maly, too: Bulldogs Keep Football Title Hope Alive, 45-20

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Bulldogs Keep Football Title Hope Alive, 45-20

Drake's football team kept its Pioneer Football League title aspirations alive Saturday by knocking off league-leading Butler, 45-20, on Senior Day at Drake Stadium. The Bulldogs can clinch a share of the Pioneer Football League championship for the second consecutive season with a victory next Saturday at Jacksonville.

“Today was a great day, no doubt about it,” Drake coach Chris Creighton said. “Butler has had a great season and clinched a share of the PFL title, but there’s a good feeling here right now. I feel pretty good about all three phases of the game and we beat a good team today.”

Senior quarterback Mike Piatkowski (Wheaton, Ill.) had an impressive finale to his historic career at Drake Stadium, throwing for 366 yards on 29-of-40 passing with a career-high five touchdowns. Gary Scott, Jr. (Forsyth, Ill.) showed his versatility on the ground and as a receiving target for Drake (7-3, 6-1 PFL). Scott had 88 total yards for the Bulldogs, to go along with three touchdowns, two on touchdown receptions. Nick Rosa (Owasso, Okla.) was the top target for Piatkowski, catching nine passes for 123 yards. Grahm Butler (Brock, Neb.) added two touchdown catches, along with five receptions for 91 yards.

“Defensively, you could tell we had a lot of energy and pep in our step,” Creighton said. “There was a lot of communication and excitement. It was fun to watch.”

Drake’s defense completely shut down Butler’s (8-3, 7-1 PFL) offense, only allowing three scoring drives. That defense, ranked second in the PFL in yards allowed limited Butler to a season-low 303 yards of total offense. The Butler rushing attack was also held to a season-low 50 yards without the services of the PFL’s top rusher in Trae Heeter who missed the contest due to injury. Anthony Gianaras led the Bulldogs with eight tackles, two behind the line of scrimmage, in his final home game. Tyler Moorehead had two critical sacks that disrupted scoring opportunities for Butler, and seven tackles overall.

Although Drake was down early, it did not trail again after taking the lead, 7-6, at 4:02 in the second quarter. On that drive, Piatkowski found Rosa on consecutive plays, for 12 and 38 yards, respectively, to set his offense up in striking distance inside the red zone. After Orlando converted a third and long to keep the drive alive, he hauled in a 12-yard pass from Piatkowski to give Drake a 7-6 lead with 4:02 left in the second quarter.

Momentum continued to favor Drake as the half came to a close. After holding Butler to a three-and-out, Drake had favorable field position at midfield. Capped by a seven-yard touchdown rush by Scott, the Bulldogs found themselves with a 14-6 lead at halftime.

Butler narrowed the lead on its first drive of the second half to narrow the lead at 14-13. Lancaster’s pass, intended for Tom Judge, seemed to be broken up by Drake’s secondary, but was deflected into Brendan Shannon’s hands for a 45-yard touchdown. Shannon finished with a game-high 126 receiving yards.

That would be as close as Butler would be for the remainder of the game. The Drake offense matched Butler’s opening drive of the half, with a 10-play, 75-yard drive, highlighted by Grahm Butler’s 29-yard touchdown grab to put his team back up by eight, 21-13, with 6:13 on the clock in the third quarter.

Scott was instrumental on Drake’s final drive in the third quarter, gaining over half of the Bulldogs’ 47-yards on the drive, including picking up the 9-yard touchdown reception to give Drake a two possession lead, 28-13.

After a 32-yard punt return by Mike Ratelle that set up the offense in the red zone, the Bulldogs took five plays before Piatkowski found Scott again for a six-yard touchdown through the air, his second receiving score of the afternoon. This scoring drive put Butler on the ropes, trailing 35-13 with 13:34 remaining in the game.

After Drake scored another touchdown, Butler answered with a 15 play, 75-yard drive that concluded with a touchdown, to make the score 42-20 with 6:46 remaining in the game.

The Bulldogs would score once more, a season-long 36-yard field goal by Cam Bohnert (Edmond, Okla.), to close out scoring with the reserves in the game.

“If the NCAA would let us go tonight, I think we’d turn the lights on and start practicing,” Creighton said of the anticipation of facing Jacksonville with a PFL title on the line. “We are excited. You work so hard for so long and are only guaranteed 11 games. Our conference is special and we have the chance to do something that hasn’t been done for a long time here, so we’re going to be fired up.”

Kickoff for the pivotal game is set for noon, CST.

[This stiory was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for commnications].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.