Before each one of his booming kickoffs, Cedar Valley Christian’s Mike Scroggs yells, “Huskies, are you ready?”

He ended up hoarse and with a sore right foot before the night was over Thursday as his teammates proved plenty ready by winning their season opener, 65-6, over Harmony of Farmington on the Huskies' home field at LaSalle Middle School.

It was just Cedar Valley’s second victory ever (to go with 24 losses) as it begins its fifth season of eight-man football. The other was at Harmony 30-20 a year ago.

“This feels great,” said hyped-up senior Colin Heeren, who scored on the kickoff return to open the second half, immediately intercepted a pass and scored again on a 24-yard sweep. (He’d scored the play before, too, but the touchdown was called back for holding.)

"But we’re not gonna stop at just one win," he said. "We’re gonna win at least four this year, I promise, maybe more.”

No longer, he vowed, would the Huskies be doormats who in the past have lost games by 70 points or more.

Indeed, when Heeren returned the kickoff 65 yards it put his team up by 36 points and started the continuous clock for the rest of the game. It’s the first time that’s ever happened for Cedar Valley.

“It’s nice to be on the other side for a change,” said sophomore Kyle Gustsafson, a monster on defense who sat out last year with a broken arm. “For all these years I’ve been watching other teams score like that against our guys.”

This year is different, said coach Ed Betswoth, who has patiently molded a slim roster of mostly inexperienced players into a hard-nosed unit.

“It’s all on these kids,” he said. “They’ve really worked hard at it. They hit the weight room over the winter and worked on conditioning all summer.

“They’ve really gotten serious about it. That’s what‘s needed. And it’s paying off. We’re better everywhere this year.”

Much of the credit, according to Betsworth, goes to strength coach and Baptist minister Darin Ulmer, whose son Kenan was the star quarterback as a senior last year.

“Darin took 10 of our guys down to Des Moines for a powerlifting tournament. They not only won as a team, but one of them won their weight class,” said Betsworth.

Betswoth’s own son, speed demon junior running back Apollo, said all 19 players on this year’s team committed themselves to off-season training.

“We’ve been working hard,” he said. “And it shows."

The game Thursday night did start off on a sour note when Harmony's Clinton McCarty raced 59 yards for a score on the first play from scrimmage. But the Huskies came right back when Betswoth returned the kickoff to the 20 and sophomore quarterback Cole Telecky a play later scampered 18 yards for the tying touchdown.

In his first start, young Telecky scored three times on the ground and threw for a pair of scores with no interceptions.

“I guess I did all right,” he said. "I was surprised. I wasn’t nervous at all. And the blocking was great all night.”

Harmony was held in check after its early score. Meanwhile the Huskies, after a scoreless second quarter, seemingly scored at will. For the first time in their history.

When they went ahead 44-6 to start the clock in motion, Darin Ulmer took a photo of the scoreboard to mark the occasion.

“We were basically overmatched,” said Harmony coach Randy Cochran, whose team is only in its second year after football was dropped for two years for lack of players. “We’ve only got three seniors, and a lot of these kids haven’t played much. And I think we had some first-game jitters.”

Ed Betsworth said the same of his team even after the sweet victory.

“We’re going to have to get better,” he said. “We played too sloppy and we had way too many penalties.”

With 95 yards in penalties on 11 infractions, the Huskies will pay the price come Monday morning.

Strength coach Ulmer says they must do a push-up for each penalty yard.

That’ll teach ‘em.

CEDAR VALLEY CHRISTIAN 65, HARMONY 6

HAR     CVC

First downs                 7          7
Rushes–yards        28-91  34-270
Passing yards          95         106
Comp–att–int       8-25-4    5-7-0
Fumbles–lost          1-1         2-2
Punts–avg          4-20.0    2-33.5
Penalties-yards       1-5       11-95

Harmony                       6  0  0   0 –   6
Cedar Valley Christian 36  0 21  8 – 65

H – Clinton McCarty 59 run (pass failed)
CVC – Cole Telecky 18 run (kick failed)
CVC – Mike Scroggs 44 pass from Telecky (Scroggs pass from Telecky)
CVC – Telecky 6 run (kick failed)
CVC – Apollo Betswoth 6 run (Betsworth run)
CVC – Betswoth 5 run (Betswoth run)
CVC – Colin Heeren 65 kickoff return (Betsworth run)
CVC – Heeren 24 run (Scroggs kick)
CVC – Telecky 37 run (kick failed)
CVC – Kyle Gustafson 36 interception return (Aleck Black Bear pass from Terlecky)

Individual statistics
Rushing

Harmony – Austin McCarty 17-91.  Cedar Valley Christian – Betswoth 15-76.

Passing
Harmony - Austin MCarty 6-24-92-3. Cedar Valley Christian – Telecky 5-7-106-0.

Receiving
Harmony – Clinton McCarty 4-41. Cedar Valley Christian – Mike Scroggs 1-44, Abe Joyce 1-31.