It's hard to know whether any of us were ready - I'm not sure I was - but the 2017 high school football season arrived Friday night regardless. With weather more suited for late September than August (a beautiful cool day, sunny comfortable evening), players all over the state jogged out onto the green grass fields to kick off another season of gridiron competition.
Now that I'm done with the poetic John Facenda-like portion of this post ... Xavier appeared to pick up about where they left off in 2016 by throttling the Class 1A top-ranked Iowa City Regina Regals 23-6. These teams have played the last four years, with each of them being taut, competitive matchups. Last night wasn't quite as back-and-forth as previous games, but certainly was a good test for the Saints to get going and measure themselves as they rebuild an entire offense unit.
The first quarter was both sides mainly testing the other, each offense moving the ball a little but with no real threats developing. Xavier's defense chalked up the first notes, forcing a fumble on Regina's first play and then seeing Jon Ball block a Regal punt on the second possession. That block set up the Saints at the 20 yard line, but a motion penalty prevented a first down and Ben Conrad's 30-yard field goal try missed just right.
In the second quarter Regina's offense started to control the ball a little more. After taking over at their 11, QB Michael Conlon and RB Isaac Vollstedt combined to pick up 4 first downs and drive into Xavier territory. The Saints held at around the 40, though, forcing a punt and taking the ball at their own 9.
Welcome to the backfield, Braden Stovie. On the first play of the series and his first carry of the night (over halfway through the second quarter), Stovie blasted off-tackle, found daylight and a lot of open space, and dashed down the field for a 70-yard run to Regina's 21 yard line. Three plays later, Stovie hammered the ball in from 8 yards out behind a strong offensive line surge, and Xavier led 7-0.
I think the Saints defense took even more inspiration from that lightning-quick drive. Regina's next possession started at the 33, but ended at the 15, thanks to losing yardage on a pass and a big sack of Conlon by Jacob Hines. That forced a poor punt by the Regals, giving Xavier great field position at the Regina 37. Quinn Schulte, the third Schulte brother to step into the Xavier quarterback spot since 2011, showed some good speed and shifty moves running for 32 yards on the second play, and Stovie took it in from the 4. Now it was 14-0 Xavier late in the first half.
Defense wasn't done, although they happily took the mistakes Regina handed them. After the Regals kickoff return was stopped at the 10, the next snap slipped through Conlon's hands and he was lucky to get on the ball just before it crossed the goal line. After an incompletion, another botched snap nearly bounced out the back of the end zone before Conlon corralled the ball - same result, though, as Xavier chalked up a safety to go up 16-0. After the free kick, with about a minute left on the clock, the Saints started at the Regina 41 and were trying to get more, but a sack of Schulte on 2nd down kind of put the kibosh on that plan.
Regina's offense tried to turn the page in the third quarter. After a Xavier three-and-out, the Regals put together another drive (again led by Vollstedt and Conlon, the two big Regina offensive stars of the game) into Saints territory. Another mistake, this time a holding call on a big Conlon run, kept them out of the red zone and forced a turnover on downs.
Xavier again hit with a big play, a 39-yard sprint from Schulte (with a horse-collar penalty tacked on) to get into the red zone. Six running plays followed, with Schulte sneaking into the end zone from a yard out to put the Saints up 23-0 with 4 minutes to go in the quarter.
Regina's next two possessions were their most productive. Vollstedt broke away for a 45-yard dash, then carried the bulk of the load as the Regals drove inside the Xavier 10. On 4th and 1 at the 5, Regina was whistled for another false start penalty, and on the next play, Conlon's pass was tipped and then intercepted by Justin Schneider in the end zone (who made the curious decision to try to run it out, getting only to the 3). After a Saints punt as we move into the fourth quarter, Regina put together another strong drive, mixing Conlon passes and Vollstedt runs (plus a pass interference call on Xavier) to once again move inside the 10 yard line. The Saints defense held firm again; the last four plays of the drive (starting at the 8 yard line) were incompletion, loss of 2, incompletion, sack.
Xavier's offense was only able to run off a couple of three-and-outs after that, sandwiched around a Schulte interception of Conlon's pass, but that did serve to run time off the clock. Regina just did get on the board and break the shutout with 13 seconds left, when Conlon connected with Patrick Clark from 20 yards away (the extra point try was low and bounced off the onrushing line push).
So almost a 23-0 blanking of one of the top teams in Class 3A, but still a convincing 23-6 win for Xavier. The Saints gave up a lot of yardage - Vollstedt had around 150 yards, and Conlon threw 41 passes for almost 150 more - but also forced three turnovers and blocked a punt without making a turnover themselves. You could almost see the offensive line put things together in front of your eyes, as the holes developed better and got bigger after the first quarter. Schulte was smart and efficient throwing the ball, and showed some good running skills as well. Stovie's big run lit the fire, and he rolled to a 100-plus yard night with two TDs.
Next week the Class 4A Linn-Mar Lions come to Saints Field, for the 17th meeting of these former MVC foes (only Prairie and Kennedy have played Xavier more times in the past 20 years). Paul James, the longtime coach at Cedar Rapids Washington, is in his first year at Linn-Mar, and we'll see if he's able to build a new tradition at a place that was a football powerhouse 30-some years ago.
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