Regina Finishes Eighth at Loaded Monticello Invite

Regina sophomore Molly Blondin

Your Prep Sports 

Regina placed eighth in a loaded field at the 32nd Monticello cross country invitational on Saturday at Monticello high school.

Class 2A No. 15 Regina was eighth in the 14-team field that featured four teams ranked in the top six in Class 2A.

Top-ranked Monticello won the team title with 62 points followed by Springville with 110 and second-ranked South Winneshiek with 117.

Class 2A No. 6 Cascade finished fourth with 119 while fourth-ranked Mid-Prairie placed fifth with 126 points.

Led by Molly Blondin who placed 25th in a time of 23:02, Regina finished with 185 points.

Molly Vittetoe was 37th in 23:51 for Regina while Natalie Shank was 38th (in 23;56 and Nourah Abusaba was 39th in 24:01.

Mid-Prairie had the top two individual finishers as Anna Hostetler won the title in 19:03 and Marie Hostetler was second in 19:08.

Monticello Cross Country Invitational
Girls Results
Team scores – 1. Monticello 62; 2. Springville 110; 3. South Winneshiek 117; 4. Cascade 119; 5. Mid-Prairie 126; 6. Center Point-Urbana 152; 7. Anamosa 179; 8. Regina 185; 9. Tipton 219; 10. Wilton 234; 11. Clayton Ridge 279; 12. Durant 305; 13. Dyersville Beckman 322; 14. Western Dubuque 334.

Individual Results – 1. Anna Hostetler (MP) 19:03; 2. Marie Hostetler (MP) 19:08; 3. Paige Holub (MON) 20:29; 4. Adrianna Katcher (CPU) 20:40; 5. Felicity Taylor (SW) 20:47; 6. Josie Kriener (SW) 20:50; 7. Jordyn Patterson (MON) 21:13; 8. Emily Staal (SPR) 21:16; 9. Madeline Rhomberg (CAS) 21:25; 10. Kaylee Ford (WIL) 21:34.

Regina (185) – 25. Molly Blondin 23:02; 37. Molly Vittetoe 23:51; 38. Natalie Shank 23:56; 39. Nourah Abusada 24:01; 46. Elizabeth Klesner 24:14.

Green, Meyer lead Regina at Monticello

Regina junior Nathan Meyer

Your Prep Sports

Nate Green and Nathan Meyer both posted top-10 finishes to lead Regina to a sixth place team finish at the 32nd Monticello Cross Country Invitational on Saturday at Monticello High School.

Green finished eighth in 18:20 and Meyer was ninth in 18:22 as the Regals placed sixth at the 14-team meet with 171 points.

Class 4A Western Dubuque won the team title with 44 points while 2A No. 3 Mid-Prairie was second with 55 points.

Class 2A No. 11 South Winneshiek was third with 129 points followed by No. 12 Tipton with 146 and Anamosa with 160.

Regina finished three points in front of No. 13 Monticello.

Western Dubuque’s Nathan Betts won the individual title in 17:52.

Monticello Cross Country Invitational
Boys Results
Team scores – 1. Western Dubuque 44; 2. Mid-Prairie 55; 3. South Winneshiek 129; 4. Tipton 146; 5. Anamosa 160; 6. Regina 171; 7. Monticello 174; 8. Cascade 208; 9. Maquoketa Valley 211; 10. Center Point-Urbana 220; 11. Durant 265; 12. Wilton 276; 13. Springville 296; 14. Dyersville Beckman 406.

Individual results – 1. Nathan Betts (WD) 17:52; 2. Joe Freiburger (WD) 17:55; 3. Peyton Miller (MP) 18:07; 4. Tyler Hospodarsky (MON) 18:08; 5. Kale Cartee (WD) 18:09; 6. Floyd Evans (MP) 18:15; 7. Marty Knepper (CAS) 18:19; 8. Nate Green (ICR) 18:20; 9. Nathan Meyer (ICR) 18:22; 10. Zach Pettit (MP) 18:23.

