Kaplan Pirates take 28-14 homecoming win against Iowa

KAPLAN — Part of becoming a successful football team is successfully handling the season’s peaks and valleys.
After an 0-2 start, the Kaplan Pirates are climbing closer to their peak.
Behind a stellar running game and a defense that held its footing at all the right times, the Pirates (2-2) claimed a 28-14 homecoming victory Friday night over Iowa High at Ed Douglas Memorial Stadium. The win marks the Pirates’ second straight.
“We’ve been trying to get a little more effort and I think we got it tonight,” Kaplan head coach Stephen Lotief said. “That was a dominating win for us.”
The road to that win started on the Pirates’ first possession, when quarterback Daniel Lotief found the end zone on a 9-yard run. The score capped a 12-play, 61-yard drive that consumed nearly half of the first quarter. The Pirates ran the ball on each of the 12 plays.
In all, the Pirates rushed 55 times for 303 yards.
“The offensive lineman stepped up their play tonight,” Stephen Lotief said. “We won the line of scrimmage.”
The scoring continued for Kaplan moments later when safety K.C. Kass picked off Koby Buquet and returned it 22 yards for a score.
“It was all instinct,” Kass said of the play. “I dropped back and found my man. The quarterback threw it straight to him and I jumped (the route).
“I caught it and looked for the end zone.”
Buquet got one back on Iowa’s ensuing possession when he took the top off the Kaplan defense for a 77-yard touchdown pass to Chaz Key.
“That’s a big-play team,” Lotief said.
Buquet completed 19-of-26 passes for 240 yards. Lotief said he can live with those results.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Lotief said. “We wanted to shut down their running game and make them throw it.”
The Pirates did indeed shut down Iowa’s rushers. Kaplan held its opponent to just eight rushing yards on 19 attempts.
Grant Frick, on the other hand, helped Kaplan’s ground game roll. Frick, who dealt with the effects on an ankle injury early in the season, put Kaplan up 20-6 on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter. A 40-yard dash by Frick in the third quarter helped set up a 3-yard score by Julius Johnson.
Daniel Lotief found Frick on a 2-point completion to put the Pirates up 28-14 with 5:24 left in the third quarter.
Frick carried 18 times for 135 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s a weapon,” Stephen Lotief said of Frick.
Frick said he is just happy to contribute to the win.
“It feels awesome,” he said. “The offensive line dominated. The defense only allowed one big play. We just played well all around.”
The Pirates closed the game at a high level, stopping Iowa on fourth down at the Kaplan 2-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Darren Istre broke up a pass on the play, making it the second time the Pirates stopped Iowa just shy of the end zone. The Pirates stuffed Iowa at half-yard line on fourth down midway through the second quarter.
Lotief said his team did a good job controlling the final quarter.
“We kept them out of the end zone early, and we were able to keep the ball away from them,” Lotief said.
The Pirates took over on their own 2-yard line with 11:17 remaining in the game, leading by two scores. Iowa did not see the ball again until 3:16 left on the clock.
“Our best defense is our offense,” Lotief said of keeping Iowa’s playmakers off the field for more than eight minutes of the fourth quarter. “We did that well tonight.”
Justin Stoute, Frick and Johnson took turns evaporating the clock during the last quarter. Stoute finished with 70 yards on 11 carries. Johnson rushed 17 times for 65 yards and a score. Istre chipped in 17 yards on four tries.
“It was definitely a team effort,” Lotief said of the win.
One that is propelling the Pirates closer to where they want to be. Still, they know there is plenty of work to be done.
“We’ve got a lot ahead of us,” Kass said. “It definitely feels good tonight.”
The Pirates will play host to St. Martinville next Friday.
“I want our kids to enjoy this win,” Lotief said. “Then we are going to start over and try to stay the course. We took a big step tonight. I think tonight we put it together. We stayed on those blocks a little bit longer. We made better cuts and had better ball security. The defense did what it had to do. Special teams did what it had to do. Everybody did what they had to do.
“We stepped up big tonight against a good football team and now we are going to try to keep it rolling.”