Your Prep Sports

West Branch wasn’t at its best on Friday night against Maquoketa Valley.

According to long-time head coach Butch Pedersen the Bears were pretty far from it.

West Branch was plenty good enough on Friday to stay unbeaten.  

Class 1A No. 8 West Branch (4-0) rolled up 440 yards of offense in a 38-21 win over Maquoketa Valley in a District 3 matchup in Delhi.

The Bears season-high for total yards came despite a season-high 10 penalties for 85 yards that drew the ire of Pedersen.

“We had 10 penalties for 85 yards and I thought we were extremely sloppy,” Pedersen said. “The statistics don’t show it but I just didn’t feel we were playing with the emotion and the spirit that we have played the rest of the ball games with.”

Sophomore Tanner Lukavsky rushed for 141 yards and three touchdowns and Beau Cornwell threw for 214 yards and a score as West Branch improved to 2-0 in District 3 play.

The 141 yards were a career-high for Lukavsky and helped West Branch roll up a season-best 228 yards on the ground, 85 more than it had in any of its first three games.

Lukavsky scored on touchdown runs of 3, 6 and 4 yards as West Branch scored at least 30 points for the fourth straight game.

“We talked a lot this week about getting the running game going,” Lukavsky said. “We wanted to run our main play that we have been running all summer and all camp and we worked on that a lot this week.”

The strong running by Lukavsky combined with an efficient passing performance by Cornwell led to the most productive if not the prettiest offense performance of the season for the Bears.

“We just need to be more consistent and we need to play with more discipline and more intensity than we did tonight,” Pedersen said. “The rest of the year I have been thrilled with the team and tonight I didn’t feel like we showed that and that needs to stop. I think the kids know it and I think we will respond to it.”

Cornwell completed a school-record 23 passes in 29 attempts, throwing for 214 yards and a score in the win.

The junior has now throw for 10 touchdown passes without an interception in 97 attempts this season.

“That is key we have to be balanced,” Pedersen said. “If they start loading the box up against the run we have to be able to throw it. We had a series where we threw four or five quick outs and then we ran a lead play up the middle and the guy ran for 30 yards because they were so spread out. Our pass has to set up our run I think this year.”

West Branch had five touchdown drives of 69 yards or longer on Friday.

The Bears opened the scoring with a 13-play, 80-yard march that ended with a 28-yard touchdown run by Cornwell.

Maquoketa Valley tied the score 7-7 with 2:19 left in the opening quarter but West Branch took a 14-7 lead into intermission when Lukavsky scored on a 3-yard run with 18 seconds left in the half.

West Branch took the second-half kickoff and needed just five plays to go 69 yards and took a 21-7 lead on a 6-yard TD run by Lukavsky.

Maquoketa Valley got as close as 24-13 but West Branch responded with a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ended with a Brett Shiele 7-yard touchdown pass from Cornwell and took nearly five minutes off the clock.

Lukavsky capped the scoring and cemented the win with a 4-yard touchdown run with 4:12 left.

Jacob Graves and John Hatfield each had 6.5 tackles to lead West Branch while Graves picked off a pass and Jacob Barnhart had a sack.

West Branch returns home next week to face 1A No. 9 Bellevue (4-0, 2-0).

                                 WB                   MV

First Downs               23                    13

Rushes-Yards            41-226               21-27

Comp-Att-Int              23-30-0              11-21-1

Passing Yards            214                   191

Punts-Avg.                  1-46                  4-28.3

Fumbles-Lost              0-0                   0-0

Penalties-Yards           10-85                8-37

West Branch              0    14    10    14  –  38

Maquoketa Valley       0     7      6       8  –  21

WB – Beau Cornwell 28 run (Cornwell kick)

MV – 1 run (Kick)

WB – Tanner Lukavsky 3 run (Cornwell kick)

WB – Lukavsky 6 run (Cornwell kick)

WB – Cornwell 33 Field Goal                                                         

MV – 48 pass (Kick failed)                                           

WB – Brett Schiele 7 pass from Cornwell (Kick failed)             

MV – 10 pass (pass successful)                                               

WB – Lukavsky 4 run (Cornwell run)                                   

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – West Branch: Tanner Lukavsky 29-141, Beau Cornwell 5-53, Jacob Graves 6-34.

PASSING – West Branch: Beau Cornwell 23-29-0 214.

RECEIVING – West Branch: Jacob Graves 7-23, Brett Schiele 5-34, Tanner Lukavsky 4-63, Ben Thompston 3-29, Brady Lukavsky 2-54, Peter Espensen 2-11.