Cubs offense too much for Cyclones

The pre-game coin toss had an ominous feel to it as two of Harlan’s star players, Cade Sears and Franz Reisz, made their way to mid-field on crutches.
For any successful football program the term “next man up” is a mantra, but when the next man up, is the next man up, is the next man up … it’s sometimes too much to overcome. Facing a difficult Nevada club without several starters Friday proved too much for the Cyclones and they fell 39-20 for their third loss of the year.
“We had a lot of guys playing in different positions tonight, and that’s tough to do this late in the season,” said Cyclone Head Coach Todd Bladt. “We had mental errors. A lot of them were self-inflicted. We threw two balls that put us behind early in the ballgame and it just kind of snowballed on us. We lost some key players tonight and it’s going to be tough to replace those guys.”
The night opened up with Nevada receiving the first kickoff. On 3rd down, the ball was hiked over the head of Junior quarterback Connor King, giving the Cyclone offense a chance to take an early lead.
But on a 2nd down and 15, Senior Cyclone Will Arkfeld threw a deep ball that was intercepted by Kingsbury, putting the ball back in the hands of the Cubs offense.
The Cubs weren’t able to get their offense going on that next possession, but when the Cyclones offense returned to the field, another Arkfeld interception by Kingsbury put the Cubs in the driver’s seat.
The Cubs were making their way downfield and it looked like they were going to come up empty yet again when Junior Cyclone Caden Bruck had a sack on 3rd and 7.
But with just under four minutes remaining in the quarter on 4th and 17, quarterback Connor King threw to Kingsbury for a 30-yard touchdown pass putting the Cubs up 6-0. Kingsbury followed the touchdown with the extra point.
The Cyclones returned to the field trying to answer back, but were unsuccessful when on 3rd and 19, Arkfeld had nowhere to go and he threw the ball away.
The Cubs offense came back out and responded in a big way when Stevenson went for a 41-yard touchdown run with under 30 seconds to go putting his team up 13-0. Kingsbury added the extra point as the Cyclones trailed the Cubs 14 points heading into the second quarter.
Early into the second quarter, Senior Cyclone Noah Schmitz received a handoff from Arkfeld on a 3rd and 5 effectively securing a first down. On another third down soon after, Arkfeld attempted to throw the ball, but it was batted away by Cubs Sophomore John Nelson.
The Cubs got back on offense and the Cyclones defense made some noise when Brett Heese made a tackle on a 2nd and 5, followed by a tackle by Quinn Koesters on 2nd and 7, forcing Nevada to use a timeout.
When play resumed, the Cubs got another first down, but didn’t get far on the next two possessions on back-to-back tackles by Matthew Sorfonden, putting the Cubs at 3rd and 1. The Cubs followed that with another first down, but once again got shut down for the moment by the Cyclone defense when Alex Heithoff and Landon Nihsen made tackles, forcing another Cubs timeout.
With just under three and a half minutes to go in the first half, King found Senior tight end Will Palmer for an 11-yard touchdown catch and run, putting his team up 20-0 at halftime.
Just before the half concluded, the Cubs committed another interception when Senior Jacob Khounsourath jumped up in front of Cyclone Senior Brehden Eggerss with 8.5 seconds left.
“We were doing some good things and then we hit ourselves in the foot again,” Bladt said. “Had a penalty that put us behind the sticks there right out from the half. We had guys fighting hard. There’s no question we had great effort out there. They had a few more bullets left and we didn’t quite have it tonight.”
The third quarter opened with the Cyclones receiving the kickoff that fell into the hands of Nihsen who managed to make his way downfield for a first down. Nothing came of the offensive run as the Cubs offensive line returned to the field.
It looked like the tables were starting to turn in the Cyclones favor when the Cubs had a 1st and 10 on the 43-yard line and King threw a pass that was intercepted by Koesters, putting the Cyclones offense back on the field.
A scary moment occurred for the Cyclones when on a 2nd and 8, Jozef Reisz went down, grabbed his shoulder, exited the field under his own power, but did not return for the remainder of the game.
“Jozef had the shoulder there,” Bladt said. “I don’t know what his situation is going to be. We’ll have to check tomorrow on him.”
Not long after Reisz’ exit, on a 1st and 10, the Cyclones fumbled the ball and put the Cubs offense in a position to score. The Cyclones defense was strong yet again when a tackle was committed by Caden Bruck on a 3rd and 2, followed by a tackle by Bryce Van Baale on 2nd and 10, forcing a timeout from Nevada.
“With as many guys as we had playing out of position there towards the end, guys were still making plays out there,” Bladt said.
When play resumed, Stevenson went for a 15-yard touchdown run, putting his team up 26-0 approaching the 3-minute mark. Kingsbury was unable to add the extra point when the Cyclone defense blocked the kick.
The Cyclones got their first points of the night near the 2-minute mark when Will Arkfeld tossed the ball to Gabe Arkfeld who launched it to the end zone where Jackson Bieker caught it for a 23-yard touchdown pass, making it a 26-6 game. Junior kicker Nolan Schwery came out and added the extra point.
“It was a great ball,” Bladt said. “Jackson has been looking good on that thing, so we had it set up and we’ve been doing it just the last couple of days. We haven’t had a lot of time to work on things with some of these new guys that were popping into these roles. That was a great play and that hit it. It was a great job.”
The Cubs didn’t take too long to respond as on a 1st and goal, Junior running back Anthony Eaton went for a 1-yard touchdown run making it 32-7 with 33.3 seconds on the clock. The Cubs tried to go for a 2-point conversion, but were unsuccessful, keeping the deficit at 25 entering the final quarter.
When the fourth quarter started the Cyclones offense was on 3rd and 10. Arkfeld tried to find Eggerss, but once again Kingsbury intercepted the ball.
The Cubs offense returned to the field and had to make their way through a steller Cyclone defense, which was stopped on a tackle by Sorfonden preventing the Cubs from scoring on that possession.
When the Cyclones offense returned to the field, on a 2nd and 15, Arkfeld found Eggerss for a 17-yard touchdown pass putting his down by 19.
The Cubs offense punched the Cyclones right back when on a 2nd and 6, Stevenson secured a 42-yard touchdown making it 38-14.
The Cyclones had one more fight in them in offense approaching the final two minutes of the game when Arkfeld handed off to Schmitz who went for a 56-yard touchdown run, making it a 39-20 game, which would be the final score of the game.
The Cyclones move to 4-3 on the season and will return home to take on the Atlantic Trojans who are led by Zayden Parker with 569 passing yards, Gavin McLaren with 342 rushing yards, and Colton Rasmussen with 188 receiving yards. Defensively, Colten Becker has 36.5 tackles.
“It’ll be nice to be back at home,” Bladt said. “Hopefully we get some guys back and we’ll see how that looks in the future here.”