals earlier this year to make the playoffs, so we’ve got to go on the road and win a game if they want to get an extra game,” Duff commented.

Senior fullback and linebacker Derek Stork said, “We need to be more consistent. We have some great drive, then some ugly three and outs. If we can put together a complete game on both sides we’ll be in good shape.”

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