Regina (171) – 8. Nate Green 18:20; 9. Nathan Meyer 18:22; 36. Oliver Emery 19:44; 54. Zach Kratz 20:35; 64. Nicholas Yowell 21:09.

Regina Rolls in District Opener

Your Prep Sports

 Regina is on a roll.

The Regals have outscored their opponents 82-6 in their last two contests after a 48-6 win at Wapello (2-1) on Friday night.

Regina defeated rival Solon last Friday 34-0 in a game that was expected to be much closer.
“Those first two games really helped us get to this point, being really fine-tuned with what we’re trying to accomplish,” Regina head coach Marv Cook said.

Class 1A top-ranked Regina (2-1) raced to a 42-0 halftime lead and cruised in the District 4 opener for both teams on Friday.

Regina quarterback Michael Conlon led the charge for the Regals racking up 214 all-purpose yards and three total touchdowns.

Conlon ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, connecting with Jack Jensen on an 11-yard scoring strike.

“The coaches are seeing what they’re seeing and calling based on what they’re seeing,” Conlon said. “The offensive line has played amazing, the holes are there and we just do our best to hit them and thankfully they’ve opened them up perfectly.

“I think my tempo can be a little better. I think I can work on that.”

Wapello’s only score came on a 68-yard punt return late in the fourth quarter as Regina used a stingy defense to secure another victory on a rain-soaked night.

“It was a perfect night to start then we had a pretty big weather cell come in,” Cook said. “It rained pretty hard in the second quarter but that blew out and it turned out to be a pretty beautiful night so weather didn’t really impact the game that much.

“I thought our kids played well. It was a good road trip for us, 50-minute bus ride. A lot of young guys got in the game for us.

“I thought Wapello did a good job. I thought they were well-coached. I thought they were a good team they just don’t have the depth that a lot of these programs we’re playing have.”

                         Regina           Wapello
First Downs           16                  7
Rushes-Yards         34-235          25-47
Passing Yards         194               70
Comp-Att-Int          12-18-1        5-16-0
Fumbles-Lost          1-1               1-1
Penalties-Yards       3-30              5-45

Regina    28 14  0  6   –  48
Wapello    0  0   0  6   –   6

ICR – Mason Simpson 5 run (Sam Stein kick)
ICR – Michael Conlon 11 run (Stein kick)
ICR – Daniel Sullivan 27 fumble recovery (Stein kick)
ICR – Jack Jensen 11 pass from Michael Conlon (Stein kick)
ICR – Michael Conlon 5 run (Stein kick)
ICR – Nick Phillips 5 run (Stein kick)
ICR – Ryan Schott 2 run (Kick no good)
WAP – 68 punt return

Rushing – ICR: Michael Conlon 8-68, Jake Phillips 12-86, Tyler Brown 7-41, Ryan Schott 4-17.

Passing – ICR: Michael Conlon 10-13-1 146.

Receiving – ICR: Ryan Schott 1-40, Jack Jensen 3-42, Trae Rogers 1-5, Christian Iben 2-15, Noah Felderman 3-37, Patrick Clark 1-8.

Ames Slips Past City High in Overtime

Nate Wieland breaks a tackle against Linn-Mar on Aug. 26. Tork Mason/For Your Prep Sports.

Pat Harty
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The Battle for the Little Cy-Hawk Trophy turned into a highly competitive battle of dual-threat quarterbacks.
But it was turnovers that ultimately decided the outcome between City High and Ames on Friday.

The Little Hawks fumbled deep in Ames territory in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and again on the first play in overtime, helping Ames escape from Bates Field with a 30-27 victory.

“We’ll go back to work and if we take care of the football we’re probably feeling a lot better about ourselves,” said City coach Dan Sabers. “And those are things that we can fix. But we’ve got to grow. There is no question about it. We’ve got to grow.”

City had the first possession in overtime, beginning at the 10-yard line. However, senior quarterback Nate Wieland fumbled on the first play from scrimmage while attempting to make a hand off.

