By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Bettendorf continued its recent mastery of City High on Friday and the Bulldogs did it in familiar fashion.

Class 4A No. 6 Bettendorf used a strong rushing attack and a stingy defense to roll past fourth-ranked City High 44-7 in a de facto Class 4A, District 7 title game at Frank Bates Field.

Bettendorf (6-2) rolled up 377 rushing yards and held City High (6-2) to 178 total yards in its fourth straight win over the Little Hawks over the last three seasons.

“We just couldn’t handle them,” City High coach Dan Sabers said. “They were physical, their back was running tough, their quarterback was running tough and we didn’t have an answer for them.”

Bettendorf rolled up 526 yards of total offense on Friday while clinching the District 7 title. Senior tailback Keegan Glaus ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback J Michael Young ran for 67 yards and a score and threw for 149 yards and a touchdown as Bettendorf won its fifth straight game.

Meanwhile, City High could muster little offense against a Bettendorf defense that limited the Little Hawks to 77 yards on the ground, including just 26 on 18 carries in the first half.

“I tell you what they have some weapons, their quarterback is outstanding and they have great skill players so I was really proud of how we played on defense,” Bettendorf coach Aaron Wiley said. “I thought we established the line of scrimmage on offense also.

Bettendorf won a pair of games over City High by a combined score 75-14 last season including a 31-7 win in the quarterfinals of the 4A playoffs.

City High saw an all too familiar script unfold on Friday.

Bettendorf scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 2:32 of the first half to take a 24-0 halftime lead and City High could never recover.

“We just got off to too slow of a start,” City High senior quarterback Nate Wieland said. “Bettendorf is too good of a team to let that happen.”

Bettendorf set the tone immediately, marching 62 yards on seven plays for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive.

Young capped the drive with a 22-yard touchdown run that put Bettendorf on top 7-0 less than two minutes into the game.

All but nine yards on the opening drive came on the ground.

“Our kids came out and played well early,” Wiley said. “We wanted to start fast and we did.”

Bettendorf made it 10-0 on a Seth Ward field goal with 10:35 left in the first half and then used a pair of late first-half touchdowns to take control.

Trailing 10-0 City High put together its best drive of the opening half marching to the Bettendorf 28 yard line before Wieland was stuffed for no gain on a fourth and two play.

Bettendorf quickly went 72 yards in five plays and 42 seconds taking a 17-0 lead on a 14-yard TD run by Glaus.

City High went three-and-out on its next possession and Bettendorf answered with the knockout punch, a 6-play, 72-yard drive that ended with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Young to Suni Lane that made it 24-0 with 28 seconds left before halftime.

“That definitely hurt us mentally,” Wieland said of the late touchdowns. “When we saw that I think we got down fast and we couldn’t pick back up from that.”

Bettendorf averaged better than 8.5 yards per rushing attempt on Friday as the Bulldogs put up season-highs in rushing yards and total offense.

“They were just better than us, there is no question,” Sabers said. “You can’t deny that.”

Wieland finished 6-of-14 passing for 87 yards with Zach Jones catching three passes for 39 yards.

Senior Narada Poole rushed for 53 yards, all in the fourth quarter, and scored City High’s touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:06 left.

City High has clinched a playoff spot and closes out the regular season next Friday at Davenport North.

“I think the best thing that happened to us is we realized you have to bring everything you’ve got and you have to prepare as hard as you can or this is going to happen,” Sabers said. “I think overall our kids will respond to that.”

                                 City High      Bettendorf
First downs                  12                27
Rushes-yards               29-77           44-377
Passing yards              101               149
Total yards                  178               526
Comp-att-int               8-22-2          12-22-0
Fumbles-lost               1-0               1-1
Penalties-yards           4-50             7-75

Bettendorf     7 17 7 13 – 44
City High      0  0  0  7  –   7

BET – J. Michael Young 22 run (Justin Wehr kick)
BET – Seth Ward 34 field goal
BET – Keegan Glaus 14 run (Ward kick)
BET – Suni Lane 33 pass from Young (Wehr kick)
BET – Glaus 3 run (Ward kick)
BET – Eric Hradek 9 run (Kick blocked)
ICH – Narada Poole 1 run (Miles Morrow kick)
BET – Hradek 65 run (Ward kick)

Individual Stats
Rushing – ICH: Narada Poole 9-53, Nate Wieland 11-18, Bryce Frantz 7-6, Jared Taylor 1-2, Team 1-(-2). BET: Keegan Glaus 21-173, Eric Hradek 5-95, J Michael Young 11-67, Suni Lane 3-30, Demari Nicholson 1-11, Ben Wilson 1-5, Nijel McIntosh 1-3, Team 1-(-7).

Passing – ICH: Nate Wieland 6-14-1 87, Jared Taylor 2-8-1 14. BETT: J. Michael Young 12-21-0 149, Sam Murphy 0-1-0 0.

Receiving – ICH: Zach Jones 3-39, Vance Dillon 2-45, Gabe Nkumu 1-3, Travis Reyhons 1-11, Griffin Moore 1-3. BET: Suni Lane 6-115, Jaron Shook 3-25, Ben Wilson 2-1, Ryan Fall 1-8.