Offensive shakeup helps Midland against Cedar Valley Christian

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Midland Eagles (2-4) showed their strength and versatility on both sides of the football last night in a 62-20 victory over Cedar Valley Christian (1-5).

Led by senior running back Madison Gravel and sophomore quarterback Alex Martens, the Eagles had an offensive outburst in the first half. In the first two quarters alone, Gravel had 114 yards rushing, 52 receiving and two touchdowns. And Martens threw for four TDs.

'We've actually been playing Madison at quarterback for most of the year, but we switched it up tonight and played Andrew at quarterback so that we could hand it to Madison a little more,” said Midland Coach Casey Hack. 'They were both up to the challenge and did a good job with it.”

Midland came out firing when Martens found Connor Harms for a 15-yard TD on the opening drive. Martens hooked up with Harms again on the next possession, this time from 22 yards out to give Midland a 12-0 lead.

Skylar Tracy was next in line to score on a 30-yard run. Gravel then caught a Martens pass for a 52-yard strike.

The Huskies' lone touchdown of the first half came on a 34-yard pass from senior quarterback Kenan Ulmer to Colin Heeren.

Tracy, Dawson Paulsen and Gravel each added scores before halftime to give Midland a 48-6 lead going into the break.

The defense held strong for Midland, sacking Ulmer 10 times and intercepting him twice.

'Our defensive line did a great job of getting after the quarterback,” Hack said. 'We knew they were going to throw the ball around and we told our D-Linemen that it was going to be a good opportunity to make some plays if they went hard. We've tested this year by some pretty good teams, so it's nice to see our line have a good night.”