The #1 (1A) Grundy Center football team had its way in Friday’s 35-0 win at #6 (1A) South Hardin in a matchup of undefeated teams.
The Spartans scored once each in the first and second quarters for a 14-0 halftime lead, and added three more scores in the second half to put the running clock rule in effect. Judd Jirovsky found Tiernan Vokes and Brody Zinkula for passing touchdowns. Jirovsky also had two rushing scores and Zinkula had one.
“It was one of our bigger regular season games that we’ve had in a long time,” Grundy Center coach Travis Zajac says. “South Hardin was undefeated going in, scoring a ton of points, not giving up much at all. We had a really solid plan going in, I felt, in all three phases, and our kids did an excellent job executing. South Hardin is a really good football team. We had our hands full. Very physical game. There was a lot of juice there, a lot of people there. It was their senior night. Proud of our kids for being able to weather the storm early. Their emotions were really high early in the game. Once we kind of settled in, we did everything that we wanted to do on offense and defense.”
Jirovsky was 12/27 passing for 142 yards and no interceptions. Zinkula had 21 carries for 100 yards, and Aiden Hook had five tackles.
South Hardin coach Nick Eller says it was an uncharacteristic performance.
“Frustrating game,” Eller says. “Hats off to Grundy, I thought they played really well. Played just a more sound, better football game than us for the whole four quarters. I thought we started out pretty well. Played kind of how I was hoping we’d start out. Did our job on defense. Did some good things on offense for a few drives. And then seemed like we just kind of got out of our mental focus or our sense of urgency too and just didn’t play very sound football from that point on after about the first quarter, middle of second quarter maybe. Just not doing our job, not following the game plan. Have to give Grundy credit because they took advantage of those. Just a frustrating game, I thought we left a lot of plays out there.”
Peyton Welch was 4/16 passing for 67 yards and two interceptions. Jaxson Drury was held to 14 carries for 44 yards. Sam Benson led defensively with 8.5 tackles.
South Hardin (5-1, 2-1 1A-4) will be at Hudson next week. Grundy Center (6-0, 3-0 1A-4) will be at Alburnett next week.
Travis Zajac interview:
Nick Eller interview:
