The Aplington-Parkersburg football team is back in the playoffs after falling short in 2023, and will travel to #6 (1A) Wilton for a 1A first round game Friday. It’ll air on 99 The Wave.
The Falcons (2-6, 2-3 1A-3) will view the opportunity as a fresh start, according to Interim Coach Aaron Thomas.
“Just a great opportunity to keep playing, and the fact we got the two district wins,” Thomas says. “Obviously we’d like to win more games than that, but it’s kind of a fresh start. This week throughout practice, I appreciate the guys’ effort, their intensity that they brought and just upbeat. Knowing we’re not playing at home, we’ve spent half our practice up on the practice field and then we go up to the game field for the second half. So just some things like that have brought some good energy, and I think the guys’ attention to detail has been good. We know we have a big task ahead of us with a very good Wilton team, but we’re excited to still be playing.”
The Falcons will look to continue to find success in their run-first approach, which has taken notable strides with freshman running backs Mason Pruisner and Devan Eberhart, who have combined for over half of the team’s rushing yards.
Wilton (7-1, 4-1 1A-5) is coming off a 20-8 loss at #4 (1A) Iowa City Regina in the regular season finale, which created a three-way tie atop the standings. The Beavers secured the #1-seed with the point differential standings. Thomas says Wilton’s offense is crisp, but it’s similar to what the Falcons faced in Week 8.
“Extremely similar to Sumner-Fredericksburg, like, formation-wise, they are almost identical. Very good quarterbacks two weeks in a row. I would say the Keith kid maybe throws it more accurate than Sumner-Fred’s, but I would say doesn’t take off as well. I think their two running backs are dang near identical when you look at Hassel for Wilton, so similar to Sumner-Fred and what they did in their running game. But formationally, I think that was an advantage for us, just because it’s exactly what we saw last week, with the addition of they go no back, empty backfield a little bit more. They don’t get the pistol like Sumner-Fred. So we’ll take some things that we can learn from last week.”
Quarterback Drew Keith has passed for 1,426 yards, the 10th-most in Class 1A, with 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.
It’ll be the first-ever meeting between the programs. Extended pregame coverage will begin at 5:00 p.m. with the Meet the Team show, featuring interviews with the players. The Roling Ford Road to the Dome Warmup Show will begin at 6:15 p.m., followed by the kickoff at 7:00 with Jon Mohwinkle and Carter Hoff on the call.
Aaron Thomas interview:
