Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Last year’s game between Muscatine and West High was back and forth and filled with big plays and drama to the very end. This year’s game was filled with big plays but drama left the building early, as the Trojans rolled to a 51-3 victory Friday at Trojan Field.

The Muskies lost too many big guns to graduation to compete with the Trojans, but not many teams would have been able to compete with West on this night.

“Maturity,” West coach Garrett Hartwig said when asked what he might have learned about his team despite the lopsided score.

“They could have read the headlines last week about a big win at Southeast Polk, but to these guys it doesn’t matter. I think we’ve got a good group of senior leaders who understand where they want to go, and that it’s a process.”

West’s offense was in peak form. Senior quarterback Evan Flitz connected on 9-of-11 passes for 206 yards (one of the incompletions was a drop) and four touchdowns in one half of play. His offensive line gave him time to find a variety of receivers, and he was accurate throughout.

“I believe Evan is one of the best quarterbacks in the state,” Hartwig said.

A variety of running backs were effective behind that line with Andre White and Trumell Roberts leading the way. West rushed for 202 yards with reserves handling all the carries in the abbreviated second half.

“For us it all starts with the running game,” Flitz said. “When we get it going on the ground our line starts pushing people back, and that really opens up the passing game for us. That’s what we want to be. We want to be balanced through the air and on the ground.”

One of the more spectacular plays came in the second quarter with West already ahead 35-3. On the first play from scrimmage following a Muskie punt, Flitz threw a long, arching pass that Jalen Gaudet wrestled away from defender Trei Tovar and ran into the end zone for a 76-yard touchdown.

“I just tried to get open for Evan,” Gaudet said. “It was a good throw, good blocks from our offensive line. I just had to get up and get position on (Tovar). It takes a lot of concentration.”

“He’s a lot of fun to throw it to,” Flitz said. “I trust him to go get it. He’s a big guy and he can play.”

Special teams were special indeed with placekicker Lucas Karwal connecting on all seven of his extra points, and White returning a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter after Muscatine kicked a 38-yard field goal to cut the lead to 21-3.

“We worked on it all week in practice, and I ran it to the house following my blocks,” White said. “It was return right and I just followed the shield, cut off to the right side and sprint down the sideline. It was all executed perfectly.”

The defense harassed Muskie quarterback Jackson Foulk all night, producing a number of sacks and a safety just prior to the Flitz-to-Gaudet 76-yard TD.

“We’ve got good defensive linemen,” Hartwig said. “We’ve got good defensive line coaches. We’re a little undersized, but these guys condition hard. They are machines. They’re not big but they’re tough.”

Muscatine mustered only 117 yards and five first downs.

West (2-0) travels to Cedar Falls next Friday in another non-district matchup. The Tigers throttled Ames 65-7 in winning their second game of the season.

                          MUS             ICW

First downs           5                  19

Rushing-Yards     19-40           44-202

Comp-Att-Int        6-17-0         11-14-0

Passing-Yards      77                238

Punts-Avg.          6-25             1-36

Fumbles-Lost      3-1                2-0

Penalties-Yards   1-5               4-30

Muscatine        0   3   0  0  –  3

West High        21 23  7  0  – 51

ICW – Traevis Buchanan 5 pass from Evan Flitz (Lucas Karwal kick)

ICW – Buchanan 44 pass from Flitz (Karwal kick)

ICW – Dillon Doyle 16 pass from Flitz (Karwal kick)

MUS – Kobe Vasquez 38 field goal

ICW – Andre White 95 kickoff return (Karwal kick)

ICW – Trumell Roberts 19 run (Karwal kick)

ICW – Safety

ICW – Jalen Gaudet 76 pass from Flitz (Karwal kick)

ICW – Dylan Miene 1 run (Karwal kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – Muscatine: Takpor Tiah 9-33, Jackson Foulk 9-12, team 1-(-5); West: Trumell Roberts 5-50, Peter Breitbach 14-50, Andre White 7-49, Brennon Keen 5-22, Mason Sorge 3-16, Evan Flitz 3-8, Traevis Buchanan 1-4, NoahAanestad 2-2, Dylan Miene 1-1, Ryan Gudenkauf 2-1, Joey Kuehn 1-(-1).

PASSING – Muscatine: Ethan King 1-1-0-40, Jackson Foulk 5-16-0-37; West: Evan Flitz 9-11-0-206, Joey Kuehn 2-2-0-32, Noah Aanestad 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING – Muscatine: Gavyn Ashley 2-40, Kobe Vasquez 2-21, Takpor Tiah 1-9, Cooper Zeck 1-7; West: Traevis Buchanan 5-108, Jalen Gaudet 3-90, Dillon Doyle 1-16, Mason Sorge 1-14, Dylan Miene 1-11.