SPOKANE, WASH. — Playing to win.
That's been the Jeff McMartin philosophy throughout his tenure as Central College football coach and the Dutch displayed it in bold colors Saturday as they went for it all on a two-point conversion try on the game's final play and knocked off No. 19-rated Whitworth University (Wash.) 50-49 Saturday.
Even bolder was the decision to have wide receiver and occasional quarterback Kohl Helle (junior, Guttenberg, Clayton Ridge HS) take his first snap of the day on the two-point try after a 9-yard Nate Boland (sophomore, Iowa City, West HS) pass to Sam Markham (junior, Atlantic) pulled Central within 49-48 in the extra period.
There was no other choice, McMartin said. Particularly since he'd suddenly felt the urge to promise Central would do just that earlier in the day. Twice.
"For some reason, I told the coaches this morning at breakfast, if we get the last play in overtime, we're going for two, and we're going to run this play with Kohle Helle," he said. "And the coaches just said, 'OK, that's what we'll do.'
"Then I told all of the alums at our tailgater the same thing. I just had a feeling."
It was the winning call. Helle scrambled to his right and outmuscled a Whitworth defender just inside the pylon for the newest entry on the signature wins list for the storied Central program.
"Kohle runs that play really well," McMartin said. "He still has a lot of quarterback in him. I told him if everybody's covered, just run it in. We had good options all over the field. If he threw it, we had good receivers we have confidence in, and if he ran it, we had confidence in him."
McMartin noted it was 11 years to the day from when quarterback Tim Connell ran the same play in the same situation and struggled past a defender by the same pylon for a 25-24 overtime triumph at Augustana College (Ill.).
"Tim texted me after the game," McMartin said. "He remembered it was the exact same play."
Yet, McMartin admitted, "I was really hoping it didn't come down to that."
It almost didn't. The Dutch scrambled their way to the 15-yard-line before a 32-yard field goal sailed wide with just 10 seconds remaining.
Momentum then swung heavily to the Whitworth side when the Pirates needed just the first four overtime plays for the go-ahead touchdown.
But Donny Groezinger (sophomore, Lanark, Ill., Eastland HS), in his collegiate debut at running back, jump-started the Dutch attack with a 21-yard run on the first play of Central's possession. One play later was the Boland-to-Markham strike.
Then Helle's dash put a wrap on the 3-hour, 27-minute scorefest that saw the teams combine for 1,198 yards. Central rolled up 602 yards, matching the fourth-highest output in school history. That included a school-record 406 passing yards, shattering a 44-year-old mark of 383 passing yards set against Wartburg in 1972.
Markham, a record-setting receiver, was held without a catch in the first half, but finished with nine receptions for 87 yards and two scores. That moved him into second place on the school career receptions list with 130. Meanwhile tight end Mitchell Boerm (senior, Traer, North Tama HS) had a career-best eight receptions for a team-high 101 yards and Zack Martinelli (senior, Elburn, Ill., Kaneland HS) had eight catches—also a career-high--for 99 yards and a score. Meanwhile, Helle, who rushed three times for five yards prior to the winning scamper, had seven catches for 55 yards and a touchdown.
Groezinger's debut was a memorable one with 117 yards and a TD on 28 carries. He also caught four passes for 39 yards.
"Donny's a tough kid," McMartin said. "He's got a great attitude. He got hit pretty hard but he made some great catches and made some great runs."
McMartin intended to use both Riley Gray (senior, West Des Moines, Waukee HS) and Boland at quarterback and stuck to the script. Gray took every offensive snap until early in the third quarter, completing 21 of 34 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns. Boland followed and was equally impressive, connecting on 17-of-21 for 149 yards and two scores. Gray rushed 12 times for 41 yards and a TD while Boland ran eight times for 38 yards.
"Riley played really well in the preseason," McMartin said. "He's gotten better each day. Nate's a good quarterback, too. It was hard to know when to bring the other guy in. Riley had a great first half. We just felt like we got to a point where Nate can do some different things and we wanted to utilize those, too."
Less noticeable to many but certainly not to McMartin was the goose egg in the turnover column, critical to any Central hopes for the road upset. And the Dutch took advantage of one Whitworth turnover as a fumbled punt recovery by linebacker Tyler Olson (junior, Mapleton, Minn., Maple River HS) led to a Central score.
The fast-paced Whitworth offense put up big stats of its own. The Pirates (0-1) completed 38 of 56 Ian Kolste passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns. Duke DeGaetano had 11 catches for 51 yards and Garrett McKay had six receptions for a game-high 163 yards and a TD.
Despite the video game numbers, the Dutch defense delivered, McMartin said.
"They gave us some really big stops," he said. "That's a very good Whitworth offense. They were very physical up front, even more physical than they looked on film. Slowing them down wasn't easy. Even just holding them to a field goal on the opening drive was big.
"We knew we would have to score points to win and that's not saying anything bad about our defense. Whitworth is just really good. Their quarterback is outstanding. They're really talented and they're very well-coached."
All-Iowa Conference free safety Zach Matter (senior, Ankeny) had a team-high nine tackles and two pass breakups while strong safety Tate Jensen (junior, De Soto, ADM HS) made eight stops, and linebacker Drew Carlson (senior, Ankeny), linebacker Chris Neeld (New Boston, Ill., Mercer County HS) and cornerback Tony Oros (senior, Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) each had six.
Going in, this one had all the earmarks of a troublesome afternoon. Whitworth was a 2015 NCAA Division III playoff team with a host of returning weapons while Central was embarking on the longest regular-season road trip in school history. One D3football.com writer even nominated Central as the Division III team most likely to regret its opening-weekend long trip the most, a prediction he charitably acknowledged badly missed the mark following the game.
It's not like he was alone in envisioning a potential Whitworth runaway.
"You look at all the teams that travel this far, at any level, it's hard on the body," McMartin said. "We've been real purposeful in how we trained in the preseason. Even out here, in the food we're eating and in hydration. Even how we practiced (Friday) was different from how we might have practiced a year ago."
That was important because Whitworth ran off 97 plays and Central ran 110.
"At halftime, it felt like we'd played a whole game," McMartin said.
Central entered intermission a bit disappointed. After taking a 21-13 lead when S-back Kyle Gritsch (junior, Brooklyn, BGM HS) caught a 10-yard Gray TD pass with 3:11 left, the Dutch surrendered a 33-yard score with just 33 seconds remaining. Whitworth ran a trick play for a two-point conversion to make it 21-21 at the break.
Yet Gray engineered a 14-play, 82-yard scoring drive to open the third quarter and put Central back on top.
"Coming right out of halftime and scoring was huge," McMartin said. "It proved the first half wasn't a fluke. It made a good statement that we weren't going to go away."
And the Dutch didn't. But through the inevitable highs and lows a 99-point game entails, paying attention to the task at hand was critical.
"We talk a lot about perservance and playing gritty football," McMartin said. "We have to think about one play at a time and not focus on winning the game, just the next play.
"We did that. Our seniors did a great job of leading this team today and throughout the off-season."
While it was a memorable afternoon, when Central's plane lands in Des Moines Sunday, McMartin said the Dutch need to be thinking about the next daunting non-conference hurdle, as they travel to Rock Island, Ill. for a 1 p.m. game next Saturday at Augustana College (Ill.). The rapidly improving Vikings were 21-10 winners at Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) Saturday. It will be Central's first trip to Rock Island since 2013.
