HCHS shakes off scoreless first half, blanks Trojans 22-0
ATLANTIC -- Perhaps a little adversity was just what Harlan Community needed Friday night as it wrapped up the regular season with one final tune-up for the 2017 Iowa high school football playoffs.
Locked in a scoreless halftime tie with Atlantic and held to just 82 first-half yards, the sixth-ranked (3A) Cyclones scored points on their first four drives of the second half and pitched their second shutout of the season to escape the Trojan Bowl with a 22-0 victory.
“That doesn’t hurt ya,” said HCHS coach Curt Bladt when asked about facing some Week 9 tribulation. “It’s a little wake up call for us to be ready to play.
“We were ready to play last week against Denison [in a 56-14 win]. We came out of the chute and got it going and kept it going. Tonight we were just not hitting on all cylinders, so we’ll look at the video and guys will get a little smarter and we’ll get after whoever we face in the first round.”
A few hours later, Bladt and the Cyclones learned that their first-round playoff opponent would be none other than Sioux City Bishop Heelan, which squeezed out a playoff berth Friday by winning 8-3 at Spirit Lake and getting the help it needed when Spencer lost to Algona in overtime.
The Crusaders (7-2) and HCHS (8-1) will get together for their seventh playoff encounter since 2007 when they meet at Merrill Field Friday at 7:00 p.m. The winner will face either Sergeant Bluff-Luton (9-0) or Glenwood (8-1) in a quarterfinal game on November 3.
Atlantic, which finished 3-4 in District 7 and 5-4 overall for its first winning season in five years, put its improved squad on full display Friday by giving the Cyclones all they wanted for two-plus quarters.