A goal-line defensive stand provided the spark for the Grundy Center offense to fire away in a 35-7 win at Dike-New Hartford on Friday night.
The Spartans’ winning streak extends to 42 games going into next week’s district opener at home against Garner-Hayfield-Ventura. Dike-New Hartford drops to 2-1 as it prepares for homecoming against Oelwein to start its district slate.
After a hail-mary victory for Dike-New Hartford in 2021 and a narrow 7-6 Grundy Center win in 2023, the 2025 meeting between these teams in Dike was a much different tune.
“It shows a lot of fortitude from our kids,” Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said. “This is a really hard place to play, and I think it says a lot about how our kids competed and I’m proud of them and our assistant coaches.”
Grundy Center scored the first 35 points of Friday’s game to cruise to victory, but it was far from a certainty in the first quarter after a quick three-and-out on the Spartan offense’s first possession, and D-NH used superior field position to march to Grundy Center’s 3-yard line.
After two runs for no gain, a tackle for loss by Aiden Hook and a D-NH penalty, the Wolverines took a shot at the end zone on 4th-and-goal but Peyton Pokorny’s pass for Aiden Walston was swatted away by Judd Jirovsky for a turnover on downs back to Grundy Center.
“I have a bit of an advantage as a defensive back that also plays quarterback,” Jirovsky said. “Playing them so many times, you start to get a feel for each other, so all the guys did a great job of giving their quarterback a tough time of knowing where to go with the ball. Our job is to just be in the right spots and knock it down.”
Taking over at their own 10-yard line, the Spartans pounded out a seven-minute, 11-play drive, capped by a two-yard blast up the middle from Pete Lebo, and it was Grundy Center taking the 7-0 advantage early in the second quarter instead of the hosts.
“I think if we had scored there, it’s a different ballgame,” D-NH head coach Don Betts said. “The result may have been the same, but it’s different because our kids would’ve kept the momentum and taken a little wind out of their sails.”
D-NH punted away on their next possession but got a momentary sign of life when Conner Weedman recovered a Grundy Center fumble on D-NH’s 4-yard line.
The Wolverines were able to make two first downs on the drive but another pass break-up by Jirovsky on third down forced a punt and the Spartans scored two plays later after a 29-yard run by Pete Lebo, followed by a 3-yard touchdown run by Jirovsky.
“All of our confidence starts with the guys up front, and being able to win that line of scrimmage for the majority of the game,” Jirovsky said. “When we’re feeding off those guys up front, encouraging each other, and Pete’s running really hard behind them, we’re tough to stop.”
Jirovsky added a 55-yard touchdown run before halftime, with Grundy Center leading 21-0.
Grundy Center’s returning all-state lineman Ryder Slifer started the second half with an interception off a deflection on a screen pass and in true lineman fashion, looked for the nearest defender he could run into.
“We talked about that screen pass all week at practice,” Slifer said. “They got me the first time, but I was in the right place at the right time the second time.
“And yeah, I was not going around that dude. I’m running straight through, I’m a hard-nosed player and that’s who I am.”
While Slifer didn’t get the pick-six, his 11-yard return set up Pete Lebo for a quick 9-yard touchdown run on the very next play to push Grundy Center’s lead to 28-0, and a Hayden Geerdes touchdown run on the next offensive series put the continuous clock in effect.
“We just kept the pressure on them, and they had a hard time establishing anything offensively,” Zajac said.
Lebo rushed 10 times for 99 yards and two touchdowns and Jirovsky added five carries for 76 yards and a score. Slifer had six total tackles and had hands on three tackles for loss, including a quarterback sack to end the first half.
For D-NH, Devlin Davis rushed 20 times for 85 yards and Aiden Walston had four catches for 31 yards and a touchdown grab late in the fourth quarter from Peyton Pokorny.
“We have an opportunity in our district to make a run and be a good playoff team,” Betts said. “A lot of these guys haven’t been varsity athletes in anything, so it’s taken them a while to come around to that, but I want them to have confidence that they’ve taken some steps in the right direction with that.”
G-H-V is 0-3 and comes to Grundy Center following a 53-0 loss at Aplington-Parkersburg on Friday.
“We’ve got a couple kids that are pretty beat up, so we’ve got to get healthy,” Zajac said. “There’s gonna be a lot of things revealed on tape that we did well, but there’ll be a lot of things for us to work on and fix, and we’ve just got to keep their attention with that on this upward trend where we’re improving every week.”
JAKE RYDER SPORTS 