Gladbrook-Reinbeck quarterback Isaac Clark eludes the Janesville rush and throws a pass over defender Logan Lashbrook (87) during last Friday’s football game in Gladbrook. The second-ranked Rebels defeated the Wildcats 38-8 to remain undefeated. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

GLADBROOK — Gladbrook-Reinbeck football got its toughest challenge in weeks last Friday night in Gladbrook.

But not before an efficient first half put a hard-running Janesville team in too deep of a hole, allowing the second-ranked, undefeated Rebels to claim a 38-8 triumph for Homecoming.

G-R (5-0) punted on its first drive of the game and then scored on each of the next four drives to get a 30-6 halftime advantage.

Isaac Clark threw a touchdown pass to Hudson Clark, Isaac Clark added two touchdown runs and Austin Vaverka ran in a first-half score.

“We’re pretty good at splitting the difference of passing and running to keep defenses on their toes,” Vaverka said.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Hudson Clark, left, reaches out to grab a pass from Isaac Clark for a 49-yard touchdown in the first quarter of last Friday’s football game against Janesville in Gladbrook. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

Vaverka added another touchdown after halftime, running eight times for 49 yards total. Isaac Clark had 10 rushes for 76 yards and completed 5-of-12 passes for 82 yards, an interception and a touchdown.

Janesville used a tough offensive front to keep quarterback Dane Appleby moving the chains on frequent rushes up the middle, which helped keep G-R’s offense off the field.

“They really brought it,” Vaverka said. “They went hard every play in the box, they’re a really good team.”

The Rebels struggled in the second half offensively after Vaverka’s second touchdown run, with a punt attempt going wrong and ending in a Janesville safety, a high snap on the Janesville 1-yard line resulting in a lost fumble and a Trevor Forey interception of an Isaac Clark pass on three back-to-back drives.

“We can’t make those mistakes in really tight games,” G-R head coach John Olson said. “It wasn’t our best second half but that’s due to Janesville, they really came at us.”

To G-R’s credit, the defense rarely wavered in response — Appleby scored a 6-yard touchdown run after G-R had already built a 22-0 lead.

“It wasn’t about putting new guys in new spots but making adjustments when they’ve got seven guys in the box and we’ve got five in the box,” Olson said. “It was just, ‘Hey, let’s bring the thunder a little bit more.'”

That early lead included an interception forced by a quarterback hit from Vaverka that fluttered into the grasp of Drew Eilers and led to Vaverka’s first touchdown run of the night.

“I honestly thought he was going to take off,” Vaverka said of putting the hit on, “but he was still going through the motion so I was just trying to make it hard on him. … We knew they didn’t throw the ball much so if they did it meant they were really trying to get something going.”

Janesville was the first team to score points on G-R since Don Bosco in Week 1, but the Wildcats were held well below their 49 points per game average coming into the game.

“I just think our coaches planned the whole week and it worked really well,” Isaac Clark said.

Olson added, “We’re not a team that’s going to win games 38-35 or 60-50, we hang our hat on our defense and they put us in great spots.”

G-R heads to BGM this Friday, Sept. 29.

“Through five weeks, our defense is really solid,” Olson said. “Our offense is probably opportunistic, and our special teams are definitely opportunistic. We’ve got one guy out that we hope to get back next week but if not we’ve got backups ready to play. We’ve got a really solid team here and we’re feeling really good.”