Panthers open against Clarinda

The 2025 Creston football season kicks off Friday at Panther Field against Clarinda, one of Southwest Iowa’s top Class 2A teams.

The Cardinals are coming off a 6-3 playoff season that included a runner-up finish in 2A District 7 at 4-1. Although 1,000-yard rusher Dominick Polsley graduated, many of the top players from that Cardinal squad return this fall.

“They return a ton — nine starters on offense and nine on defense,” Creston coach Brian Morrison said, beginning his 16th season as head coach and 24th year in the program. “They’ve had a good run of kids the last 10 to 12 years. They want to establish the run, but I expect them to pass a little more this year. They return their quarterback and four of their receivers. They’re good up front.”

Morrison said last Friday’s scrimmage against a physical Carlisle team was good preparation for the season opener this week. In many respects it’s a new-look Panther team, with the loss of all-state running back Weston Trapp (1,693 yards rushing and 18 TDs and a district-leading 2,025 combined yards rushing and receiving) as the main cog in the offense.

On defense, only two players return in their positions from last season — safeties Davin Wallace and Lane Travis — while all-district nose tackle Tom Mikkelsen has shifted to inside linebacker. It’s a completely new defensive line, and newcomers man the cornerback spots.

“We’re kind of a young team in some areas, but the guys had a good summer and a good camp,” Morrison said. “We may not have a lot of individual standouts like some years, but we should be a balanced football team.”

A year ago, after graduating 25 seniors from the 2023 state semifinal team, the Panthers started non-district play at 0-4. That stretch proved too much to overcome in earning an at-large playoff berth after rallying in the second half of the season to finish 4-1 in a three-way tie for first place in the district. Nevada (8-3) and Harlan (6-4) got the playoff bids.

This year, three of the six members of Class 3A District 6 were in the state playoffs last year, but they went 0-3 in the postseason (Carroll, Greene County and Harlan). Harlan is the only team ranked in the top 10 in the preseason this fall. The other teams are Atlantic and Perry.

Returning QB

Harlan’s Gabe Arkfeld and Creston junior Tanner Ray are the only returning quarterbacks in the district. Ray was second team all-district last year after completing 60% of his passes for 1,134 yards and 14 touchdowns with nine interceptions. He also ran for 225 yards and that could be a more productive part of his game this fall.

“Tanner makes good decisions and he’s very athletic running the football,” Morrison said. “We will have to have some success with him running the football this year to be successful, and he’s shown that ability in practice.”

One strength of the team is its returning experience in the offensive line. Center Chasse Downing, guard Gunner Martwick and tackle Garrick Clausen were starters in 2024. Martwick is beginning his third season in the Panther offensive line. Newcomers are guard Michael Wofford and tackle Layne Sand. With Downing slowed at times by a foot injury, Tysen Gillespie has also had some reps at center.

Receivers Xander Drake, Casen Dryden and Josh Schaefer all graduated from last year’s offense, so Ray will have several new targets. Rhett Driskell and Jameson McDonald are working at tight end, and state track sprinter Seth Gordon is back at wide receiver along with Jace Purdum. Promising freshmen Gabe Kaufman (receiver/running back) and Riggins Hanson (tight end) could see some varsity time, Morrison noted. Baret Lane and CT Stalker are other receivers getting varsity reps.

Kaufman is also a backup to the new featured running back, senior Jackson Pettegrew, who played outside linebacker on defense last season.

“We just looked at different options we had at defensive positions,” Morrison said. “We felt he could move over to offense and fill that [running back] position. It worked well this summer. He’s fast and he runs hard. He fits the mold. Seth Gordon is also capable of moving from receiver to running back.”

New defense

“It’s pretty much a brand new defense, especially with us moving Tom to linebacker, which gives us an entirely new defensive front,” Morrison said. “It’s not easy moving from the D line to linebacker, in terms of new responsibilities like covering passes, blitzes and reading your keys. But Tom got better as the summer went along. He looked good in the Carlisle scrimmage.”

Blake Hayes and Ethan Holliday figure to be the defensive ends, with Jose Avila stepping into Mikkelsen’s former role at nose tackle. Senior Kal Barber is the other inside linebacker with some experience from last year, and the new outside linebackers are Brodrick Phelps and Coltyr Frey. The new cornerbacks are Casen Scarberry and Joaquin Flores, who also handles the kicking and punting duties.

Linebacker Colby Brammer and defensive back David Sandoval are other varsity candidates on defense.

Morrison said the Carlisle scrimmage exposed some factors to fine-tune this week.

“Carlisle is a physical football team, so they let you see where you’re at,” Morrison said. “Offensively we had way too many penalties and played behind the sticks too much. We have to win special teams and get some confidence with some first downs this week, because you don’t want to give Clarinda a short field. They can score in a hurry if we’re not fundamentally sound on defense. You want to make them go the length of the field.

“Defensively, Carlisle runs a veer offense that’s a tough prep in two or three days, but overall I thought we adjusted to the tempo of the game and the physicality after the first series,” Morrison added.

Junior varsity change

A change this season is no Friday night freshman games. With the state’s limit of 14 games per player per season, Morrison said most teams are not trying to have both Friday freshman games and Monday JV games, because too many players cross over to both and run out of games too early.

Now, all freshmen and JV players will play in Monday night games at the opposite site of the varsity contest.

“We didn’t want to get to week five and cancel the JV season because too many guys reached their limit,” Morrison said. “Those freshmen will be supplementing the JV. We’ll have 40 total kids on JV, with everybody cycling through and getting a ton of reps. They’ll play a full eight-game schedule on Monday nights.

Varsity kickoff Friday is 7 p.m.

Former Panthers playing college football are Ty Morrison at Morningside, Avery Fuller at Benedictine College, Derek Paup at Dordt University, Kayleb Howard at Simpson College, Brennan Hayes, Quinten Fuller and Max Chapman (transfer from South Dakota State) at Wayne State University; Cael Turner at Northwest Missouri State, Brayden Schoon at Iowa Western Community College, Weston Trapp at Graceland University and Eli Schaffer at Buena Vista University.

One of last year’s collegians, Briley Hayes, graduated from Simpson College and is now on the Panther coaching staff while working in Creston.

Creston (0-0, 0-0)

OFFENSE

T Garrick Clausen 5-10 225 Sr.

G Michael Wofford 6-0 200 Jr.

C Chasse Downing 6-4 270 Sr.

G Gunner Martwick 6-1 250 Sr.

T Layne Sand 6-5 235 Jr.

WR Jace Purdum 6-1 170 Jr.

WR Seth Gordon 5-8 160 Sr.

TE Jameson McDonald 6-1 185 Sr.

TE Rhett Driskell 6-3 190 Jr.

QB Tanner Ray 6-0 155 Jr.

RB Jackson Pettegrew 5-10 180 Sr.

K Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.

DEFENSE

DT Jose Avila 5-8 185 So.

DE Ethan Holliday 6-2 200 Sr.

DE Blake Hayes 6-2 205 Jr.

OLB Coltyr Frey 5-9 160 Jr.

ILB Tom Mikkelsen 6-1 210 Jr.

ILB Kal Barber 5-8 160 Sr.

OLB Brodrick Phelps 5-11 160 Sr.

CB Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.

CB Casen Scarberry 5-10 160 Jr.

S Lane Travis 5-8 160 Sr.

S Davin Wallace 5-8 170 Jr.

P Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.