Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

In five seasons from 2011 to 2015 West High had its season end with a loss to Bettendorf three times.

West High returned the favor with a 24-17 win over the Bulldogs in a Class 4A opening round meeting last year.

The two teams get a postseason rematch on Friday when the Eastern Iowa powers square off in the state semifinals for the first time since 2002.

Here are five things to watch when top-ranked West High (11-0) and Bettendorf (10-1) tee it up at 4:06 on Friday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

Answering the Bell

Bettendorf junior Carter Bell is among the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the state, accounting for better than 2,000 total yards and 31 touchdowns.

However, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Bell left last week’s win over North Scott in the second quarter with an injury and did not return.

Bell’s status and potential effectiveness are both up in the air entering Friday’s afternoon kick off and his absence would obviously be a huge blow to the Bulldogs.

Bell has thrown for 1,303 yards and 17 touchdowns without an interception and rushed for 707 yards and 14 scores.  

Senior Justin Wehr stepped in for Bell last week and would appear to be the next option if Bell can’t go.

Matching Game

Bettendorf has long been known for its physical play on both lines and this year’s edition of the Bulldogs is no different.

The Bulldogs enter Friday averaging 235 rushing yards per game and 7.2 yards per carry while holding opponents to 111 yards per game on the ground.

The reason for those impressive stats lies in the Bettendorf line play.

“They are nasty,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “They are aggressive, they play the defensive line on their side of the line of scrimmage so we have to load up and be ready.”

West High doesn’t have to outplay Bettendorf up front but it does have to match the physicality from the Bulldogs, especially early in the game.

Flitz Factor

If there was an MVP award for high school football it would go to West High senior quarterback Evan Flitz. That’s how good Flitz has been this season.

Flitz has completed 69 percent of his passes for 2,347 yards and 26 touchdowns with just three interceptions and has rushed for 558 yards and 10 scores.

He needs 164 yards on Friday to break the West High single-season passing record.

As impressive as those stats are consider this, the numbers for Flitz in three games at the passers’ paradise that is the UNI-Dome are even better.

In three career games indoors at the UNI-Dome Flitz has completed 73 percent of his passes for 649 yards with no interceptions in 80 attempts. He has also rushed for 94 yards and a score in those games all against top five teams.

 “We’ve performed up to this point and we have playmakers so I am excited to see what our guys do and how we perform,” Flitz said.

One At a Time

When the brackets were released most people expected a West High and Bettendorf semifinal showdown.

Don’t count West High players in that list of players that were anticipating a rematch between the two teams.

It’s not that the Trojans didn’t think Bettendorf would advance, it’s just that they haven’t really paid much attention.

“We don’t really look too far down the line, we aren’t playing march madness pick ‘em with high school football brackets,” Flitz said. “It’s been week by week. As soon as we won last Friday night we knew who we had so it was an exciting Saturday morning lift and we’ve had good practices.”

Home Run Threat

Darien Porter only has eight receptions this season but the Bettendorf junior has made them count.

The speedy 6-foot-3 Porter has averaged 29.9 yards per reception with half of his eight grabs going for touchdowns.

Porter had two receptions for 59 yards and a 31-yard touchdown in a 31-21 quarterfinal win over North Scott last week.

The average length of the four touchdown catches for Porter is 33.5 yards.