District play got started Friday night in Iowa (at least in most classes; 4A still has a couple of non-district weeks to go), and Xavier headed down the road to Benton Community for their first district game of the season. Xavier had outfought the top team in 1A (Regina) and came back from behind against a 4A team (Linn-Mar) in their first two games, while Benton had whipped 2A Oelwein and then got thumped by a top 2A team in Union-La Porte City.
Both teams featured pretty good ground attacks. Xavier's Maliki Wilson was the leading rusher in the state coming in, with 554 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. Maurice Williams and Spencer Touro had combined for over 300 yards for Benton, but Touro apparently had been hurt in the Union game. That also meant Luke Wiebel would be quarterbacking for the Bobcats. Defense has not been Xavier's strongest point this season, which is atypical for the Saints - they actually ranked last among all 8 District 3 teams in yards allowed after the first two games.
The weather was the main focus throughout the day. The forecast was for periods of heavy rain and thunderstorms moving through eastern Iowa in the afternoon and evening. While rain would just be uncomfortable and an impact on the passing game (Bobcat Stadium features a nice Field Turf field, so no mud to deal with), any lightning meant an automatic 30 minute delay. There were indeed periods of torrential rain in Cedar Rapids during the early afternoon, but the radar indicated that area wasn't too large. What was worrisome was a large swath of red and orange returns in central Iowa bearing down on us. Benton announced they were shortening the quarters of the preliminary game to 8 minutes instead of 10, and then hoping to get the varsity game started right on the heels of that game.
As I drove west to Van Horne at around 5:30, I could see the wall cloud, or leading edge of the stormy area, stretching from north to southwest and heading eastward. Just as I turned off Highway 30 to head the last 3 miles north to Van Horne, the storm hit. Strong, gusty winds and downpours of rain were everywhere, but I did not see lightning or hear any thunder. Okay, then. Reaching Van Horne the rain had lessened, so it seemed to be just steady precipitation. At the field, they had suspended the preliminary game (which actually turned out to be a sophomore game for Xavier, vs a combined freshman/sophomore team for Benton) just because of the torrential rain, and coaches were discussing how to move forward. The sky appeared to be much less dark to the west by now.
As I got to the press box to set up, the sophomore teams headed back out to the field to restart the game. Immediately, there was a flash of lightning, and the teams basically just turned around and headed back to the locker room. Even though the storm had passed and was moving away, there was enough periodic lightning to keep resetting that 30-minute clock. The decision was made to call the preliminary game (it had made it to the 3rd quarter), and hope to start the varsity game as soon as the lightning ended. Which it did, around 6:20 or so, meaning warmups started about 6:50 and the game got underway very near the expected start time.
It turned out to be a fairly pleasant evening, as the rain let up and the storms did not return. Xavier just went out in a workmanlike fashion and picked up their initial District 3 win, rolling to a 47-14 decision thanks to some big plays, turnovers, and special teams play. Nothing huge on offense, fairly steady on defense. Benton played solidly, but made some mistakes and Xavier certainly cashed in on those.
Special teams played a role early, as Xavier's first punt return of the game saw Josh Gerke return it 30 yards to the Benton 25. The Saints took five plays to run it in, with Erik Rodriguez getting the TD. Benton's next possession saw them pushed back by penalties, then the snap on the punt play went over Riley Pfiffner's head. He got to it, tried to kick it, but only booted it about five feet straight up. Xavier recovered at the 3, and Wilson ran it in on the next play. Benton then got some offense going, but Wiebel threw an interception on Xavier's side of the field. Bryce Schulte returned the favor by throwing an interception on the next play, deep in Benton's end.
Special teams again. The next Benton punt saw Wilson cut in front of Gerke to steal the return at the Xavier 40. The Saints set up a nice wall along the right sideline, and Wilson was finally caught at the 4 yard line. Schulte ran it in from there, and Xavier held a 21-0 first quarter lead.
Things settled down in the second quarter as the teams traded a couple of possessions. Late in the quarter, though, Benton fumbled near midfield. Xavier immediately made them pay, as Schulte dropped a perfect pass into the hands of Nolan Butkowski for a 33-yard gain, then directed Butkowski to the middle of the end zone before zipping a 21-yard TD pass.
Xavier came right out in the second half still fired up. It only took three plays, as Wilson took a pitch to the left, spun away from one tackler, picked up his blockers and ran 49 yards for the score. The Xavier coaches sent out junior Nick Koechner for the extra point (Shane Scott had been doing the kicking previously), and he pulled the kick wide right. That meant the lead was 34 points instead of 35, so the continuous clock did not go into affect.
On Benton's next possession, they again picked up yards behind Williams on the ground, moving out toward midfield. Then Wiebel rolled left, looked back right to pass, and threw it to Saints linebacker Jack Lemke. Lemke had a wide-open field ahead, taking it back 49 yards for the TD. Koechner booted this extra point through, and it was 41-0 with the continuous clock now rolling.
The Bobcats responded with a fine 10-play drive, covering 76 yards in all. Xavier did have mostly replacement players out on the field, getting real-time game experience, but it was still an impressive drive. Williams got the score to cut it to 41-7, stopping the continuous clock.
Benton's next possession - another turnover, this time a fumble at the 3 yard line. After a loss and a penalty, Jack Scott, the third quarterback of the game for the Saints, ran it in from 10 yards out. Shane Scott was back for this extra point, and he missed (maybe so Koechner wouldn't feel so bad? I kid, I kid). Still, 47-7 was the edge, and back to the continuous clock we go.
Benton responded with another 10-play scoring drive, making it 47-14 with just over 6 minutes to go, but there was nothing left in this game but three consecutive three-and-outs.
A basic performance by Xavier, going on the road to pick up that first district win, keeping it on the ground almost the entire game and using special teams and turnovers to pretty much control field position for three quarters. Special teams (especially punt returns) have been huge all year so far for Xavier, and the turnover advantage has been significant - Xavier has 12 takeaways to only 2 turnovers, and they have converted 8 of those 12 takeaways directly into points). Next week the Saints are back home to face Charles City, a team that didn't look to do that much this season, but who did defeat a tough South Tama squad in overtime on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment