Charles City fumbled on their third play of the game. They fumbled again on the first play of their third possession. They fumbled twice more in the second quarter, and Xavier turned all four of those turnovers into touchdowns on their way to a 43-0 halftime lead. Most of the Comets' troubles came on the center-quarterback snap exchange, which was terribly unfortunate, and the rash of fumbles meant Xavier's average starting field position in the first half was the Charles City 35. Take away the time the Saints took over at their 20 after a missed field goal, and the average moves to the Comet 28. Four times Xavier started at the 30 or closer, and twice inside the 15.
But turnovers and field position don't mean anything if you don't turn them into points, and Xavier did that almost flawlessly. After the first fumble, Jax Junge carried the ball five straight plays, finishing with an 11-yard TD run. After forcing a punt deep in Comet territory, Quinn Schulte ran for a 31-yard TD. Following the Comets' next turnover, Schulte threw a TD pass to Junge from 8 yards out on the next play. The two second-quarter turnovers resulted in drives of 30 and 12 yards, then throw in a seven-play, 80-yard scoring drive after Charles City missed a field goal (just to prove the Saints still knew how to sustain a long drive) and it was Katy-bar-the-door. Xavier almost added another score before halftime when Nate Skala ripped off a 52-yard punt return, all the way to the 10, but the clock ran out after the next play.
Xavier's scout team added a TD in the third quarter - a 42-yard pass from Bryson Bastian to Michael Gundacker was the big play, then Skala ran in the jet sweep from 10 yards out - but that turned out to be the last time the Saints got the ball. With the continuous clock running swiftly, Charles City's offense moved down the field, running 16 plays and covering 77 yards, only to have time run out with the Comets at the Xavier 5.
Schulte had a great night, running for two scores and throwing for three more while going 6-for-6 through the air. Xavier didn't run up a lot of yardage, what with the short fields and the continuous clock, but the defense held firm in putting up their second shutout of the year. If it hadn't been for a muffed punt extending a Charles City drive in the second quarter, the Comets never moved the ball past their 37 yard line in the first half. Xavier now has a ridiculous 13-2 edge in turnover margin (if you don't count two muffed punt returns, which aren't technically turnovers but might as well be) with 7 interceptions and 6 fumble recoveries already.
Coming up this Friday is another tough test from a strong district contender. The Decorah Vikings come to Saints Field, in what's going to be a battle between two undefeated squads. Decorah has rolled up the points, averaging over 37 points a game, and has a terrific rushing attack led by Jake Muhlbauer. And don't forget, the last time Decorah visited Xavier, the Saints were undefeated then as well - in fact, they were 9-0 and rolling into the second round of the 2015 playoffs. Decorah was just 5-5, but they completely outplayed Xavier on their way to a 30-21 win. This year's seniors were sophomores for that game, and many of them were on the sidelines. I can't help but think there'll be some memories of that for some of these guys.
These next three weeks should decide how the top of District 3 will go. You've got undefeated Xavier against undefeated Decorah this week, along with undefeated Waverly-Shell Rock against Benton in what's become a must-win for the Bobcats (if they fall to 0-3 in the district, their playoff hopes are shot). Next week Decorah and Waverly-Shell Rock face off, and in two weeks the Go-Hawks come to Xavier. So the playoff contenders will sort themselves out a lot by September 29, and probably even more clearly by the first week of October.
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