Ames recovered the fumble and then tried three times to score a touchdown, but with no success. Adam Rademacher then secured the victory by making a 20-yard field goal.

“Everything felt good,” Wieland said of the play in which his team fumbled in overtime. “I don’t even know what happened. We’ll see it on film.”

Sabers also wasn’t sure what happened on the game-deciding fumble, which came shortly after City receiver Vance Dillon had lost a fumble after catching a pass deep in Ames territory late in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t know if they didn’t get the snap properly or what,” Sabers said of the fumble in overtime. “I can’t tell you that right now.”

In addition to committing costly turnovers, City also hurt itself by being penalized eight times. One of the penalties for an illegal player down field erased a long pass completion from Wieland to Dillon in the third quarter.

“We obviously have a lot to learn from this game,” said Wieland, who rushed for 157 yards and scored three touchdowns. “We had way too many penalties tonight and that cost us too many points. We can’t let that happen next week or ever again. That’s what cost us this game.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the 2-1 Little Hawks as they will face rival West High next Friday at West in the much-anticipated Battle for the Boot.

“There is the big one next week with West,” Wieland said. “That is going to be a showdown. We know we have to prepare and just learn from this loss.”

Wieland finished with 276 total yards, while Ames quarterback Joe Evans had a similar performance, finishing with 259 total yards. Evans passed for 180 yards, including 161 yards in the first half, which ended with Ames clinging to a 17-14 lead.

“Their young man is a tremendous player,” Ames coach Bruce Vertanen said of Wieland, who has committed to play football for Northern Illinois. “And I think Joe and him are very similar. They’re bruisers.

“So the game was on the backs of the quarterbacks and Joe led us down the field. So I can’t be more pleased with that. But yeah, the quarterback play was excellent.”

Both teams also got solid contributions from a running back as City High senior Bryce Frantz pounded his way for 118 yards on 15 carries, while Ames sophomore Ray Crawford had 119 rushing yards on 26 carries.

Ames plays at a fast pace on offense, rarely taking time to even huddle. City struggled with the pace on Ames’ opening drive of the game, but improved as the game progressed.

“I don’t think their tempo was a problem,” Sabers said. “I think they just blocked us up front and their backs ran hard. Their quarterback ran hard. They always got forward yardage and that just makes it tough if you’re sitting third-and-two or fourth and six inches and things like that.”

Ames was leading 10-0 when Wieland broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown run with 9 minutes 52 seconds left in the second quarter.

Frantz then scored on a 3-yard run with 7:53 left in the second quarter. Miles Morrow converted the point-after kick to give City a 14-10 lead.

Junior defensive back Zach Jones helped set up Frantz’s touchdown by returning an interception to the Ames 12-yard line with 8:30 left in the second quarter.

Evans then threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Doyle with 33.6 seconds left in the second quarter, giving Ames a 17-14 lead at halftime.

The Little Cyclones expanded their lead to 24-14 on a 3-yard touchdown run by Crawford with 49.2 seconds left the third quarter.

City trimmed the lead to 24-20 on a 1-yard run by Wieland with 8 minutes left to play. However, the point-after kick failed, keeping the deficit at four points.

Wieland scored his third touchdown of the game on a 37-yard run with 5:18 remaining. Morrow made the point-after kick, expanding City’s lead to 27-24.

Ames then drove deep into City territory and forced overtime when Rademacher made a 28-yard field goal with 1:22 remaining.

“We felt good with the run game, there is no doubt about that,” Wieland said. “And then the passing game started to come. And there is no doubt when we get both of those going, we can be a really good offense.”

Sabers praised his senior quarterback in defeat.

“I thought Nate did a lot of great things,” Sabers said. “I thought Nate showed why he’s one of the best players in the state tonight. There is no question.”

Friday’s game was played as part of Military Appreciation Night. The pre-game festivities included the Avenue of the Flags in which over 200 flags were displayed on the field before kickoff.

There also was an honorary coin toss before the game featuring 92-year old World War II veteran George Dane and Iowa City native William Zaiser, who currently serves as Command Sergeant Major for the United States Southern Command.

The start of the game was delayed one hour by lightning as the kickoff came at approximately 8:10 p.m.

Ames          3  14  7   3  3 –  30
City High   0  14  0  13  0 –  27

A – Adam Rademacher 30 FG
A – Joe Evans 1 run (Rademacher kick)
ICC – Nate Wieland 51 run (Miles Morrow kick)
ICH – Bryce Frantz 3 run (Morrow kick)
A – Tyler Doyle 9 pass from Evans (Rademacher kick)
A - Ray Crawford 3 run (Rademacher kick)
ICH – Wieland 1 run (kick failed)
ICH – Wieland 37 run (Morrow kick)
A – Rademacher 28 FG
A – Rademacher 20 FG

                               Ames                City High
First downs               19                        18
Rushes-yards            58-236                 33-290
Com-Att-Int              10-16-0               16-26-1
Passing yards            119                      209
Punts-average            2-30                    3-36.3
Fumbles-lost              2-0                      3-2
Penalties-yards          5-50                     8-40

Individual statistics
Rushing – Ames: Ray Crawford 26-119, Joe Evans 25-79, Martrell Davis 7-38. City: Nate Wieland 17-157, Bryce Frantz 15-118, Brock Hunger 1-15.

Passing – Ames: Joe Evans 15-25-1-180, Ray Crawford 1-1-0-29. City: Wieland 10-16-0-119.

Receiving – Ames: Will Krapfl 6-59, Ethan Hahn 359, Tyler Doyle 3-43, Ray Crawford 2-20. City: Vance Dillon 5-43, Zach Jones 3-44, Naeem Smith 2-22.

Defense Leads West High Past Cedar Falls

West High senior Nick Kean

Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Just as they did in the first two games of the season Evan Flitz, Oliver Martin and the West High offense tried to steal the show late on Friday night.

This time the West High defense wasn’t about to give up center stage.

Class 4A sixth-ranked West High held No. 10 Cedar Falls (2-1) scoreless for better than 43 minutes and limited the Tigers to 176 total yards in a 17-10 win at a rain-soaked Trojan Field.

Flitz threw for 240 yards, including a 73-yard scoring strike to Martin, but this day belonged to the West High defense.

The Trojans held Cedar Falls scoreless until the final five minutes while improving to 3-0 with a second straight win over a ranked opponent.

“Our defense might be overshadowed by our offense a little but that’s fine,” West High senior linebacker Max Brown said. “We have so many big names on the offense and so many playmakers and we are a group of misfits on the defense but we just play. We just show up and play.”

The Trojans certainly showed up to play on defense Friday.

West High limited a Cedar Falls offense that entered the game averaging better than 221 yards per game on the ground to just 125 yards rushing on 34 carries and eight first downs.

The Trojans didn’t allow a point until a Luke Loecher 30-yard field goal with 4:46 left.

By that point Martin and Flitz had already staked the Trojans to a 10-0 lead.

“Cedar Falls is a very good team and our offense has been doing some really good things but our defense has been getting better and better,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “By week three you hope to start hitting your stride with districts around the corner and we were able to do that. I was happy for the boys, our defense played like they needed to and they did a great job.”

Both defenses shined in a scoreless first half as the teams combined for 103 total yards and six first downs.

West High struck first in the second half.

The Trojans put together a 12-play drive to open the second half but came up empty when Lucas Karwal missed a 32-yard field goal.

The West High defense forced a Cedar Falls punt on the ensuing Tiger possession and the Trojan offense went back to work.

West High marched to the Cedar Falls 19 yard line as Flitz connected with Breyton McDole for 12 yards and Traevis Buchanan for 34 yards on the drive.

Karwal capped the march with a 36-yard field goal to give West High a 3-0 lead with 68 seconds left in the third quarter.

