Xavier won their first-round playoff game, an epic struggle against a powerful Pella squad, which earned them a spot in the quarterfinal round against Decorah - a team Xavier had handily defeated 45-3 back in August. Decorah, though, was rolling into the second round on a seven-game winning streak, with a defense that had improved tremendously over the past month and a ground game rolling up the yards. I was expecting a much closer contest than that first meeting.
Just shows what I know. Xavier jumped out early and never looked back, leading 28-0 at halftime and cruising to a 42-6 win at Saints Field. Braden Stovie, who ran for 198 yards in the first game, gained 150 yards and two scores in this one. Quinn Schulte completed 10 of 16 passes for 180 yards and a score (also by Stovie, on a 75-yard catch and run). The Xavier defense faced a Vikings team that ran for 330 yards against Clear Creek-Amana in the first round and shut them down for only 32 yards rushing. I suppose you could say the Xavier pass defense showed cause for concern - in the August meeting they didn't allow Jace Johnson to complete a pass. In this playoff game, Johnson did get a completion. One. For one yard. He was also sacked four times.
There are a few things to remark about in this game. On the "oops" side, Ben Conrad missed his second consecutive field goal try. After barely missing on a kick from the left hash in the Pella game, his attempt from the right hash from 39 yards out was just mis-hit, making him 9 of 12 for field goal attempts on the year (he's still 3 behind the all-time Xavier season record). Schulte also threw an interception for the second straight game, after having only one all season long. Xavier gave up their first third-quarter points of the season, when Kailer McCabe returned a kickoff 98 yards for a score (so still not technically against the first-team defense that's allowed 15 points scored all year).
But those things had no effect on the outcome of the game itself. Conrad was perfect on all six of his extra points, giving him 60 on the year (6 back of the season record). Schulte ran for a touchdown in the third quarter, giving him a school-record career total of 43 TDs and 258 points, breaking Will Martin's record from 2005-06. Schulte's 38 rushing TDs are just one behind Martin's school record. The defense had another first-half shutout (still only 9 points allowed in the first half this year), and just as an oddball statistic, the streak of unsuccessful extra points continued when Decorah had a terrible snap on their try. The only successful extra point scored on Xavier this year came in the Regina game in the season opener; since then teams have scored five touchdowns without making the extra point (Xavier blocked one kick at West Delaware, bad snaps ruined tries by Pella and Decorah, and Wahlert's kick was no good; the other TD by West Delaware resulted in a two-point try, which was stopped by Xavier).
So Xavier moves on to the semifinal round in the UNI Dome, their sixth trip in the past seven years. They face a formidable opponent in Lewis Central, the only other undefeated 3A program, and the team ranked right behind number one Xavier in the polls all season long (or right above them, if you look at the Radio Iowa poll). This collision of the top teams in the east and the west has been anticipated and expected since the season got started in August, and now the meeting is actually happening - but it's not in the championship game.
The state athletic association is trying something different this season. For the past many years, the semifinal/championship rounds have been divided basically east and west; one set of brackets was built on each side of the state, with the top two teams on each side meeting in the semifinal creating an east-west championship. Of course, this didn't always result in the best possible matchup in the final game, as sometimes there were better teams on one side of the state as compared to the other (2016 would be a good example, with the Xavier-Pella semifinal a much more compelling game than the Pella-Webster City final; 2006 in 4A is another good one, with the Xavier-Bettendorf semifinal a much better contest than Xavier-Southeast Polk in the championship). This year, though, the state developed the RPI system to help them select playoff teams and seed the brackets, in an attempt to get what ought to be the best four teams to the semifinal round and the best two in the championship, regardless of what part of the state they were from.
As far as selecting playoff teams, RPI did pretty well in 3A and 4A, maybe less so in some of the other classes. But there's an oddity at the top - Sergeant Bluff-Luton, the District 1 champion, has held the top spot in RPI all season long, and by a pretty significant margin. They stayed there despite having a loss, a loss to undefeated Lewis Central, a 42-14 loss that had the continuous clock running for part of the second half. Even so, SBL stayed at the top of the RPI list, ahead of the 9-0 team that beat them, ahead of the 9-0 teams in the east ... and as SBL won their first two playoff games, they got the top seed in the semifinal round, matching them with the 4th-best remaining RPI (Western Dubuque, with two losses). The game matching the 2nd and 3rd place RPI semifinalist turns out to be undefeated Lewis Central vs undefeated Xavier, in a game that could be the de facto championship a week early.
To be honest, it doesn't matter that much when this game takes place. It's a good thing that it is, as these two squads have been on an anticipated collision course for the entire season. The offensive statistics are pretty close; Lewis Central has more yards rushing and passing, but it's only a difference of about 60 yards per game. Xavier is far better on the defensive side, giving up only 40 points all season and right about 130 yards per game. Both teams' leading rushers are right about at 1200 yards; both teams' quarterbacks have thrown for 23 TDs and 3 interceptions or fewer. It would appear, though, that Xavier is a bit more balanced on offense (Lewis Central goes through quarterback Max Duggan, who is also their leading rusher and has accounted for 2/3rds of all their offensive yards this season). Lewis Central's defense, while giving up about 100 yards more per game than Xavier, still hasn't allowed more than 14 points in any game (while the offensive is scoring almost 50).
This should be a fantastic game (of course, I expected a defensive slugfest in last year's Xavier-Solon semifinal, when Solon had a defense that simply didn't allow points at all - then Xavier put up 35 in the first half, so what do I know?). We will find out pretty late on Thursday night who is the better team.
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