Heelan edges West Delaware for finals berth

CEDAR FALLS - West Delaware's gameplan was to play a physical and grinding football game.The Hawks carried it out perfectly, but it wasn't enough to over come their own miscues and what little Sioux City Heelan had left in its gas tank.Heelan quarterback Paul Jacobson sandwiched a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:04 remaining between two interceptions and helped the Crusaders survive a Class 3A state football semifinal over West Delaware, 42-35, Monday at the UNI-Dome.The semifinal one might have been one that slipped through their fingers more than a win that was ripped away.“I felt like we had every opportunity there,” West Delaware Coach Doug Winkowitsch said. “Unfortunately, it just didn't happen tonight. We had our chances.”Those chances were set up by their scheme of playing physical and pounding Heelan, which has a number of players in on both sides of the ball. After jumping out to a 21-7 early lead, the Hawks started wearing down the Crusaders. Things seemed to be going as designed as they closed within 21-14 at the half with Brandon Domeyer's 3-yard run that capped a 20-play, 96-yard drive. Domeyer had 180 yards rushing on 33 carries.The ground and pound was working.“I feel like we dominated the line of scrimmage all night against a very, very good football team,” Winkowitsch said. “We did a lot of great things.”

That led to one of the better calls of the game. Heelan opened the second half with a successful onsides kick, which led to Jacobson's 6-yard TD pass to Brady VanDusen for a 28-14 lead. You can add that to the five Hawks miscues, which included two fumbles and three interceptions.“We were having a hard time stopping them,” Jansen said,”and wanted to try to get some momentum. They're a tough team and we really didn't stop them so much as they stopped themselves.”They weren't able to stop the big play which got them in a big deficit and playing from behind. The Crusaders had five plays for more than 25 yards and and nine for more than 10. Michael Malloy, who put Heelan on the board with a 1-yard TD run to cap the game's opening drive, was a big part of those. His 69-yard TD run gave Heelan a 14-7 lead with 4:22 left in the first.The advantage grew to 21-7 less than 50 seconds later when Justin Baker notched a score for the Crusader's defense. Baker scooped up a Brandon Domeyer fumble at the West Delaware 17 and rumbled in for a score.Malloy's big plays struck again in the fourth when he took an option pitch from Jacobson 72 yards for a score to put  Heelan up, 35-28, with 11:29 left. Malloy finished with 235 yards on 20 carries.Winkowitsch knew his team needed to prevent those long strikes, and not doing it was the difference.“I think that was it,” Winkowitsch said. “You kind of wish that things would have gone our way, but the kids played their hearts out.”While they were fresh, Heelan seemed faster and little more athletic, but they were able to get outside on big plays by errors."They were really fast," West Delaware linebacker Cole Stephen said. "We just made a couple mental mistakes."Despite the score, the Hawks dominated the game, especially the line of scrimmage. They ran 78 plays to Heelan's 46, manufacturing scoring drives of 20, 14 and seven. The 14-yard, 80-yard drive led to a Jordan Hoffmann 1-yard run to tie the score 35-35 with 6:44 to go.“We had a lot of really long drives that really gassed them,” Hoffmann said. “In the second half, we had a lot of momentum going."Hoffmann also ran for a 65-yard TD to tie it at 7-7, and he hit Scott Carroll for a 23-yard score in the third to pull within 28-21. Carroll responded by picking Jacobson off that led to Hoffmann's 29-yard TD pass to Trey MacTaggart to pull even at 28-28.Hoffmann had 109 rushing and 135 passing. Hoffman and Domeyer helped the Hawks move the chains.“The nice thing is you know you're going to get five yards a pop with Brandon and you know Jordan is going to come out and manage the game for you,” Winkowitsch said. “It's easy to call plays when you have those two.”

The Hawks momentum stopped there. They fumbled on the next possession and then after a stop, they tried to go for the win with 1:39 left. Hoffmann tried to hit MacTaggart, who was bumped by a defender, and Jacobson cut the pass off for an interception and followed it by leading Heelan 44 yards on three plays, hitting Dane Hickman on a 31-yard pass to set up the winning score.West Delaware drove into Heelan territory in the final minute but a pass sailed high into Jacobson's hands for another pick and to end the game.“Our philosophy was to continue to move the chains and grind it out,” said Winkowitsch, admitting he thought about playing for overtime on the second to last drive. “We felt really good. We felt we wore them down there. We had them wore down we just didn't make the plays we needed at the end of the game.”The game took its toll on the Crusaders."This is the most tired I've ever been,” said Jacobson.The loss brings an impressive playoff run to an end for the Hawks.“It was quite a road,” Winkowitsch said. “The thing I'm most proud of is how focused this group has been all year.”