Hastings College optimistic heading into home opener after Week One rushing success

Hastings College coach Matt Franzen saw plenty of good things in his team’s season-opening 20-7 win over Doane last weekend.

The Broncos (1-0) unleashed a strong running game that produced two 100-yard rushers.

Kaiden Merryman carried 16 times for 109 yards while Dalton Armbruster gained 103 yards on 20 carries. The duo also picked up four first downs on the ground as the Broncos ran the final minutes off the clock.

“We did some really good things. There are a lot of things we can fix to make things better,” Franzen said. “Doane was a decent football team, but in the GPAC we’re going to see a lot of powerhouses. I’m optimistic that we’ve got some pretty good potential.”

Hastings College will try to make strides towards reaching that potential when the Broncos face Midland University at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lloyd Wilson Field.

Franzen was happy to see the Broncos have success on the ground.

“That was very encouraging,” he said. “You know we’ve struggled to run the ball consistently for the past few seasons. That was the focal point going into this season is that we’re going to make some big changes stylistically and the goal was to be able to line up and run the football consistently. For the first game we were able to do that.”

Midland is coached by former Husker assistant Jeff Jamrog who has led the team to nine straight winning seasons. The Warriors made the 587-mile trip to Bismarck, N.D., to take on Division II University of Mary on Saturday. They trailed by three touchdowns but quarterback Brodey Johnson threw two TDs in the fourth quarter to pull his team to within 28-22, but that was as close as they would get.

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Franzen said Midland doesn’t play many freshmen.

“Their team doesn’t change a whole lot every year,” Franzen said. “They graduate seniors and they bring up a new group, but they’re always a veteran team. They’re always athletic. They have good athletes at the receiver positions, they’ll have good athletes in the secondary and they usually have some pretty good size in their offensive and defensive lines.”

For the last few years, the Warriors have relied on former Kenesaw standout Tyson Denkert to carry a load in the running game. Denkert, a 5-10, 200-pound senior, gained 1,209 yards and scored 11 touchdowns last year and was a first-team All-GPAC selection. He had 2,618 yards for his career going into this season.

Denkert also returns kicks for the Warriors. Franzen said when you put together a game plan, you have to account for him every play.

“They run the ball very well,” Franzen said. “(Denkert), I think, is one of the best, if not the best, running back in the conference. So we know who he is and we’re happy that this will be the last time that we play against him.”

Many coaches say teams make the most improvement between the first and second games of the season. Franzen said if a team is going to make improvement, that’s when it’s going to happen.

“You know, there are teams that go into Game 1 and have to have things in a pretty good place,” he said. “I do feel like some of the things that we missed in Game 1 aren’t difficult fixes. I think we have the right people in place if we can be sharper mentally going into Game 2.”