“We knew when we got the field goal we could stop them,” West High senior defensive back Nick Kean said. “We felt like that would be enough if it had to be.”

West High quickly got the ball back, forcing a 3-and-out thanks in part to a Dillon Shephard sack.

When the Trojans got the ball back they struck quickly.

On the first play following a Cedar Falls punt Flitz hit Martin on a post patter for a 73-yard touchdown that gave West High a 10-0 lead with 11:01 left in the game.

“We have to pick when we take our shots and we felt like the way they were lining up we had a shot with Oliver,” Flitz said. “He’s a great receiver, a great athlete, I gave him a ball that only he could get and he went and made a play.”

Cedar Falls got a field goal to cut the lead to 10-3 with 4:46 left.

West High answered with a game-clinching, 9-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 46-yard scoring strike from Flitz to senior tight end Jacquese Parks.

On a third-and-3 play Flitz found Parks open in the middle of the field for a first down and the 6-foot-4, 245-pound senior outraced the Tiger secondary to the end zone.

“The credit goes to Cedar Falls,” Hartwig said. “Their defense stymied us on offense here and there but when we needed a play we made it."

Flitz finished 16-of-22 for 240 yards, the third consecutive game with more than 200 yards passing.

The junior quarterback credited his defense for his success.

“They were outstanding, a good defense takes a lot of pressure off of me,” Flitz said. “When you know you have a defense behind you that can keep you in games when you are struggling, it’s big.”

Martin finished with five receptions for 104 yards while junior running back Andre White ran for 68 yards in place of injured starter Matthew Huff.

“On our team it’s next man in and we have two great running backs and they were ready to do their job which is to run hard, put your shoulder down and get yards,” Flitz said. “That’s what they did tonight.”

Cedar Falls tacked on a late touchdown with three seconds left, picking up 61 of its 176 total yards on the final drive.

“Everyone did just their job,” Brown said of the West High defense. “We kept on chopping wood and getting three-and-outs. We bend sometimes but we never break, we just played our hearts out.”

West High              0   0   3  14  –  17
Cedar Falls            0   0   0  10  –  10

                                West High               Cedar Falls
First Downs                     15                           8
Rushes-Yards                   36-93                     34-125
Passing Yards                   240                        51
Total Yards                       333                        176
Comp-Att-Int                   16-22-1                  7-20-0
Fumbles-Lost                   0-0                          0-0
Penalties-Yards                8-65                         3-30

ICW – Lucas Karwal 36 field goal
ICW – Oliver Martin 73 pass from Evan Flitz (Karwal kick)
CF – Luke Loecher 30 field goal
ICW – Jacquese Parks 46 pass from Flitz (Karwal kick)
CF – Hayden Clausen 2 run (Loecher kick)

Rushing – ICW: Andre White 19-68, Evan Flitz 12-6, Oliver Martin 2-13, Austin Geaslan 1-4, Breyton McDole 1-3, Austin West 1-(-1). CF: Hayden Clausen 19-76, Luke Gillett 9-47, Khari Jackson 4-3, Sam Gary 1-0, Gabriel Penrith 1-(-1).

Passing – ICW: Evan Flitz 16-22-1 240. CF: Luke Gillett 7-20-0 51.

Receiving – ICW: Oliver Martin 5-104, Jacquese Parks 2-66, Devontae Lane 3-4, Parris Taylor 2-12, Austin West 1-4, Evan Hermiston 1-4, Breyton McDole 1-12, Traevis Buchanan 1-34. CF: Gabriel Penrith 2-27, Daniel Martinson 1-10, Ryan Albaugh 1-9, Luke Loecher 1-3, Sam Gary 1-2.

Bears Bounce Back with Big Win

Your Prep Sports 

The West Branch football team rebounded from its first regular season loss in three years in typical West Branch fashion.

They ran the ball, and they ran the ball some more. And they ran the ball well in a 35-14 victory over Jesup (1-2) in the Class 1A, District 10 opener for both teams.

