Westerners return to form

First-year starting quarterback, senior Nathan Harris [Click to enlarge]

Through two games in the 2003 season, defending 1A state champions Akron-Westfield looked as though they were going to be undergoing some serious rebuilding. With only a hand full of returning starters, the once prolific offense was struggling to find cohesiveness and the defense was hard-pressed to keep the Westerners in games. September 19, A-W broke into the win column against Lawton-Bronson, and Friday, September 26, the Westerners finally recaptured a little bit of last year's magic for homecoming as they pummeled West Sioux, Hawarden 39-0 to move to 2-0 in district play.

The biggest difference in the Westerners' play was the emergence of first-year starting quarterback, senior Nathan Harris. Through three games, Harris had looked every bit a first-year starter, but in week four against West Sioux he erupted, putting up video game numbers against an admittedly soft Falcon pass defense.

Before halftime, Harris had thrown for 301 yards and five touchdowns on 10-11 passing. The A-W offense struck quickly, eating up huge chunks of yardage per play and found themselves so far ahead at the intermission, Harris did not play the second half.

"We got back to our style of big-play offense and rock-solid defense," said A-W head coach Craig Parkinson. "We got a shutout on defense and a lot of explosive plays. We showed a lot of improvement on our part and enthusiasm for homecoming."

Explosive is an apt description-the longest scoring drive for A-W in the first half consisted of five plays.

To open up, the Westerners had a three-play, 68-yard drive that concluded with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Brett Kelley. On their next possession, the longest of the first half, A-W ran five plays to cover 54 yards as Harris connected with Ryan Oetken on a 33-yard touchdown pass.

The third drive took three plays and covered 85 yards with a 70-yard pass from Harris to Kelley for the touchdown. A-W scored their quickest touchdown of the night on the fourth possession, two plays for 69 yards, with Harris hitting Dustin Carter. In their last drive before the half Harris once again found Kelley for a three-yard touchdown pass, part of a three-play, 52-yard drive to put A-W up 33-0 at the half.

Parkinson called off the dogs in the second half, playing second-teamers and getting some reserves valuable varsity experience. A-W would score a final time on a 25-yard run by Carter to add the exclamation point to the 39-0 win.

Harris finished the game with his first half totals, while backup quarterback Randall Waterbury played the second half. Waterbury was 2-4 passing for 31 yards.

The A-W wide receivers were the benefactors of Harris' outburst as two Westerners were over 100 yards receiving for the game.

Kelley had four catches for 139 yards and three touchdowns, while Carter caught three passes for 102 yards and one touchdown. Ryan Oetken, the star of the previous game against Lawton-Bronson, had four catches for 77 yards and one touchdown and Derek Heyl got in on the action as well, catching one pass for 14 yards.

Carter was the top rusher for A-W, with 33 yards and one touchdown on two carries.

Trent Ruhland spear-headed the defensive effort with eight tackles. Bryan Fodness had seven tackles and one sack, Heyl had six tackles and a sack, Adam Gable had six tackles and Jake Wych and Chris Utesch each had five.

"We had a couple kids who got to play that haven't played much, so we're starting to gel and kids who got banged up are getting healthy," said Parkinson. "That second half, we were trying to develop some depth. We hope the replacements can play at the same level as the starters. We needed this for confidence."

A-W will next play Laurens-Marathon Friday, October 3 at home.