Gabrys gallops for almost 300 yards

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HARVARD – By the time the North Boone defense found a way to stop Harvard running back Vince Gabrys on Friday night, the damage already was done.

Gabrys, the area’s leading rusher, was held to 47 yards on 12 carries in the second half, but not before gashing the Viking defense for 249 yards on 20 carries with four touchdowns in the first half to lead Harvard to a 47-26 Big Northern Conference East Division win against North Boone at Dan Horne Field.

“Our linemen did a great job of firing off the ball this week again and made running easy for me,” Gabrys said. “That’s our style of football.”

Gabrys finished the game with 296 yards on 32 carries and five touchdowns.

“He has such good vision on the field,” Harvard coach Tim Haak said. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great backs in the program and he’s one of them.”

When the Vikings defense keyed on Gabrys, fullback Andrew Kick carried the load, finishing with 103 yards on 20 carries. As a team, the Hornets (6-2 overall, 3-1 BNC East) ran for 472 yards and six touchdowns, which fit exactly into Haak’s game plan.

“We wanted to keep the [North Boone] offense off the field and control the ball,” Haak said. “Our offense did a good job of that.”

When the offense wasn’t on the field, the Hornets defense held a potent Vikings (4-4, 1-3 BNC East) offense in check. Harvard’s zone defense allowed short passes to be completed, but didn’t allow big plays.

North Boone scored on its first possession, taking a 7-0 lead after a nine-play, 60-yard drive that ended in a 8-yard touchdown pass from Alex Albrecht to Tyler Nelson. Harvard answered with a seven-play, 68-yard drive finished off by a three-yard Gabrys touchdown run to tie it at 7.

On their next possesion, the Vikings started a drive on their own 30 and put together a seven-play drive that brought them to Harvard’s 34-yard line when Haak called timeout.

Haak told his players to keep their poise and also wanted to slow the game down. It worked. The Hornets forced Albrecht to throw two incompletions, and the Vikings turned the ball over on downs.

North Boone’s offense couldn’t get into a rhythm in their next two possessions of the half, with either incomplete passes or penalties that put the Vikings in a hole.

The Hornets, meanwhile, continued to score, with Gabrys running 30 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-7 with 7:21 left in the second quarter, and then again from 14 yards out to make it 27-7 at halftime.

“We can’t afford to have a dropped ball or a penalty, not against a defense that’s that good,” North Boone coach Aaron Sullivan said. “We’ve got to play perfect on offense if we want to score.”