The Aplington-Parkersburg football team capitalized on lessons learned from the first two weeks, and defeated Garner Hayfield Ventura 53-0 at home Friday for their first win of the season.
In a thorough performance, the Falcons rushed for 414 yards and didn’t throw a single pass. They built a 40-0 lead by halftime to put the running clock rule in effect, and held their ground defensively the entire night. Head Coach Jeff Pikna says they found a way to eliminate self-inflicted mistakes that were difference makers in the first two games.
“We talked all week and really emphasized before the game that we have yet to play a game this year that is the way we would like to play a game,” Pikna says. “We’ve shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times, lots of penalties, a lot of unforced errors, the punts over the head at Grundy, the fumble at the one at Grundy, just a lot of things in the last couple of weeks. The delay game on the five yard line last week where we did not score. So we just really wanted to focus on having a game where we were disciplined, hard nosed, downhill, doing what we were supposed to do, and we felt like we did that tonight. We only had two penalties total and one was a substitution. So the boys really cleaned it up. It was really good to see. No turnovers either, so we’re happy for that.”
Mason Pruisner rushed for 165 yards and three scores, Benny Waller had 151 yards with three scores, and Aiden Merrill had three carries with a touchdown. Defensively, they allowed just 89 yards.
The Falcons (1-2) will begin district play next week at Union on 99 The Wave and RadioOnTheGo on YouTube.
