Running Down A Dream

The Xavier Saints' 2016 season kicked off under overcast skies, in temperatures not usually seen in late August in Iowa. Considering Xavier's last three season openers had to deal with weather delays of one form or another - including last year's complete cancellation thanks to nonstop lightning - this pleasant Friday evening was a delightful change of pace.

Not so pleasant, though, was the opponent for this non-district opening game - the rather daunting Regals of Iowa City Regina, coached by former Iowa Hawkeye and NFL player Marv Cook, winners of six consecutive state championships. losers of only two games in the past six seasons. These Regals came to Saints Field needing to replace most of their ball handlers from last year's 13-1 squad, but returned three big 270-pound linemen in the middle of both the offensive and defensive lines.

Xavier, meanwhile, returned their entire backfield (quarterback Bryce Schulte, fullback Erik Rodriguez and tailback Maliki Wilson) along with three offensive linemen who had received all-district honors in 2015 (Sam Meyers, Max Johnson and Ryan Jasper). While the Saints' defense was a little less experienced, Xavier certainly had the horses to try to improve on last year's second-round playoff exit.

This matchup turned out to be all that anyone expected. Xavier took the early lead on their second play, a 68-yard run by Wilson (the first of many long runs for the speedy senior - he ended up breaking the school's single-game rushing mark with 293 yards) and never trailed, but Regina had an answer for every Saints touchdown to keep within dangerous striking distance. The Regals answered Wilson's long score with a 70-yard TD run by Brady Bigley, but the tying extra point was missed.

In the second quarter, a blocked punt set up Regina in the red zone, and with 1st and goal at the 4 it looked like the Regals would be able to take the lead. The Xavier defense stepped up big time, with a tremendous goal line stand that kept Regina out of the end zone, with Schulte capping it off by bringing down Jake Phillips for a loss on 4th and goal from the 1. Xavier took over and put together perhaps the drive of the game, moving all the way downfield, the big play a 32-yard pass from Schulte to Brett Burns. Schulte finished off the drive from 3 yards out to put Xavier up 14-6.

Remember when I said Regina always had an answer? Three plays later, Tommy Rapp found Isaac Vollstedt open downfield, and Vollstedt evaded tacklers and outraced everyone for a 53-yard touchdown. Coach Cook elected to go for two and the tie, but Xavier's defense (still feeling their oats after that goal line stand) stopped the try, keeping it 14-12.

Regina threatened again late in the first half, moving from their 31 to Xavier's 20, but a Rapp pass into traffic in the end zone was intercepted by Josh Gerke.

The second half started much like the first. On Xavier's fourth play, Wilson ran over the right side, found a little room, then saw Bigley in his way in the defensive backfield. Wilson lowered his shoulder and charged into Bigley, standing him straight up before shucking him away and dashing the rest of the 31 yards to the end zone. Xavier was up by 9, 21-12.

That didn't last long. Again, three plays later, Regina answered. And again, it was a big play from Rapp to Vollstedt. This time Vollstedt got a fantastic block downfield just after catching the pass, springing him down the left sideline and resulting in a 47-yard score. Back to two points, 21-19.

The teams exchanged possessions the rest of the third quarter, but the big concern for Xavier came after a 20-yard Wilson run. It looked like he might break free for another score, but a Regina defensive back went low and took out his legs. Wilson did not get up, even after some minutes of attention from the trainer and Xavier coaches. Once he got up, he got to the sideline only with plenty of assistance, barely putting any weight on either leg. I got to tell you, it looked really bad.

While Wilson was being worked on on the Xavier sideline into the fourth quarter, Regina got the ball back and moved into Xavier territory. Remember when the Saints stopped the threat late in the first half with an end-zone interception? This time Rapp tried to set up a screen, but McClain Burger sniffed it out, stepped in front of the receiver and picked off the pass near midfield. This turnover resulted in another strong drive from Xavier. Wilson even got back into the game (apparently only suffering from muscle cramps: I say "only" knowing they were no doubt very painful, but not something to lose a season over), but Rodriguez was leading the charge this time. Schulte finished it off once more with a 10-yard TD run, and the Saints were back up 28-19 with only 3:50 left to play.

Once again, you need to remember things from earlier in this game. Because once again, Regina responded. This time with a 7-play, 76-yard drive (the key play a 36-yard pass from Rapp to Jack Jensen down to the 4) and put the ball into the end zone to cut it back to two points again, 28-26, with 1:55 on the clock. Of course Regina was going to try the onside kick, and it nearly worked - except the Regals were really, really offside on the attempt. After the penalty, they went with the pooch kick, but Xavier was able to make the catch.

And then, Maliki Wilson. He carried for three yards, then for one. Then he swept to the right, broke through the front seven, and dashed down the Xavier sideline. Michael Conlon gave chase, looking to have a good shot at pushing Wilson out of bounds around the 20. Wilson extended a rather powerful stiff arm, stopping Conlon in his tracks and breaking him free for what turned out to be a 62-yard TD run to make it 35-26 with 50 seconds left. It was Wilson's third score of the game and put him over Brendan Miller's school mark of 271 yards set in 2013.

Regina tried to throw their way back downfield (once again, again) but Nolan Butkowski intercepted a Rapp pass with only a few seconds left to finish things off.

Not particularly a well-played game in every facet - Xavier ended up with several penalties, Regina had several great opportunities for big pass plays that were either dropped or just off-target - but a very entertaining matchup and a tremendous test for both squads as they head into the 2016 season. Next week the Saints face an old MVC foe, Linn-Mar, as the Lions turn out to be the first metro 4A team willing to put Xavier on their schedule since district football came to eastern Iowa in 2014.

I Apparently Forgot Math

Yep, seems I forgot how to add. That's got to be the only explanation for how I could mess up the numbers for the Xavier school records that might fall this year in my earlier post about them. Thank goodness Excel does the math for you; a quick little formula for a couple of cells and suddenly I realize I'm thankful I don't have to ever take the ACT again.

Anyway, let's get things set the way they oughta be. First of all, I had overlooked Bryce Schulte's freshman passing stats in adding up his current career totals, which left out 5 completions, 6 attempts, 82 yards and (importantly) 2 TD passes. I also hadn't included his single TD reception that he got against Central-DeWitt in 2014. Throwing those stats into the mix, as well as discovering a previously overlooked Xavier school record, shows Bryce is TIED with his brother Reggie for the school mark for total TDs (rushing, passing, and receiving). Both the Schultes have a total of 54, with Bryce looking at another season to play.

Bryce is 921 total yards off the school record, as well as 1253 passing yards, 63 pass attempts, and 13 TD passes. Reggie currently holds all those records, which Bryce has an excellent shot to surpass this fall (he's averaged 160 attempts, 1333.5 passing yards, 1476.5 total yards, and 17 TD passes the past two seasons). Bryce is also 89 pass completions away from Reggie's school-record 265, which is reachable (although Bryce has yet to complete more than 87 passes in a season).

So, yeah. I'm pretty sure those totals are now correct (I earlier had Bryce needing less than 900 total yards to pass Reggie, but I have no idea how I came up with that number. I then corrected that to over 1000, which also turned out to be wrong, because I added wrong AND I didn't include his freshman numbers. Arrgh).

We are less than a week away from the kickoff of the 2016 season! Check back here each week to keep up with the Xavier Saints and what else is happening in 3A District 3 (I see the Gazette picks Charles City and Vinton-Shellsburg to finish high in the district, with Waverly-Shell Rock picked to finish last. Huh. Not what I was thinking, but who knows, right?).

Freshmen on Friday?

Eventually, I suppose, things had to change with Xavier becoming a 3A football school. All those MVC traditions, with games at Kingston and rosters filling both sidelines and all those other trappings of 4A football, you know they couldn't last. Turns out that includes the sophomore football game being played on Fridays immediately before the varsity game.

The state has some rules about the amount of competition a football player can take part in over the course of a week, which is good for players' health, of course. Players can play in a maximum of two games in a week, with a one-day maximum of five quarters. Now that Xavier finds itself matching up with 3A schools - many of which have considerably smaller rosters than you may be used to seeing - these rules are coming into play. Particularly, a school like Charles City or Vinton-Shellsburg may need to use a significant number of sophomores to play in their varsity games. Trouble is, if those sophs play a full game, they can only play one additional quarter in the varsity game (five quarters per day).

We noticed an effect from this at last year's Regina game. Quite a few of the Regal players from the evening's sophomore game also played in the varsity game, and the Regina coaching staff had to do some well-planned substitutions to make sure nobody played more than five quarters. Well, in 2016, too many of Xavier's opponents found those restrictions too tough to handle while still allowing adequate rest/rotation/playing time for everybody.

So - we are only going to see one sophomore game for Xavier on a Friday night this year, October 2, when the Saints play 4A Linn-Mar. For all the following weeks, the Xavier freshman team will take the field on Fridays at 5:00 pm to warm things up for the following varsity game at 7:30. It's just different, that's all - the sophomores will end up playing Monday evenings most of the season (although it does appear Charles City is not mounting a sophomore/JV team this season, so there's only 8 sophomore games on the schedule).

For most of these 3A teams, it can be a challenge to put together a full freshman and a full sophomore squad. Back in my day, at a 2A school, we only had junior varsity and varsity. I imagine some of Xavier's opponents this year might be stretching a bit to have three full teams (which does explain the moving of the sophomore or JV game away from Friday, since many of those kids are going to have to fill roles for the varsity as well).

Anyway, a quick look at the season:

VARSITY (all Fridays, of course, except semifinal and championship)

August 26                      Iowa City Regina              H               7:00
September 2                   Linn-Mar                          A                7:30
September 9                   Benton Community          A                7:30
September 16                 Charles City                     H                7:30
September 23                 Decorah                            A                7:30
September 30                 Independence                   H                7:30
October 7                       Waverly-Shell Rock         A                7:30
October 14                     Vinton-Shellsburg            H                 7:30
October 21                     South Tama                      A                 7:30
October 28                     First-round playoff           TBA           7:00
November 4                   Second-round playoff       TBA           7:00
November 10                 Semifinal                         UNI Dome   5:36/8:21
November 17                 Championship                 UNI Dome   7:06

SOPHOMORE

Thur August 25             Iowa City Regina              H               6:00
Fri September 2             Linn-Mar                          A               5:00
Mon September 12        Benton Community          H               6:00
Mon September 26        Decorah                            H               6:00
Mon October 3              Independence                    A               6:00
Mon October 10            Waverly-Shell Rock          H               6:00
Mon October 17            Vinton-Shellsburg             A               6:00
Mon October 24            South Tama                       H               6:00

FRESHMEN

Thur August 25              Iowa City West                 A               6:00
Thu September 1            Linn-Mar                          H               6:00
September 9                   Benton Community          A                5:00
September 16                 Charles City                     H                5:00
September 23                 Decorah                            A                5:00
September 30                 Independence                   H                5:00
October 7                       Waverly-Shell Rock         A                5:00
October 14                     Vinton-Shellsburg            H                 5:00
October 21                     South Tama                      A                 5:00