Senior running back Luke Lenoch ran for 229 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries as No. 10 West Branch bounced back from a loss to 3A West Burlington/Notre Dame last week that snapped a 20-game regular season winning streak.

As a team, West Branch (2-1) racked up 268 yards on the ground on 54 attempts and improved their special teams play that struggled last week.

“We ran the ball extremely well,” West Branch head coach Butch Pedersen said. “We were extremely efficient in what we did. I thought our special teams were really key tonight, I thought we played extremely well on special teams where a week ago I thought we played really poorly.

“We spent a lot of time in practice this week on special teams and I think that paid off a lot. We had good field position a lot of the time tonight and I think that’s because we spent the extra time.”

West Branch jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the third quarter before allowing Jesup to add a pair of four-quarter touchdowns.

“I don’t think we finished as well as we could have with this game,” Pedersen said. “Overall I thought we improved a lot, I thought the kids came to play tonight. They did a lot of things fundamentally sound. They played as a group, they played as a family and that’s what we try to stress here is we run a family atmosphere. They played extremely hard and extremely well tonight.”

West Branch was playing without its starting quarterback Beau Cornwell, who suffered a broken collarbone last week against West Burlington/Notre Dame and appears to be out for the season.

Senior Brandon Rummelhart made his first career start in place of Cornwell and completed 10-of-17 passes for 171 yards and a 34-yard touchdown strike to Cooper Kabela.

Cornwell also served as The Bears’ kicker and has since been replaced by Javier Zamudio, who went 5-for-5 on point after attempts Friday night.

                                        West Branch            Jesup
First Downs                               22                    15
Rushes-Yards                             54-269             23-127
Passing Yards                             171                 196
Comp-Att-Int                             10-17-2           14-31-3
Fumbles-Lost                             1-1                   1-1
Penalties-Yards                           3-25                5-28

West Branch 7  7   14  7  –  35
Jesup             0  0    0  14 –  14

WB – Luke Lenoch 8 run (Javier Zamudio kick)
WB – Cooper Kabela 34 pass from Brandon Rummelhart (Zamudio kick)
WB – Luke Lenoch 8 run (Zamudio kick)
WB – Luke Lenoch 37 run (Zamudio kick)
JES – C. Wyant 32 pass from A. Schmidt
WB – Lenoch 4 run (Zamudio kick)
JES – 4 run

Rushing – WB: Luke Lenoch 39-226-4, Cale Donovan 12-34, Brandon Rummelhart 2-11, Jesup: B. VanBrocklin 8-56, A. Schmidt 9-33
Passing – WB: Brandon Rummelhart 10-17 171. Jesup: A. Schmidt 14-31-1
Receiving – WB: Cooper Kabela 5-75, Luke Lenoch 3-73, Cale Donovan 1-18, Tanner Lukavsky 1-5. Jesup: C. Wyant 6-121-1, B. VanBrocklin 2-13

Clippers Rally Past Wahlert to Remain Unbeaten

Clear Creek Amana senior Jared Eckrich

By Susan Harman
Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Defense, special teams and field position are the least sexy parts of winning football, but Clear Creek Amana proved their worth on Friday. In spades.

The Clippers rallied for a 24-14 victory over Dubuque Wahlert at Clipper Field to begin 3A district play and improved their record to 3-0. The Golden Eagles are 1-2, 0-1.

“I’m really proud of the guys,” Clippers co-coach Matt Hughes said. “They just kept coming all night. I can’t say enough about coach (Mark) Mitchell and the defensive staff and what they’ve done with our defense. Week in and week out those guys are keeping us in games while offensively we figure out what we want to do.”

Wahlert took the opening kickoff and drove 86 yards in 13 plays, overcoming two penalties en route, for the go-ahead touchdown. Junior running back Kelan Dickson rushed for 47 of those yards. It was not an impressive start for the defense.

“Always the first quarter seems like a chess match,” Hughes said. “Trying to figure out what we can do to exploit different situations. We found some things in the first quarter that we finally started hitting on in the second quarter.”

“The gears just kicked in and we had to get it in the end zone because they punched us in the face first, so we were going to return it,” Clipper senior Jared Eckrich said.

The Clippers adjusted and held Wahlert to two first downs the rest of the first half and forced four punts. Not only that, the defense shuttered the Wahlert offense to such an extent that the offense started second-quarter scoring possessions at the Eagle 33- and 29-yard lines.

“We changed up the stunts and everything on defense,” two-way lineman Max Moore said. “It really made a big difference.”

Clear Creek Amana tied the game early in the second quarter on a 59-yard drive. Eckrich scored on a 44-yard run after cutting outside.

“I thought it was a wrecked play at first,” Eckrich said. “I bounced it to the outside and it was open field.”

He demonstrated his strength by stiff-arming the final would-be tackler at about the 10.

“I just had to hit him,” Eckrich said.

“I think that was a big momentum changer,” Moore said. “All of us thought we could just pound the ball and really stop them on defense.”

The defense took control, holding Wahlert to minus-12 yards on its next possession and forcing a short punt from the 8-yard line. CCA took over at the Wahlert 33. Three plays later junior Cade Gallagher plunged into the line and found daylight 25 yards to the end zone for a 14-7 lead.

Again the defense pushed Wahlert back to its own 5 courtesy of a sack and an intentional grounding call. CCA took over on the Wahlert 29. Eckrich finished the short drive with a 3-yard TD run and it was 21-7.

The Clippers defense had four sacks in the first half.

“We’ve got a great defense, and they play hard with a lot of emotion and intensity,” Hughes said.

Wahlert finally put together another TD drive and cut the lead to 21-14 with 8:35 left in the fourth quarter. Then the Clipper special teams struck.

Junior Matt Brimeyer returned the kickoff from his own 5 to the Wahlert 41.

“It helped the offense out amazingly,” Eckrich said. “It just gives you so much momentum when you’re starting on the 50-yard line instead of the 10-yard line. It’s just so much easier.”

CCA started a drive to put the game out of reach. A key play came when Brimeyer converted a fourth-and-three with a big push over the left side of the line to give the Clippers a first down at the Golden Eagle 30.

Senior kicker Tyreke Williams gave CCA breathing room with a soaring 45-yard field goal with 4:26 left in the game.

Dickson finished with 136 yards on 33 carries. Wahlert outgained CCA and had more first downs. But none of that mattered because the Clippers defense won the field position battle, and their special teams were indeed special.


Dubuque Wahlert      7   0     0    7   –   14
Clear Creek Amana   0   21   0    3   –   24

DW – Noah Sigwarth run (Joseph Friend kick)
CCA – Jared Eckrich 44 run (Tyreke Williams kick)
CCA – Cade Gallagher 25 run (Williams kick)
CCA – Eckrich 3 run (Williams kick)
DW – Kelan Dickson 1 run (Friend kick)
CCA – Williams 45 field goal

                                      Wahlert             CCA
First downs                        14                  8
Rushing-yards                   44-157           38-175
Comp-Att-Int                     7-14-0           2-4-0
Passing yards                     79                  4
Punts-Avg.                         5-28               3-50
Fumbles-lost                      1-0                 2-0
Penalties-yards                   10-82            5-30

Individual Statistics
Rushing – Wahlert: Kelan Dickson 33-136, Noah Sigwarth 8-10, Kolton Bartow 2-7, William Hutchinson 1-4; CCA: Jared Eckrich 13-93, Matt Brimeyer 11-33, Cade Gallagher 3-29, Ashton Carpenter 7-18, Grant Riggan 4-2.
Passing – Wahlert: Noah Sigwarth 7-14-0-79; CCA: Ashton Carpenter 2-4-0-4.
Receiving – Wahlert: Joel Callahan 6-69, Spencer Goerdt 1-10; CCA: Jared Eckrich 1-3, Kobey Schlotman 1-1.