The Grundy Center senior nearly blocked one Aplington-Parkersburg punt in Friday’s game at Spartan Stadium, and he didn’t miss a second chance.

Laube’s punt block set the Class 1A No. 1 Spartans up with a short field to pour it on the 10th-ranked Falcons, with the hosts scoring all their points in the first half of a 31-7 rout at Grundy Center.

“I knew coming in I had a chance to block some punts,” Laube said. “The second time, I got it done, so that was awesome.”

Already leading 17-0, Grundy Center took over after the special teams play and scored on a Brody Zinkula seven-yard run for a 24-point lead with five minutes left in the second quarter. Justin Knaack’s rushing touchdown with under a minute to play before halftime put the Spartans up 31-0 at the halftime horn.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Grundy Center’s Tanner Laube sprints unimpeded to the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown reception at the start of the second quarter on Friday against Aplington-Parkersburg.

Laube scored the first touchdown of the game on a catch-and-run from a Colin Gordon pass, with Laube shedding a tackler and then sprinting to the front corner of the endzone for a 15-yard touchdown play.

“That’s all the credit to the guys around me and the coaches,” Laube said. “They put together a good plan over the week and we came out and executed. That all comes back to Colin and the offensive line keeping their defense off him. It was great.”

Grundy Center head coach Travis Zajac said it could be easy to overlook the undersized Laube, who started to come on strong near the end of last season’s state-title-winning campaign.

“It’s disruptive how strong he is,” Zajac said. “He’s a smart kid, very athletic, and can make plays in all three phases.”

Gordon completed 6-of-12 passes for 92 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception on his only throw of the second half, adding a 24-yard field goal in the first quarter. Tiernan Vokes had the other Spartan touchdown reception.

Grundy Center was coming off a 7-6 squeaker at Dike-New Hartford the previous Friday.

“The message all week from my end was just to be better,” Zajac said. “They play so stinking hard for their teammates and their classmates in our school, and it’s just a matter of taking that effort and focusing on technique and alignment. The kids have been dialed in all week though and the results showed tonight.

“We established the line of scrimmage a little better than last week. We knew A-P was going to be a handful, but we prepared our kids for it and we definitely won the line of scrimmage on the offensive side of the ball.”

Aplington-Parkersburg methodically moved the ball in the Wing-T in the second half and was aided by Grundy defensive penalties to keep Grundy’s offense off the field.

Gavin Thomas finally broke through for the Falcons with a one-yard dive with five minutes left in the game.

“I made a bad call on that interception, I shouldn’t have called the play,” Zajac said. “We were running the ball well and I got greedy taking a shot. And then it felt like they had the ball forever, and they really did. But we were able to pretty much neutralize them most of the night.”

Short on time, the Falcons opted to not go onside and Grundy ran the ball efficiently enough with Judd Jirovsky and Aiden Betts on the second unit to take care of the rest of the clock.

The non-district schedule wraps up next Friday at home in an intriguing matchup with 2022 state quarterfinalist Pella Christian, with both teams 2-0 and the Eagles coming off an upset victory over a ranked PCM squad in overtime on Friday.

“They’re going to be a very physical football team,” Zajac said. “It’s going to be a very different opponent, one we haven’t played before, but we’ll be ready for it. I know our kids are going to be confident, they should be, but we’ll enjoy this one and be humble and be ready to get after it again on Monday.”