(Harlan) Harlan passed for 357 yards in their week one victory. The pass happy Cyclones take their high powered offense to Grinnell this Friday night.
Harlan scored 22 4th quarter points to storm back and beat Lewis Central 36-29. Teagon Kasperbauer was 26/46 through the air and hit nine different receivers. The biggest output came from Jacob Birch with 9 grabs for 119 yards while Connor Frame had 5 catches for 66 yards and two TD’s and Joey Moser went for 73 yards on three catches including a 50 yard score. Obviously the Cyclones are very deep and talented in their receiving core. Coach Todd Bladt says, “We have a lot of guys that can go up and get the pumpkin. We spread the ball around on Friday. Connor Frame got a couple of touches, Joey Moser got a couple touches, Will McLaughlin got a touchdown in there. Jacob Birch did some nice things for us. Aidan Hall is always going to be a weapon for us. Brad Curren had a couple nice plays out of the backfield and William Kenkel our full back had a great reception. He’s making fullbacks great again.”
Grinnell is 1-0 and also erased a big deficit to win last week. They came back from 17-0 first quarter hole to beat Benton 37-34. Running back Cole Johnson carried the load with 40 attempts for 200 yards. “He’s a thumper. He likes to run it up in there and they have some good things that they do. Their offensive line is really good at double teams. They get people moving and flying off the ball from what I can see. Benton Community got out hot early and then had some turnover problems and Grinnell got right back into it. They leaned on their running back in that game.”
Harlan has a lot of new starters up front. Coach Bladt addresses the play of the offensive line in Week 1. “We had some growing pains. In the pass protection we didn’t give up a sack, but we gave up two or three hurries. The offensive line I thought they played really well. It’s a little bit inexperienced on the inside.” Tackle Kade Brouillard is the elder statesman of the group as a three year starter while opposite tackle Gunner Schmitz also has varsity experience.
Harlan coach Todd Bladt:
