The Iowa Falls-Alden football team will host South Hardin in Week 2, where the teams will battle for the right to take home the Hardin County Tire traveling trophy.
The Cadets (0-1) are coming off a 13-0 Week 1 loss at Hampton-Dumont-CAL, where the offense wasn’t able to sustain enough momentum to put points on the board. The Cadets will look to continue their balanced attack after being led by quarterback Cade Olberding with 116 all-purpose yards in Week 1. Head Coach Eric Walkingstick says growth by Olberding will be a key to a developing offense.
“He’s only sophomore, I was just kind of going, is he gonna be panicky?” Walkingstick says. “He didn’t show that at all. He came out, kept his composure. There’s some times he could have panicked, but he didn’t. And he kept battling. And he came over one time, I told him, ‘We’re gonna keep going.’ And with a young guy, a young quarterback, guess what? You gotta get him that experience, you gotta get him that fire, and you gotta get him to go to that breaking point and then come back. That’s where we’re at with him. He did a great job of leading on the field.”
South Hardin (1-0) was crisp in last week’s 53-20 win over South Hamilton, where quarterback Peyton Welch had just one incomplete pass in 16 attempts with four touchdowns. He passed for 230 yards, and the team rushed for 323 yards in a very efficient game. Head Coach Nick Eller on how the offense can continue to excel.
“We gotta keep mixing the ball around on offense,” Eller says. “Can’t get one-dimensional on run or pass. We can’t get one dimensional on who’s getting the ball either. So I think we gotta keep on that pace. Defensive wise, we just gotta clean up some of those missed tackles, clean up some of our responsibilities, do a little better job of staying home and doing things like that. I think those are all very fixable things, but we just gotta get those cleaned up because we get to the meat of the season here and see a good IFA team, see a good AP team, see a good Alburnett, Grundy Center type teams, just can’t have any cracks.”
South Hardin has won two straight, including 35-14 at home last year. The kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. at Cadet Field.
