PELLA, Iowa—It was a big-play barrage.
Central College scored on its first two plays from scrimmage and freshman quarterback Blaine Hawkins (Ankeny) rolled up a school-record 498 yards total offense in a 69-24 Iowa Conference football rout of Loras College Saturday.
The Dutch (5-3 overall, 4-2 conference) set a school mark with 693 yards of offense as Hawkins completed 14 of 19 passes, also setting records with 367 passing yards and five touchdowns. He rushed for 131 yards on eight carries as well with two scores, for a record seven combined touchdowns. Meanwhile, all-America receiver Sam Markham (senior, Atlantic) had a record four touchdown catches, with five receptions overall for 201 yards before taking a seat on the bench in the third quarter.
"We got some good coverage matchups and that really helped us," coach Jeff McMartin said. "I thought Blaine (Hawkins) was as accurate of a quarterback today as he's been since he became a starter. He looked really good and made a lot of really good decisions. In fact, at the end of the half, they started changing some coverages up on us and he still found the right guy."
Remarkably, Central held a 21-0 lead in the first quarter despite controlling the ball for just 1:57 of the opening 15 minutes. Hawkins hit Markham on a 77-yard strike on Central's opening play from scrimmage. Then Hunter Robinson (sophomore, Lisbon) returned a punt 46 yards before receiver/quarterback Kohle Helle (senior, Guttenberg, Clayton Ridge HS) used a gadget play to toss a 30-yard TD to S-back Kyle Gritsch (senior, Brooklyn, BGM HS).
Later in the quarter, again on the first play of a drive, Hawkins raced 86 yards for a touchdown, giving the Dutch three first-period scoring drives consuming a combined 33 seconds. Central had only 8:06 of possession time in the first half.
"It was kind of unusual," McMartin said. "We had one-play drive, one-play drive. You take 14 points every time and if somebody said you'll have 21 at the end of the first quarter, I'd take it regardless of the number of plays we've run but, yeah, it definitely put our defense out there a lot. We had to get stops but we were very efficient."
After Loras cut the lead to 21-10 in the second quarter, Hawkins and Markham connected on TD strikes of 73, 32 and 13 yards in a 7-minute span. Running back Pat Gray (junior, West Des Moines, Waukee HS) used a direct snap with 19 seconds left in the half for a 3-yard score and a 48-17 halftime lead.
Just 1:26 into the third quarter, Hawkins dashed 18 yards for a TD to stretch the lead to 55-17. The Dutch added a 6-yard Hawkins-to-Gray TD pass and a 30-yard Jon Alberts (sophomore, Huntley, Ill.) field goal in the third quarter to complete the scoring. Alberts has connected on all 12 of his field-goal tries this year.
Central finished with a record 397 passing yards overall and 296 yards rushing. But Loras was also productive, taking advantage of the extra possession time to run 99 plays to Central's 66. The Duhawks (4-5 overall, 3-4 conference) piled up 619 yards with 411 passing and 208 rushing. The Duhawks completed 35 of 61 passes with three touchdowns.
Dutch linebackers Sam Norgaard (senior, Naperville, Ill., Neuqua Valley HS) and Tyler Olson (senior, Mapleton, Minn., Maple River HS) each had 15 tackles. Norgaard has a conference-best 107 tackles for the year, already the eighth-best season total in school history.
McMartin did his best to empty the bench throughout the second half.
"It's hard," he said. "You want to play everybody.
"We've got some good young players. I like our freshman and sophomore classes. They're good classes. We'll keep developing them."
Meanwhile, the Dutch seem to be hitting their stride.
"I believe we're getting better each day," McMartin said. "Coming off the bye week, you worry whether we're going to be rusty or not and we weren't rusty. We got out there and got going. I like how we played to today and I expect us to continue to get better these next two weeks."
Central travels to Decorah to meet Luther College next Saturday in a 1 p.m. battle for second place in the conference. The Norse (5-3 overall, 4-2 conference) were 36-28 triple-overtime winners over Coe College at Decorah Saturday.
Central's Hawkins passes for 5 TDs, runs for 2 more in 69-24 rout
/seasons/2017/boxscores/20171028_sojk.xml
2017
Loras
24
Central
65
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loras (4-5) | 0 | 17 | 7 | 0 | 24 |
| Central (5-3) | 21 | 27 | 17 | 0 | 65 |
Oct 28, 2017