SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Entering the season, Bishop Heelan High School football coach Jon LaFleur was cautiously optimistic about his offensive and defensive lines.
Those units were among the ones that brought back the least from last year’s squad and had the potential to make or break the Crusaders’ campaign.
So far, so good for Heelan, who’s lines have consistently moved the line of the scrimmage and allowed Crusader quarterbacks time to throw and holes for star running back/linebacker Kasen Thomas to gallop through.
“The line played great all night and open up holes for me,” Thomas said. “This is a big win for us and something to build on going forward.”
While the pace of points scored slowed down, that early score set the tone as Bishop Heelan, ranked third in Class 3A by IAfootball.com, spoiled the No. 12-ranked Warriors’ homecoming at Open Space Park in Sioux Center, 28-15, to start Class 3A District 1 play on Friday.
Even though it was the district opener, 3A-1 has already proven to yield some surprising results as No. 10 MOC-Floyd Valley rebounded from its first loss last week to beat No. 5 Algona, 14-13, and Webster City shocked Humboldt, 21-14.
Heelan (4-1, 1-0 in Class 3A-1) held the Warriors (4-1, 0-1 in 3A-1) to a season-low point total.
“It was amazing,” said Heelan senior senior linebacker Matt Meyer, who was in on several big plays on defense. “Everything what there: the effort the momentum, the communication and chemistry. On defense, we gave up a few plays, but we know when we need to buckle down. Bend but don’t break.
“This gives us a lot of momentum going into the rest of the district games and going into our homecoming game next week (against MOC-Floyd Valley).”
Things couldn’t have started off better for Heelan on Friday night, either.
The Crusaders kicked off to the Sioux Center Warriors to start, intercepted a pass on third-and-long and scored three plays later.
The scoring drive consisted of Thomas runs of 23, eight and six yards as the Crusaders took a 7-0 lead within the first three minutes of action.
Thomas, an Iowa football commit who also picked up an offer from Michigan within the past week, went for nearly 180 yards on 26 carries to go with a trio of touchdowns.
The Crusaders’ offense boasted the occasional big play but otherwise methodically drove up and down the field while the defense buckled down when it needed for the most part.
Sioux Center’s first touchdown came on blocked punt that Heelan was trying to get out of its own end zone.
Heelan’s usual starting quarterback, senior Noah Conley, was out with an ankle injury and is expected to return next week.
Regardless, junior Elijah Mielke was sharp in Conley’s stead.
“We have a lot of trust in each other,” Meyer said.
Mielke completed a 37-yard pass to junior wide receiver/linebacker Grant Whitcomb that set up Thomas’ second TD, and found senior wide receiver/safety Caden Lester for a 40-yard gain midway through the third quarter to set up a one-yard touchdown by senior running back/linebacker Avery Favors, which put Heelan up 21-0.
Sioux Center got on the scoreboard with a nine-yard touchdown run by senior running back/linebacker Cody Sandbulte, who took a direct snap on the two-point conversion and ran it in to make it 21-8 with just under four minutes left in the third.
Heelan responded with Thomas’ third score — from a yard out — to make it 28-8 with just over a minute left in the third.
The Warriors got another score when Heelan tried punting out of its own end zone and Sioux Center blocked it and scored with a recovery by senior Joseph Molina, a running back/defensive back who ended the game with 37 rushing yards on nine carries and three catches for 19 yards.
Sandbulte went for 74 rushing yards on 11 carries. Sioux Center junior quarterback Ezra Hibma finished 9 of 27 passing for 144 yards and two interceptions.
“This was a good win for us,” Thomas said. “We’re happy to get this one under our belts, now we’ll get back in the film room and fix some of the details and try to be better then next time out.”
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