Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – West Branch finished its sweep of Cedar County teams with a 30-20 victory over Tipton Friday at the Little Rose Bowl.

More importantly the Bears (8-0, 6-0) stayed unbeaten, clinched the divisional championship with the victory and will have a home game to begin the playoffs.

“It’s great; nobody picked us,” junior quarterback Beau Cornwell said. “We’re all a bunch of brothers, and we came out and did really good.”

The Bears built a comfortable 27-6 halftime lead, but Tipton used a punishing ground game and two short touchdown drives to cut the lead to 27-20 with 9:33 left in the game.

“We just came out a little flat and weren’t as intense as we usually are,” Cornwell said. “In the fourth quarter we really picked it up and bounced back.”

“In the beginning we started running a 5-2, it’s something we’ve really never run before,” West Branch linebacker Andrew Black said. “That changed things up, and I think our backers weren’t ready to flow as much as they needed to.

“At that point we were very upset at ourselves. We should have been beating them by a lot more. Great teams make mistakes and still come out with the W, and we came out with the W.”

West Branch responded by driving to the Tigers’ 24, but after a sack by William Avey the Bears were forced to try a field goal. Beau Cornwell drilled a 42-yarder, his seventh of the season and tied for his longest, to give the Bears breathing room, leading 30-20 with 6:59 left to play.

“I knew I could make it, and all my guys knew I could make it,” Cornwell said. “It was a great snap and the line protected me well. It was a pretty big play. You just have to stay confident in yourself.”

On the second Tipton play from scrimmage after the field goal, Bears senior Ben Thompson intercepted a pass at midfield.

“That was a huge play,” Graves said. “It got us the ball with like 4 minutes left. We needed to get a couple first downs to finish the game, and we did it.”

“That interception was basically the ballgame,” Bears coach Butch Pedersen said. “I think their dauber got down a little bit and then we started driving the ball.”

The Bears took over with 6:16 left and, with the help of a fourth-and-one conversion at the Tipton 42-yard line, ran out the clock.

“They’ve really improved as a football team,” Pedersen said of the Tigers (3-5, 2-4).

The Bears scored touchdowns in four of their five first-half possessions and never punted. They scored first after Tipton failed on fourth-and-one at its own 35. Three plays later Cornwell’s 29-yard precision post pass to Thompson gave the Bears a 6-0 lead.

After Tipton drove 80 yards to tie the game, the Bears drove deep into Tiger territory but were stymied and gave up the ball at the 20. Tipton couldn’t move the ball, and the Bears took over at the Tiger 39. After four plays Brett Schiele caught 6-yard pass from Cornwell to give the Bears a 13-6 lead.

Tipton’s next drive reached the Bears’ 11, but a sack by Jeff Bowie killed the drive. The Bears drove 80 yards for their third TD, scoring on an 8-yard pass from Cornwell to Jacob Graves for the 20-6 lead. Two major Tipton penalties aided the drive.

Tipton’s Logan Stolte returned the ensuing kickoff to the Bears’ 11, but it was called back by another Tipton penalty and the Tigers started from their own 9. They couldn’t muster a first down, and the Bears got great field position at the Tipton 35 with just 1:21 left in the half.

On the second play from scrimmage Cornwell’s arching pass was snagged by Graves in the end zone as he out-fought defender Ben Emrich for the ball.

“I was just running down field, I didn’t think he was going to throw it, and he threw it, and I just tried to make a good play,” Graves said.

The Bears threw for 171 yards and rushed for another 147.

“We were taking what they were giving us and when the running lanes opened up we ran all over them and then when they closed we went to our passing game,” Cornwell said.

 

                          Tipton             WB

First downs          16                 16

Rushing-yards     49-173           28-147

Comp-att-int         5-15-1           15-26-1

Passing-yards       98                171

Punts-avg.            2-30              1-31

Fumbles-lost        1-0                0-0

Penalties-yards    4-60               2-20

Tipton                6     0  7   7  –  20

West Branch      6    21  0   3  –  30

WB – Ben Thompson 29 pass from Beau Cornwell (pass failed)

TIP – Ben Emrich 1 run (pass failed)

WB – Brett Schiele 6 pass from Cornwell (Cornwell kick)

WB – Jacob Graves 8 pass from Cornwell (Cornwell kick)

WB – Graves 35 pass from Cornwell (Cornwell kick)

TIP – Nile Schuett 3 pass from Emrich (Penningroth kick)

TIP – Schuett 36 pass from Emrich (Penningroth kick)

WB – Cornwell 42 field goal

Individual statistics

RUSHING – TIP: Keith Penningroth 20-79, Quenten Mesick 17-74, John Crowley 4-9, Ben Emrich 8-11. WB: Jacob Graves 20-88, Beau Cornwell 8-59.

PASSING – TIP: Ben Emrich 4-14-1 62. WB: Beau Cornwell 15-26-1 171.

RECEIVING – TIP: Nile Schuett 2-39, John Crowley 1-38, Keith Penningroth 1-12, Frank Bierman 1-9. WB: Jacob Graves 4-52, Ben Thompson 3-50, Brett Schiele 6-49, Brady Lukavsky 1-14, Dakota Kaalberg 1-6.