The #4 (1A) South Hardin football team will take on #1 (1A) West Lyon in its first-ever semifinal appearance Friday. It’ll air on 99 The Wave.
The Tigers (10-1) advanced with last week’s 27-14 win over #5 (1A) Treynor, where five takeaways were difference makers.
“Our message has been all year long, just going 1-0,” Head Coach Nick Eller says. “And it’s no different now. That’s got to be our goal, which is to focus strictly on this game, not worried about the next, move past the past game, and then just really focus on doing our best job of playing our best football this game and leave it on the field. I think our guys have done that the last few weeks really well, just really focusing on what’s their job, what’s the team need, and then I’m going to leave everything I have on the field every game, and they’ve done a good job of that.”
The Wildcats (11-0) have dominated their way through the season, including last week’s 57-22 win over #7 (1A) Underwood in the quarterfinal. The defending Class 2A champion, they’ve won 24 straight games, having gone undefeated since the start of the 2024 season. They’ve rushed for over 3,000 yards on the season, offering a physical test to each opponent.
“They’re a huge challenge. They have the #1 ranking all year, won Class 2A last year. They’re kind of the team that I want to be. They’ve got a good defense, they’ve got run and pass on offense, good special teams, use their playmakers well. We’re a mirror of each other, I think they just the experience of the dome, and we’ll try to close that gap. Nothing but respect for their program, but we’ve got to really come play A+ football all night long to be able to hang with them, and do all the things we’ve been doing all year of being very versatile and then being really good on defense and special teams.”
Pregame coverage will start at 12:30 p.m., followed by the kickoff at 1:00. The winner will advance to the 1A championship game against either #2 (1A) Grundy Center or #3 (1A) Iowa City Regina.
Nick Eller interview:
