Gavin Barber got quite a workout Friday evening.
The Pleasant Valley High School senior running back scored five first-half touchdowns — the shortest an 18-yard run — to power the Spartans to a convincing 56-6 homecoming victory over Muscatine at Spartan Stadium.
“I was fired up,” said Barber after a career-high in touchdowns. “It’s homecoming weekend, the community showed out for us. This is awesome.”
Barber scored on runs of 39 and 18 yards and turned short Lincoln Dalton passes into scoring aerials of 31, 20, and 73 yards to turn the Class 5A, District 6 contest into an early rout over the winless Muskies.
In the first half alone, Barber totaled 203 yards offense — 124 yards receiving and another 79 on the ground.
For his efforts in helping build a 49-0 halftime lead, he and the rest of the Spartans’ starters turned into cheerleaders in the second half, which was played with a running clock.
In addition to Barber’s efforts, Dalton completed five of seven passes in the first half, all of the connections going for touchdowns that covered 205 yards.
He connected with Evan Barr on a beautiful 31-yard strike in the first quarter and added a 50-yarder to Ashton Stoflet that opened the second-quarter scoring.
PV needed just 10 offensive snaps to put up 21 points and set the tone for the evening.
“We talked about starting fast and getting on them, and I thought our kids executed that really well,” said PV coach Rusty VanWetzinga. “I thought we were really effective offensively.
Defensively, I thought we did a really nice job for what Muscatine does; not many teams run that (Wishbone/Wing-T) offense. It was a really good night.”
With that 28-0 first-quarter lead, it almost had the celebration starting early.
“We kind of knew what they were going to run (defensively) and practiced against it all week,” said Dalton after the Spartans improved to 3-2 on the season. “We executed everything perfectly.”
That started with the first possession, according to Barber, who got the scoring going with a 39-yard run as he went almost untouched on the third play of the game after sophomore Daughtery Vanzuiden took the opening kick almost to midfield.
“Linc checked me into that touchdown run on the first drive, and he does a great job for us,” said Barber. “… That first drive, we really ran it right down – there’s nothing better than that.”
Even with reserves playing the entire second half against Muscatine’s starters, PV held the shutout until 6:01 left in the game when Seth Reiland (13 carries, 66 yards) scored on a 13-yard run. He was later hurt in the game and limped off the field after the contest.
The lopsided margin of victory was PV’s largest of the season. The Spartans’ first three games were decided by a total of 22 points before last week’s 27-point victory at Dubuque Hempstead.
“A game like this never hurts, for sure,” said Barber.
It was a great sign for VanWetzinga to see Barber break out the way he did, and the young offensive players continue to make strides.
“He did an excellent job in Week 1 against Bettendorf, but got dinged up,” said the veteran coach of Barber. “He really hasn’t been full speed until this week and I think it showed. He’s a tough runner, one of those backs that’s hard to get pads on and he’s shifty and hard to find. He’s a powerful kid.
“For that position, he’s really tailor-made for it. He’s got good hands and got some scoots. … I was really happy for him to have a game like that.”
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TJ Johnston
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