A lot has happened since I posted here last. A derecho damaged or destroyed large parts of central and eastern Iowa (my stuff included); the pandemic continued to wreak havoc on activities large and small; and the political landscape is, well, even more chaotic than you'd generally expect at this point in an election year.
So let me explain. No, it is too much. Let me sum up.
Xavier continues to reload and roll, year after year. The Saints got coach Duane Schulte his 200th career win with a 38-21 win over last year's state champion Western Dubuque (scoring 31 unanswered points after falling behind 7-0). The Saints avoided disaster at Linn-Mar, again giving up a score on the opening drive and seeing a potential go-ahead bomb pass play for the Lions late in the fourth quarter called back by a penalty. Xavier won that one by the skin of their teeth, 24-20. In district play, Xavier opened with a 30-7 win over Clear Creek-Amana; fell behind (again) against Newton before rolling 45-20; and crushed Oskaloosa 45-7.
That led to a showdown at Grinnell between Xavier, 5-0 and 3-0 in the district, and the Tigers, 4-1 and 3-0 in the district. Grinnell's offense was frightening, averaging 530 yards and 49 points per game, with tailback Wyatt Hunter well over 200 yards per game rushing and 21 TDs coming in. Xavier would clinch the district title with a win, while Grinnell would all but lock it up if they came out on top.
They would not come out on top. With QB Dallas Sauser banged up and unable to throw (even though he played much of the game anyway), the Saints intercepted a trick play pass on the first possession to set up a score, used a big punt return to set up another, then ran the ball down the Tigers' throats. It was 34-0 at halftime, with only a blocked extra point preventing the continuous clock from starting the second half. The vaunted Grinnell offense had two first downs.
Xavier extended the lead to 41-0 by the end of the third quarter, which is when Coach Schulte pulled his starters. Brian Sauser did not do the same, though - Hunter demonstrated the textbook definition of "padding his stats" by running for 140 yards and two TDs on four consecutive carries in the fourth quarter, all against the Xavier scout team. On his last score he was banged up slightly taken down on the pylon, which the Xavier fans seemed to think was karma.
Lincoln Oakley barely missed a 47-yard field goal in the final period, but later got a chance to hammer through a 34-yarder, which he did for his fifth field goal of the season. Grinnell tacked on a late score with 15 seconds left to make it 44-20, but nobody was fooled by the final score.
Xavier wins their district for the sixth time in seven years, and has a chance for another undefeated regular season when they close out the year against Benton Community - since becoming a 3A program in 2014 the Saints lost 3 regular season games in 2014, but didn't lose outside of the playoffs again until the Western Dubuque game last year. So this could be five undefeated regular seasons out of the last six.
-----------------------------PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS???--------------------------------
In this pandemic season of 2020, the IHSAA has decided every football program still on their feet at the end of the shortened seven-game regular season will qualify for the playoffs. That means six weeks of playoff football, which doesn't work out evenly into 54 Class 3A teams ... so here's what's going to happen.
* There will be 10 teams getting a first-round bye, and a week off on October 16. This appears to be the nine district champions, plus another "mystery" team (the postseason manual actually says that 10th team will be chosen by 'geography').
* All 54 teams will be distributed into "pods," generally geographically based to limit travel. There will be 10 three-team pods, with the bye teams and two other schools, and 6 four-team pods. In the three-team pods the team with a bye plays the winner of the other two teams on October 23; in the four-team pods the two winners in the first round meet in the second.
* The first and second rounds determine who comes out of each pod, resulting in 16 teams remaining. They will be sorted into 4 four-team brackets, which covers the third and fourth rounds.
* The survivors of those four brackets advance to the semifinals in the UNI Dome, with the finals the following week.
Now, with just one game remaining we have a pretty good idea of who's in position to win their district/get that bye, although I honestly have zero idea of how the pods will be determined. Anyway, district-by-district, we have this:
* D-1: Sergeant Bluff-Luton wins the district by defeating Spencer. If Spencer wins and Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley loses to Storm Lake, Spencer takes the crown. If both Spencer and BHRV win, it's a three-way tie (and the state really hasn't said how that tie gets broken).
* D-2: Webster City has won the district.
* D-3: Decorah wins the district by defeating Western Dubuque. If the Vikings lose, West Delaware wins the district by beating Waterloo East. If both Decorah and West Delaware lose, Western Dubuque joins them in a tie.
* D-4: The winner of Davenport Assumption/Dubuque Wahlert takes the title, with the winner holding a 4-0 district record. North Scott can actually get to 3-0 with a win over Clinton (the Lancers had to miss two weeks due to COVID), so I'm not positive how that shakes out since North Scott played neither Assumption or Wahlert.
* D-5: Washington wins the district by defeating Keokuk. If Keokuk wins, and Fort Madison beats Fairfield, you'd have Fort Madison and Washington at 4-1 in the district and Keokuk at 3-1 (they missed a game against Mount Pleasant). Again, how do you figure that? And if Fort Madison loses, a Keokuk win makes them 3-1 with a victory over 4-1 Washington ... does that make them champs?
* D-6: Xavier has won the district.
* D-7: The winner of Pella-Nevada wins the district.
* D-8: The winner of Dallas Center-Grimes vs Winterset wins the district.
* D-9: The winner of Lewis Central-Harlan wins the district.
