Alburnett routs North Cedar in 1A-6 showdown

STANWOOD -- Two years later, 0-9 still drives the Alburnett Pirates.

"I still think about it," said quarterback Jacob Sevening. "It keeps us focused. We went 0-9. Now we want to go 9-0."

The Pirates are two-thirds of the way there.

Mitchell Harger tacked on 306 yards to his state-leading rushing total, and Alburnett rolled up an astonishing 434 yards of offense in the first half of a 52-14 rout of No. 9 North Cedar in a Class 1A District 6 football contest Friday night at Doug Jackson Field.

"The kids came to play," said Pirates Coach Chris Evers. "The offensive line did an outstanding job.

"Mitchell is a great talent, for sure. But he has some help around him."

The Pirates (6-0 overall, 4-0 1A-6) finished with 582 yards to take firm control of the district race. Harger scored four touchdowns -- runs of 46, 77, 2 and 25 yards -- and upped his season rushing ledger to 1,520.

"At the beginning of the week, we knew both teams were undefeated," said Harger, who carried the ball 24 times. "We handled it like the West Branch week (three weeks ago).

"Everybody was focused all week, everybody did their job and everybody dominated."

North Cedar (5-1, 3-1) didn't stop the Pirates all night. Alburnett's only empty possession of the game was its second, in which it fumbled the ball away.

The Knights drove to tie the game at 7-7 on Charlie Cox's 27-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Jackson, but the rest of the half was an Alburnett clinic.

Sevening scored on a 2-yard run to put the Pirates up for good at 13-7, then Harger got loose for his two long TD runs.

By halftime, it was 39-7, and the majority of the second half was played under the continuous clock.

Evers succeeded longtime coach Jim Carver in 2009, and the debut season was ugly.

"I asked (West Branch Coach) Butch Pedersen if we were doing the right things," Evers said. "He said we were doing everything right, we just had to get bigger and stronger."

The Pirates advanced to 4-5 last year, then returned 21 of 22 starters for a season that's been magical so far.

"We had one goal," Harger said. "Beat everybody."

Colton Martin, a 145-pound fullback, added 76 yards on five carries. Sevening completed 5 of 6 passes for 117 yards -- all in the first half.

The Pirates travel to Highland next week; North Cedar is at Pekin.

TEAM STATISTICS

Alburnett

North Cedar

First downs

21

15

Rushes-yards

41 - 465

45 - 157

Passing yards

117

62

Comp-Att-Int

5 - 6 - 0

5 - 12 - 1

Total yards

582

219

Fumbles-lost

1 - 1

2 - 0

Punts-average

0 - 0.0

5 - 37.6

Penalties-yards

4 - 20

5 - 35

Rushing:

 Alburnett –

Mitchell Harger 24-306 ,

Colton Martin 5-76 ,

Dylan Winfield 5-46 ,

Dylan Miller 2-20 ,

Jacob Sevening 5-17

 North Cedar –

Scout Kasik 16-78 ,

Derrick Gray 9-44 ,

Kade Knapp 8-29 ,

Hunter Smith 4-18 ,

Charlie Cox 3--5 ,

Seth Bendixen 5--7

Passing:

 Alburnett –

Sevening 5-6-0-117

 North Cedar –

Cox 5-12-1-62

Receiving:

 Alburnett –

Tyler Shulista 2-53 ,

Connor Frederick 2-28 ,

Garrett Running Hawk 1-36

 North Cedar –

Kyle Jackson 4-67 ,

Bendixen 1--5

Alburnett

13

26

7

6

–

52

North Cedar

7

7

–

14

A - Connor Frederick 17 pass from Jacob Sevening (Chaz Sorensen kick)

NC - Kyle Jackson 27 pass from Charlie Cox (Cox kick)

A - Sevening 2 run (kick failed)

A - Mitchell Harger 46 run (run failed)

A - Harger 77 run (pass failed)

A - Tyler Shulista 45 pass from Sevening (kick failed)

A - Harger 2 run (Frederick pass from Sevening)

A - Harger 25 run (Sorensen kick)

A - Dylan Winfield 34 run (kick failed)

[gallery columns="2"]

NC - Derrick Gray 5 run (Cox kick)