Trojan sophomore Treyton Franzen (21) carries the ball down the field as Jordan Kriener holds up the Central defense and quarterback Logan Busta looks on in the background. (Photo courtesy of Leah Kruse)
Turkey Valley routed Central Elkader on Friday night.
The Dittmer Sports Complex in Elkader saw a lot of points scored in Week Four of this particular high school football clash. The problem for the host Warriors was that the majority of those touchdowns scored came from the opponent – Mark Scott’s Trojans.
Turkey Valley (2-2, 2-1) encountered little resistance in its third 8-Man, District 3 contest of the fall as it pummeled Central, 58-22.
TV ran for 375 yards and bounced into the end zone eight times. The Trojans led 44-14 at the break and proceeded to limit Central (1-3, 0-2) to just 76 yards on the ground – although all of the Warriors’ points came via their rushing attack.
“This was a good district win for the team. Offensively we moved the ball very well,” said Scott.
Treyton Franzen and Kaden Schmidt – both Trojan sophomores – each plunged into the end zone on rushing scores in the first quarter.
Then TV busted out for four scores in the second quarter – two by Trojan standout J.D. Kruse.
Kruse, a junior, is one of 8-Man’s most dangerous weapons on both sides of the ball as evident by his 82 yards receiving and two interceptions against the Warriors. He also led the Trojans with 11.5 tackles (10 solo) – two of them for loss.
Kruse is listed as the fourth-best receiver in terms of yardage through the air in 8-Man with 399 yards on the season. He has caught 15 passes for a yards-per-catch average of 26.6. He’s scored seven touchdowns in the passing game and leads TV in tackles with 35. His three picks on the year are also tops on the team.
TV junior signal caller Logan Busta scampered for a 37-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter. He also hooked up with Kruse for a 21-yard pass to start the second-quarter scoring for the Trojans.
Busta finished with 68 yards rushing and 70 yards passing.
Another Busta – sophomore Hugo Busta – had a superb game as well. Busta cranked out 109 yards rushing on just nine carries. He scored TV’s last touchdown on a 40-yard rush and also threw a 20-yard scoring strike to Kruse in the second quarter.
Schmidt and Franzen combined to rush for 147 yards and score four touchdowns. Schmidt’s rushing scores came in the first and third quarters. Franzen scored the game’s first touchdown on the ground and found the end zone from eight yards out on a pass from Logan Busta to finish off the first-half fireworks for TV.
Central did throw for 160 yards courtesy of Griffen Hammersland – who is an eighth-grader. Hammersland punched it in the end zone two times on the ground and was 9-19 passing, but as stated before, Kruse picked him off twice.
“Defensively we gave up some yards passing and made a couple of assignment errors, but that is expected when you are a young team,” Scott said.
FIRST QUARTER
TV – Treyton Franzen 1 run (run failed)
TV – Kaden Schmidt 10 run (Hugo Busta pass from Logan Busta)
CE – Griffen Hammersland 2 run (Hammersland run)
SECOND QUARTER
TV – J.D. Kruse 21 pass from L. Busta (Schmidt pass from L. Busta)
CE – Braxton Bormann 6 run (run failed)
TV – L. Busta 37 run (Tucker Reicks pass from L. Busta)
TV – Kruse 20 pass from H. Busta (2 pt. play failed)
TV – Franzen 8 pass from L. Busta (Schmidt run)
THIRD QUARTER
TV – Schmidt 3 run (Reicks pass from L. Busta)
CE – Hammersland 20 run (Hammersland run)
TV – H. Busta 40 run (pass failed)
TURKEY VALLEY STATS
Rushing – Kaden Schmidt 15-99, Treyton Franzen 12-48, Hugo Busta 9-109, Parker Reicks 9-42, Logan Busta 7-68, Caleb Kriener 4-9.
Passing – L. Busta 6-8-70, H. Busta 1-1-20.
Receiving – J.D. Kruse 6-82, Franzen 1-8.
Tackles – Kruse 11.5, Jordan Kriener 5, Hunter Kruse 5, Schmidt 3.5, H. Busta 3, Reicks 3, L. Busta 3, Franzen 2, Alex Hanson 1.5, Mitchell Kriener 1, Eli Holthaus 1, Tucker Reicks 0.5.
Interceptions – J.D. Kruse 2.
Kickoff returns – J.D. Kruse 2-42.
Punt returns – J.D. Kruse 3-43.
Kickoffs – J. Kriener 9-319.
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