Football: Iraan runs past Hale Center

MIDLAND It wasn’t the cool, blustery conditions everyone associates with football weather that greeted the Iraan Braves and Hale Center Owls Saturday afternoon.

No, this forecast came directly from Jack Frost and the cold, sleet and rainy conditions definitely had an effect on the outcome.

Not, however, as much as the Iraan running attack.

The Braves rushed 54 times for 334 yards as they ran away from Hale Center for a 42-13 victory in the Class 1A Division II area playoff game at Grande Communications Stadium.

Oscar Gonzales led Iraan with 131 yards on 14 carries and one touchdown. Zach Calvert added 106 yards on 20 carries and three touchdowns as the Braves jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the game and never looked back, despite turning the ball over three times on fumbles.

Call Cade and David Himel also scored for Iraan (7-5), which will face Nazareth (11-1) next week in the regional round. The game likely will be played Saturday either at Denver City or back at Grande Communications Stadium.

“I thought our guys did a great job of dealing with the conditions,” Iraan coach John Fellows said. “We have never played in anything like this, with it being so cold and wet and it really made you concentrate on holding on to the football.

“This was a great job of the team knowing what they needed to do to be successful and getting the job done.”

As good as the Braves were offensively, they also were as solid defensively.

Calvert and Bradley Ledford each intercepted one pass and Iraan sacked Owls quarterback Nathan Shaver eight times for 45 yards in losses. In all, Hale Center was held to just 164 yards in total offense.

The Owls (5-6) may have sensed it wasn’t going to be their day when, on the first possession of the game, they were forced to punt on a fourth-and-12 situation and the punt went just 11 yards.

That set up the Braves at the Hale Center 29-yard line and they needed just four plays before Calvert scored his first touchdown of the night, a 2-yard run over the right side with 9:36 left to play.

Hale Center did manage a first down on its next possession, but again was forced to kick the ball away to Iraan, which this time started 74 yards away from the end zone.

Cade then directed an eight-play drive that was capped when he called his own number on a sweep around the left end to make it 14-0 with 3:11 left to play in the first quarter.

The Owls cut the lead in half on Melvis Hawkins’ 77-yard run with 1:55 to play in the opening quarter, but Himel’s second-quarter score pushed the margin back to 14 points (21-7) at halftime and Hale Center never threatened after that.

Cavlert scored one touchdown in both the third and fourth quarters, with Gonzales breaking free for a 54-yard scoring run, his longest of the year, in the fourth quarter.

“We just knew that we were going to have to work hard,” Gonzales said. “It was cold and we had to make sure that we did a good job of holding on to the football because one turnover could change the whole game.

“It feels great to win and get the chance to play another week.”

Iraan 42, Hale Center 13

Hale Center 7 0 0 6 — 0

Iraan 14 7 7 14 — 42

First Quarter

Iraan — Zach Calvert 2 run (Len Slaughter kick), 9:36.

Iraan — Call Cade 7 run (Len Slaughter kick), 3:11.

Hale Center — Melvis Hawkins 77 run (Gabriel Ruiz kick), 1:29.

Second Quarter

Iraan — David Himel 19 run (Len Slaughter kick), 4:40.

Third Quarter

Iraan — Zach Calvert 11 run (Len Slaughter kick), 7:21.

Fourth Quarter

Hale Center — Gabriel Ruiz 9 pass from Nathan Shaver (kick failed), 11:16.

Iraan — Oscar Gonzales 54 run (Len Slaughter kick), 9:19.

Iraan — Zach Calvert 1 run (Len Slaughter kick), 5:08.

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TEAM STATISTICS

Hale Center Iraan

First downs 10 18

Total yards 164 377

Rushes-yards 34-99 54-344

Passing 65 33

Comp-Att-Int 7-14-2 2-4-0

Sacked-Yards Lost 8-45 0-0

Punt returns 0-0 4-28

Kickoff returns 4-67 1-22

Punts-Avg. 7-26.3 1-15

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-3

Penalties-Yards 3-15 7-55

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Hale Center

Melvis Hawkins 17-95, Matthew Gonzales 3-26, Gabriel Ruiz 1-4, Jonathan Madrigal 3-1, Nathan Shaver 10-(-27).

Iraan

Oscar Gonzales 14-131, Zach Calvert 20-106, David Himel 7-60, Zac Owen 8-33, Call Cade 3-16.

PASSING

Hale Center

Nathan Shaver 7-13-2—65, Gabriel Ruiz 0-1-0—0.

Iraan

Call Cade 2-4-0—33.

RECEIVING

Hale Center

Gabriel Ruiz 2-26, Triston Diaz 2-19, Jonathan Madrigal 2-14, Cody Needham 1-6.

Iraan

Ricky Zuniga 1-24, Oscar Gonzales 1-9.

INTERCEPTIONS

Iraan

Zach Calvert 1, Bradley Ledford 1.