The South Hardin football team pulled away in the second half to close out a 27-0 win over Iowa Falls-Alden in the Battle of Hardin County on Friday. It was the Tigers third straight win in the series.
South Hardin pulled ahead to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter and that remained the score at the half. The Tigers found the endzone a second time in the third quarter to go up 14-0. South Hardin was able to distance itself on the scoreboard with 13 points in the 4th quarter. Both teams were challenged by turnovers as South Hardin threw two interceptions and IFA had three fumbles.
South Hardin Head Coach Nick Eller on getting the offense going.
“Peyton Welch, I thought, ran the ball really well the night of some different times when we needed to and Jaxon Drury ran the ball well,” says Eller. “They threw the sink at us. It was everything we could handle to pick up blitzers and really trying to dare us to run outside or throw the ball. It was some tough sledding. It was really good for us, I think a lot of teams are gonna do that. I thought they had a good game plan to try and really shut us down. We didn’t execute great in the first half. The second half, we started to click and found our rhythm.”
The Tigers rushed for 245 yards in the rivalry meeting, led by Jaxon Drury’s 139 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Peyton Welch also passed for 104 yards and a touchdown for South Hardin.
IFA Head Coach Eric Walkingstick on defensive work ethic and next step for the offense.
“We are flying to the ball, we’re pursuing to the ball. Right now we’re playing really good responsibility football. We’re trusting each other,” says Walkingstick. “Whenever you do that on defense, whenever you got gap control defense, you are able to make teams get out of their comfort zone. That’s what we’ve been able to do. Defense, where we fly around the ball, we got great speed over there. We’re still having issues on offense, we’ll get to red zone. When we’re just outside of the red zone, we create a constant mistake, whether it be a little penalty or just a loss of a play or something like that. We’re able to drive, we’re moving things, and we’re getting some sustaining, a few drives here and there. We just have not been able to finish our drives.”
The Cadets were led by Cade Olberding with 82 passing yards and 28 rushing yards. Trevor Bailey added eight tackles defensively.
Iowa Falls-Alden at 0-2 will travel to Clear Lake to close out non-district play on Friday.
South Hardin, at 2-0 for the first time since 2020, will host Aplington-Parkersburg on Friday.
