Schwery Nails GW 22-yd FG as Time Expires to Give Cyclones Win over Glenwood, 17-14

Harlan Community Football's Nolan Schwery

Schwery Nails GW 22-yd FG as Time Expires to Give Cyclones Win over Glenwood, 17-14 -

(9-8-23) - "Don’t miss."

That’s what was going through the mind of kicker Nolan Schwery as he prepared to connect on a 22-yd FG to give Harlan Community a walk-off win over Glenwood, 17-14, at Merrill Field in Harlan Friday.

“Focus on contact.” Schwery told KNOD Sports after the game. “Contact. Technique. Just the basics.”

The Cyclones ran off the final 7:01 of the game on a brilliant 16-play drive that started on their own 16. Coach Todd Bladt is glad the decision to run time off the clock to not give the Rams another chance to score.

“It's great when your plan works out in the end, but sometimes sometimes they can bite you in about a little bit, but it turned out for the best.”

Harlan Community scored on their opening drive of the game, a 12-play, 83-yard march that ended in a 1-yd TD run for QB Will Arkfeld. But the Cyclones couldn’t getting offense going for much of the next two quarters. Bladt felt his team had assignment and alignment issues on both sides of the ball.

“Offensively, we weren’t quite technically sound that way.”

Glenwood was unable to move the ball until their final drive of the 1st half when they inserted backup QB Kellen Scott to run the option with starter Kayden Anderson split wide and the two trading spots under center as a way to confuse the defense. It led to Anderson connecting with Payton Longmeyer for a 7-yd TD pass, but the extra point was no-good and the Cyclones went into the locker room up 7-6.

The Rams continued to move the ball well in 3rd qtr and eventually got a 4-yd TD run from Scott and 2-pt conversion from Anderson to take a 14-7 lead into the 4th. Bladt says those drives will be a learning experience for his defense.

“We had some assignment and alignment issues. You know it happens on defense. You're out of alignment all of a sudden, they get a big play... We can get on the chalkboard and take a look at this and we're going to watch this film real close and we can learn a lot from it.”

Harlan Community would respond on their next series with a 6-play, 73-yd drive highlighted by a 42-yd scamper by Lucas Francis and ending in a 2-yd TD run by Arkfeld to tie the game at 14-14.

Arkfeld would throw for 122 yards and rush for 35 more with those two scores.

Bladt is just grateful for the victory.

“That's always a great thing. It doesn't matter if it's a 3-point victory with no time on the clock or 49-point victory. A win’s a win and that's what it comes down to.”

Harlan Community is now 2-1 going into next week’s home contest with Sergeant Bluff-Luton.

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