DAVID CITY - Long passes set things up for Norfolk Catholic, then the Knights picked away at David City with their short passing game.

The result was a 26-8 victory Wednesday in the second round of the Class C-1 state football playoffs.

Norfolk Catholic quarterback Austin Ketter found Ethan Brozek for a 25-yard gain on the first play of the game, setting up a 44-yard field goal by Drew Farlee.

Ketter went to work again on the Knights' next possession, hitting Luke Lyons with a 31-yard pass to begin a 76-yard scoring drive. Ketter connected with Brozek for a 34-yard score and a 9-0 lead.

"They loosened us up early with those big passes, and then after that it's subconscious, and we started giving them another step, another yard or 2-yard cushion, and then they hurt you with short stuff," said David City coach Cortney Couch. "They moved the chains with dump passes over the middle, quick outs, screen passes over the middle."

David City clawed its way out of a hole after the Knights pinned it at its 5-yard line with a punt. The Scouts drove to the 37 before attempting a punt. Kelby Seyl broke through and blocked the punt, and it was recovered by Michel Steffensmeier at the David City 30.

The Scout defense stiffened and Norfolk Catholic was forced to send Farlee out for a 28-yard field goal and a 12-0 halftime lead.

"I thought we played very good defense, and that's kind of been our strength all year," said Norfolk Catholic coach Jeff Bellar. "We were good today in the special-teams game. Farlee was very good early, a little suspect in the middle of the season and now he's on his game again. And we angled one punt to stick them in a hole."

Ketter finished with 177 yards passing. He added a 2-yard scoring pass to Tyler Habrock to cap a 66-yard drive that took more than six minutes in the third quarter. A 40-yard pass to Seyl after a David City punt pushed the lead to 26-0.

"We felt like we were in the game at halftime," Couch said. "Truly, it was that drive in the third quarter that was the back breaker. That's something any team that wants to run power football wants to do. That's what we've done to people at times this year. This time, they did it to us.

"They had the ball the whole quarter and ended it with a touchdown. At that point, we were really looking up at them."

Norfolk Catholic held David City to 121 yards rushing and limited Seth Behrens to 78 yards on 26 carries. He finished the season with more than 1,700 yards to break the school record.

"We were really relying on play-action, misdirection, gadget-type formations, and I just don't know that you can win a playoff game with that," Couch said.

Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at rhambleton@journalstar.com or 473-7314.