Waverly grinds out victory against No. 7 Crete

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BY TOM SIMONS / For the Lincoln Journal Star

CRETE — Waverly set the tone for the game on its first possession Friday and proceeded to grind down Class B No. 7 Crete 28-8 at Simon Field.

After receiving the opening kickoff, the unranked Vikings (4-1) drove 75 yards in 11 plays — with only two plays longer than 7 yards — and took a 7-0 lead after a 3-yard touchdown run by junior quarterback Tyler Evans with 7½ minutes left in the first quarter.

Waverly got the ball back 2½ minutes later and this time struck like lightning. Evans ran a bootleg on the first play from scrimmage and raced 76 yards untouched for another touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 4:38 left in the period.

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“We’d been running a heavy iso (on the first series), and we just ran a boot off of it,” Waverly coach Mike Johnson said. “And then we lost 8 yards on it later. It’s kind of all all-or-nothing play.”

The Vikings, who did not throw a pass in the game, added two more touchdowns in the second quarter, on a 3-yard run by Jerod Henry and a 59-yard run by Nick Maguire. That gave Waverly a 28-0 halftime lead that could have been 35-0 if not for a goal-line stand by the two-time Class B state champion Cardinals with a little more than a minute left in the half.

Waverly outyarded Crete 296-88 in the first half, and while the Cardinals (3-2) showed some offensive life in the second half, they didn’t score until a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Jeremy Brandt with 23.3 seconds left in the game.

“I’m really proud of them,” Waverly defensive coordinator Jim Jacobsen said of his players. “Up to this point, we haven’t had as many hats to the ball as we want, but now we’re getting seven or eight, and that makes a huge difference. I couldn’t be happier with them.”

The win was the fourth in a row for Waverly since a 34-14 loss to Class B No. 5 Lincoln Pius X in the season opener, and Jacobsen’s comments reflect the improvement that he, Johnson and Evans say they’ve seen in the Vikings.

“Duane Dohmen (offensive coordinator) and Jim Jacobsen have done an excellent job of preparing our team every week — I don’t even have to coach any more,” Johnson said. “Our offensive line is getting better all the time and our backs are becoming what we call ‘strikers’ in our lingo. That’s something our backs grow into and our backs are starting to be better strikers.”

The “strikers” made their presence felt Friday, as Evans rushed for 101 yards, Henry for 83, and Maguire and Jared Janssen for 67 apiece.

“We’ve improved light years (since the Pius game),” Evans said. “The Pius game, we didn’t have any intensity. We came out really flat and they just stuck it right down our throats. But now, we’re playing with a lot more intensity. We’re getting off the ball way better.”

The Vikings will need all of that intensity next Friday, though, when they host Class B No. 2 Beatrice.

Crete fell to 3-2 and had a three-game win string snapped despite 127 rushing yards from Johnny Leach and 95 from Trevor Florendo.

In addition to not being able to stop Waverly’s running attack in the first half, the Cardinals hurt themselves with 10 penalties.