The #7 (1A) South Hardin football team was dominant in all phases in a 56-7 home win over Aplington-Parkersburg in Friday’s non-district finale, as aired on 99 The Wave.
In an offensive onslaught, the Tigers scored on all five of their first half possessions, with an emphasis on continued balance in the passing game. Jaxson Drury had two of his three rushing touchdowns in the first half, and Peyton Welch threw touchdown passes to Sam Benson, Casey Williamson and Traven Wheeler for a 35-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, Welch threw a touchdown pass to Ethan Lindsey, Drury added another rushing score, and Izaak Hollingsworth returned a fumble for a touchdown to complete the scoring. Head Coach Nick Eller says it was a great win, but there’s still room for improvement.
“We’re right where we want to be, being 3-0,” Eller says. “We’ve put some good nights together here offensive-wise, defensive-wise. Thought that was kind of the same story tonight. Both phases clicking. Not at all trying to sound cocky or arrogant, but I just feel like we’ve still got a lot of ways we can get better. A lot of things we haven’t even touched yet. So that’s just a blessing as a coach. You’ve got that many athletes and players in there, and they’re clicking, and they’re excited to play. And we’ve just got to keep taking advantage of it. That’s kind of my challenge.”
Drury had 19 carries for 110 yards. Wheeler was the leading receiver with four catches for 79 yards. Welch was 10/12 passing for 186 yards.
The Falcons got on the board on their first possession when Benny Waller found Caleb Campbell for a 63-yard touchdown pass. But sloppiness ensued the rest of the night, with eight turnovers being committed, including two kickoffs recovered by South Hardin, a muffed punt, and five fumbles.
“We’ve got to be better fundamentally, without a doubt,” Interim Coach Aaron Thomas says. “And yeah, you play in the #7 team in the state, you can’t make mistakes, you have to create the turnovers, not give them turnovers. They’re good the way it is, they don’t need your help. So obviously, we’ll watch film and just talk to our guys. We’ve got to have some self pride and compete. And if things do go south, you got to stay together even more with that. And I think we got most of our guys doing that, but we got a couple of guys that kind of head goes down and we got to fix some of that just from a culture standpoint for moving forward. So we’ll work on those things.”
Creyton Eberhart led the Falcons with 11 carries for 54 yards.
AP (0-3) will begin district play next week at MFL MarMac on 99 The Wave. South Hardin (3-0) will host Alburnett in next week’s district opener.
Nick Eller interview:
Aaron Thomas interview:
