Grundy Center quarterback Judd Jirovsky ran in four first-half touchdowns and the Spartans walloped Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, 57-0, in a Class 1A first-round postseason game at Spartan Stadium on Friday, Oct. 24.
The Spartans have won 48 consecutive games and advance to a second-round matchup at home against Clarion-Goldfield-Dows on Halloween Night. Grundy Center smashed the Cowboys 56-8 in district play on Sept. 26.
Jirovsky touched the ball five times in the first half, and four went for touchdowns, racking up a total of 179 yards on the ground. He was also 6-of-6 passing for 93 yards, including four catches for 44 yards by Eli Wegmann.
“There’s probably a couple looks that even Judd would say he would want back in terms of identifying receivers, but when he sees daylight, he’s going to take it,” Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said, “and he’s a pretty tough kid to handle when he’s in space. It just put more things on film that defense have to account for; Eddyville decided they wanted to be extra aggressive early with blitzes and we had answers to that, were able to score, and they backed off. Judd’s just a handful.”
Grundy Center led 42-0 at halftime and the Spartan defense logged its third consecutive shutout.
“We haven’t given up much this year with our preferred varsity starters on the field, and once we want to take the older guys out, it’s up to those younger kids to respond,” Zajac said. “Everybody gives up a score, but when we don’t have a zero on the scoreboard it gets the older guys a little hot, and I don’t blame them because they work hard for that zero, so it’s a positive pressure on those younger guys, and they’re responding, and to see how they’ve been playing the last three weeks against the opponents’ varsity offense, I think that says a lot about our younger guys.”
Pete Lebo led the Spartan defense with 7 1/2 tackles and Cooper Keller added 5 1/5 stops; Ryder Slifer had a quarterback sack and Chevy Richardson made two tackles for loss.
C-G-D (6-3) defeated Waterloo Columbus, 48-27, to advance to Friday’s second round.
JAKE RYDER SPORTS 