Looks can be deceiving at first glance.

Yes, Oskaloosa coasted to an easy 41-14 win over winless Fort Madison Friday night in Class 3A, District 5 action. But the Bloodhounds (0-3 overall, 0-2 district) gave the Indians (2-2, 2-0) all they could handle in the first half.

Fort Madison trailed just 21-14 and had 207 yards of offense in the first half, then Oskaloosa’s defense took over in the final 24 minutes.

The Indians held the Bloodhounds to just 45 yards of offense and four first downs while picking off quarterbacks Drew Hayes and Ross Vance four times, including one returned by Drew Ruggles for a touchdown.

“We just buckled down on defense in the second half,” Oskaloosa coach Darrell Schumacher said. “Defensively, we made a few adjustments and I have to give our defensive coaches some great credit and our players really came to play in the second half.”

It looked like things would be the same as Oskaloosa scored on its first possession of the game after forcing Fort Madison into punting the first time it had the ball.

Getting the ball at their 27, the Indians didn’t throw a single pass, but drove 73 yards in seven plays with the running tandem of Tye Sparks and Austin Blanchard accounting for every yard. Sparks had runs of 13 and 25 yards as he picked up 67 yards on the drive while Blanchard scored on a 2-yard run at the 7:09 mark for the game’s first touchdown. Andrew Reed’s PAT made it 7-0.

The Bloodhounds turned the ball over on their next possession as Oskaloosa’s Wiebe Goodyk picked off a Ross Vance pass at the Oskaloosa 40 and returned it seven yards to the 47.

A 15-yard penalty for pass interference and three running plays got the ball at the Bloodhound 17 when the Indians lost a main cog in their running attack.

Sparks went down with an injury to his right ankle after gaining 12 yards on the play and would not return to the game.

Oskaloosa didn’t miss a beat as Blanchard took over the role as the main ball carrier and added two more touchdowns to keep the Indians ahead.

“Tye went down early and we had to move some guys around,” Schumacher said. “We had practiced that, but we didn’t practice that as much as probably could have. Austin really ran well, Brad Vonk did a nice job there adjusting and we were pretty happy with that. 

“Our special teams did a nice job tonight and it was a total team effort. We knew they would be better than they have been in the past, but our kids came hard in the second half.”

After a holding penalty placed the ball at the Fort Madison 27, Blanchard carried the ball twice for 10 yards and Matt Bowie caught a 12-yard pass from Jon Eveland to set up Blanchard’s second TD of the game, this time on a 5-yard scamper with just under two minutes left in the first quarter. That made it 14-0 and it appeared like another rout was on.

But the Bloodhounds, under new coach Todd McGhghy, was back in the game on their first play from scrimmage after Reed kicked the ball out of bounds on the kickoff.