Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina’s homecoming game was a name-your-score kind of matchup. That’s not being mean; it’s just the facts. The Regals are true football royalty in the state of Iowa, and Van Buren has struggled for years.

Regina coach Marv Cook elected to play his reserves early and often, and that, along with the continuous second-half clock, limited the final result to a 43-6 Regal victory.

Regina is 5-2 overall and 5-0 in 1A district 4 play and plays host to Columbus next Friday. Van Buren is 1-6, 0-5.

“Every game we have the same mindset, just go out there and play Regina football,” senior lineman Steve Sehl said. “I think we did well against a solid team like Van Buren. It was fun to get the younger guys in there and watch them play and execute well.”

The game got out of hand immediately.

The Regals scored on the opening kickoff when Jake Phillips ran 80 yards through the Warriors for a touchdown.

After the kickoff Van Buren fumbled on its first play, and Phillips recovered at the Warrior 19-yard line. Michael Conlon threw a 19-yard post pass to Jayden Kies for a second touchdown. Only 35 seconds had elapsed in the game.

A three-play 55-yard drive resulted in a third TD on a 24-yard run by Isaac Vollstedt with 8:07 left in the first quarter.

After a Van Buren player inexplicably downed the kickoff on the 2-yard line, Regina forced a safety on the first play from scrimmage and it was 23-0 after 4 minutes.

The Regals added a fourth TD on the ensuing possession when Conlon hit Phillips on a short pass, and he weaved his way through the defense 40 yards for the score 16 seconds after the safety.

“You just have to go out there and do what the coaches tell you to do and have fun,” Sehl said of the Regals’ mindset in a developing blowout. “The score doesn’t really matter. Just play football.”

Leading 30-0 after 4:16 of game time, Regina used reserves in the skill positions the rest of the way and mixed up its line to include some starters and some reserves.

Freshman quarterback Ashton Cook took over for Conlon and played the rest of the game except for the final series. Sophomore Will Bobst took over for Vollstedt and handled the bulk of the ball-carrying duties.

“Obviously it’s great when we get to go in,” Ashton Cook said. “We just had to do our jobs and compete.”

“I was surprised by how fast the score went up,” Bobst said. “The JV was able to do the job and move the ball down the field.”

Bobst said it was the longest he’d played in a varsity game “by far.” He gained 46 yards on 13 carries, both season highs, and scored two touchdowns, his first for the varsity.

“They played really well; they played a lot better than I thought they were going to play,” Sehl said of the younger players. “With Bobst and Ashton Cook, we’ve got some playmakers.”

Coach Cook said even a lopsided game provided an opportunity to execute.

“Last week we didn’t play as clean last week as I would have liked,” he said. “I thought we missed some blocks, and I thought today we really cleaned that up.”

Cook also pointed out the obvious advantage of developing the team’s depth when reserves are able to play the vast majority of minutes.

                            VB               ICR

First downs           11                13

Rushing-yards      30-93           29-170

Comp-Att-Int          6-16-0          9-10-0

Passing-yards       80                163

Punts-avg.             4-41.5          1-36

Fumbles-lost         3-2               0-0

Penalties-yards      3-25             2-10

Van Buren        0   0   0   6  –  6

Regina             37   6   0   0  –  43

ICR – Jake Phillips 80 kickoff return (Isaac Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Jayden Kies 19 pass from Michael Conlon (Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Vollstedt 24 run (Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Safety QB forced out of end zone

ICR – Phillips 40 pass from Conlon (Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Will Bobst 4 run (Alec Wick kick)

ICR – Bobst 1 run (kick failed)

VB – Donny Roberts 26 run (run failed)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – VB: Donny Roberts 20-82, Cole Troutman 5-25, Tony Davison 5-(-9); ICR: Theodore Kollie 7-51, Will Bobst 13-46, Kieler Brown 1-26, Isaac Vollstedt 1-24, Ashton Cook 3-16, Cole White 1-6, Levi Quinlan 1-6, Seth Lenz 1-(-2), Nick Hein 1-(-3).

PASSING – VB: Tony Davison 2-8-0-41, Cole Troutman4-8-0-39; ICR: Michael Conlon 3-3-0-84, Ashton Cook 5-6-0-78, Nick Hein 1-1-0-1.

RECEIVING – VB: Tayton Bartholomew 4-56, Andrew Fitzsimmons 1-15, No. 22 1-9. ICR: Jake Phillips 1-40, Scott Arendt 1-31, Patrick Clark 1-25, Brady Wallace 1-24, Jayden Kies 1-19, Benjamin Banta 2-15, Nick Wagner 1-8, Will Bobst 1-1.