The Atlantic Trojans had their hands full Friday night on the road at back-to-back and defending State Champions the Harlan Cyclones. A rivalry game for the Trojans that has been completely one sided as the Trojans haven’t defeated the Cyclones since the 2002 season. Unfortunately, for the Trojans that streak continued as the Trojans fell in a hard-fought battle 27-6. The Cyclone defense was to overpowering for the Trojans.

The Cyclones got the exact start that they had hoped and planned for. The Cyclones won the coin toss but elected to defer until the second half. The Cyclone defense came out and forced a quick three and out by the Trojans offense. The Cyclone offense responded with a great drive that took about eight minutes off the clock and captured the drive off with a 1-yard touchdown run by Noah Schmitz to get the scoring started for the night and put the Cyclones in the lead for the rest of the night. The second quarter was a defensive battle forcing punt after punt until Harlan got the ball back with 3:50 remaining in the half. After a couple first downs Will Arkfeld found Jozef Rice in the right corner of the endzone for a late touchdown to take a 13-0 lead into the break. The Trojans really limited the Cyclone rushing attack all night long and Head Coach Joe Brummer was impressed with how his defensive front unit played.

The second half had several big explosive plays by the Cyclones offense and was able to push the score wide open. In the second half the Cyclones scored a touchdown on a unbelievable punt returns by senior Brehden Eggers. Eggers fielded the punt and ran sideline to sideline before making his way back to the near sideline and turning on the jets to take the punt 65+ yards all the way to the house and pushed the game to a three-score possession game.  The Cyclones would answer the punt return with another drive capped off by another Eggers touchdown this time coming in the pass game. Coach Brummer said his team gave up to many big plays.

The Trojans would fight all the way to the end. The offense finally got onto the board after a 66-yard touchdown rush by Dante Hedrington. The Trojans would also find a rhythm in the pass game as sophomore Zayden Parker was able to find his man Colton Rasmussen for three consecutive completions. Parker struggled throwing the ball most the night partly due to the bad misty weather and Coach Brummer said the team wishes they could have some of those misses back.

The Trojans fall to 3-5 on the season now and will wrap up regular season play next Friday night as they will take on one of the best teams in the state of Iowa in Nevada at home for the Trojans senior night.