The #3 (1A) Dike-New Hartford football team rode a fast start to a 42-0 district title-clinching win at home over Aplington-Parkersburg in Week 7 Friday, as aired on 99 The Wave.
The Wolverines took advantage of big plays and short fields in the first quarter, including a 50-yard touchdown run by Noah Borcherding a few plays into the game. Rushing scores by Jack Severson, Colin Meester, another by Borcherding, and a safety gave the Wolverines a 30-0 lead after the first quarter. Borcherding added rushing touchdowns in the second and third quarters to complete the scoring, and the Falcons were held off the board. DNH coach Don Betts.
“I thought our kids really came out dialed in, focused, and ready to play,” Dike-New Hartford coach Don Betts says. “And I think that was a big part of our game plan for the week. We really focused on a lot of things this year, correcting some deficiencies that we felt we had last year. One of those is making sure we’re ready to play when we came out. And we really were last night. We jumped on them early, and then there was a turnover, and then just one thing led to another. I’m just really proud of the way that they came out and got after them right away and kind of took the wind out of their sails.”
Borcherding had eight carries for 172 yards.
AP coach Aaron Thomas says the slow start was a key factor.
“Just got to be ready to go and compete,” Thomas says. “You know, playing a very, very good DNH team, we knew our margin for error was zero to very, very little and obviously first quarter we had all kinds of mistakes and first and second down the very first possession, you know, get two stops, get them in a third and six, third and seven and we just got to know down in distance, tighten up a little. We thought they’d probably run hitches, that’s kind of their go-to. We were off a little too far and then they break a touchdown and then obviously kind of snowballed with turning it over on the kickoff, and just bad snapping and just kind of on and on. We weren’t able to sustain a drive until second quarter, we finally were able to move it a little bit, but just a really bad first quarter.”
Mason Pruisner had 19 carries for 62 yards to lead the Falcons.
AP (2-5, 2-2 1A-3) has clinched a playoff spot ahead of next week’s regular season finale at home against Sumner-Fredericksburg.
Dike-New Hartford (6-1, 4-0 1A-3) has clinched the top seed in the district, and will host Denver in next week’s regular season finale.
Aaron Thomas interview:
Don Betts interview:
