Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – The offensive statistics for Tanner Lukavsky jump off the page.

Nearly 1,700 yards or total offense, 21 touchdowns and a staggering 10.4 yards per carry.

Those numbers, while too impressive to ignore, only tell half the story of what makes Lukavsky the most indispensable player for a West Branch team seeking a second consecutive state quarterfinal trip.

While the offensive numbers stand out Lukavsky is most valuable as the leader of a West Branch defense poised to be among the stingiest units in Class 1A.

“Tanner is a great running back but he’s very, very vital to our defense,” long-time West Branch head coach Butch Pedersen said. “He has great experience, he’s played quite a few years for us, he can plan the inside he can play the outside he’s just an incredibly valuable asset to us on defense.”

Since taking over as the feature back as a sophomore Lukavsky has been piling up the type of offensive numbers that garner headlines.

He rushed for 712 yards and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore and nearly doubled that production last season running for 1,309 yards and 18 scores in 11 games.

The offensive numbers attract attention but Lukavsky’s passion is playing defense.

“Offensive is obviously but I just like playing linebacker a lot more,” Lukavsky said. “That’s what I’m looking at playing in college, it’s just always been what I’ve enjoyed.”

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker is coming off a junior season in which he established himself as one of the top two-way players in 1A.

Lukavsky made 48 tackles a year ago, including 33 solo stops and 14 tackles for loss.

He also had 4.5 sacks and a pair of interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns.

“He is going to be a great college linebacker,” Pedersen said of Lukavsky. “He has the ability to be a fullback, he’s got some size, I think he could be a rush end and I think he could be a linebacker. There are really three spots I think he could play.”

The defensive-first mindset for Lukavsky embodies the identity of the Bears this season.

West Branch brings back eight starters from a defense that allowed 14.3 points per game a year ago and allowed more than 14 points just three times.

“I think we can be even better than last year,” Lukavsky said. “We have eight of 11 guys returning on defense and we’ve added some more packages on defense so we can show more things out of the same look.”

With Lukavsky and fellow senior Wyatt Goodale (45 tackles) the Bears return two of their top three tacklers from last season.

Senior Dalyn Pedersen and junior Jeff Bowie are back on what should be an imposing West Branch defensive front.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Bowie had a team-high seven sacks last season and emerged as a major college recruit during the offseason picking up offers from the likes of Iowa, Iowa State and Nebraska.

“With Tanner and Jeff they are two really good guys to build a defense around,” senior Trey Eagle said. “I think we have all the pieces to have a really solid defense this year.”

Along with the physical pieces led by Lukavsky and Bowie the Bears also have some extra motivation this season following a 31-21 quarterfinal loss to Van Meter.

It wasn’t so much the loss that stuck with West Branch during the offseason but how the Bulldogs won, rolling up 332 rushing yards on 68 attempts.

“It definitely sticks with you when you have a game like that,” Goodale said. “It kind of stays with you for a while but I think it’s all for the good because we are going to use that this year to really bounce back.”

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