Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – The weather was nasty, not that you could get a West Branch football player or coach to admit to it. Temperatures in the 30’s and a constant drizzle chilled hands to the bone.

But what the weather didn’t do was deter the Bears’ defense.

West Branch pitched a 23-0 shutout over North Linn in the opening round of the Class 1A playoffs at Butch Pedersen Field and will play host to rival Regina (8-2) in the quarterfinals next Friday.

The defensive roll call included:

            *The Bears held North Linn to 115 yards rushing, 81 fewer than its average.

            *The Lynx passed for just 47 yards, 80 yards fewer than their average.

            *The Bears came up with four interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

            *Three times after West Branch turnovers the defense held North Linn without a first down and forced a punt.

            *The three times North Linn went for it on fourth down the Bear defense stopped the Lynx and gained possession. All three times were in Bear territory and once it was on the West Branch 4-yard line.

“It’s the same as it’s been all year,” linebacker Tanner Lukavsky said. “We just get after them.”

 “That’s huge for the defense to put up a zero,” defensive back Trey Eagle said. “It really makes a statement to Regina, lets them know our defense is legit.”

“Our defense played very, very well,” coach Butch Pedersen said.

Meanwhile, the offense made adjustments to the weather and tried to overcome its own problems hanging on to the ball.

The Bears’ Cael Fiderlein kicked a 25-yard field goal to open the scoring after the Bears’ Wyatt Goodale had returned a punt 45 yards to the Lynx 13.

That score held up until the second quarter when Lukavsky took a handoff up the middle, made a quick cutback and was all alone the next 63 yards for a touchdown.

A West Branch punt put the Lynx deep in their own territory late in the half.

With 1:32 left, a fumble by Brennan Becker was recovered by West Branch at the North Linn 12-yard line.

On the first play from scrimmage quarterback Gavin Hierseman hit senior Dakota Kaalberg with a pass for a touchdown. It was Kaalberg’s first TD of the year, and the Bears led 16-0 at halftime.

“I ran a seam route; I came out of the backfield and I saw they had people covering it to the outside, so I slipped inside of them and Gavin just threw the ball there for me,” Kaalberg said.

Meanwhile the Bear defense was stuffing the North Linn offense.

The defensive front spent much of the night in the Lynx backfield and completely shut down the passing game.

Quarterback Austin Miller had no time to find receivers.

Junior defensive lineman Morgan Hartz said the game plan was the same as it always is and tipped his helmet to assistant coach Tyler Bailey, a former West Branch all-stater.

“Tyler Bailey makes good calls, and that just sums it up,” Hartz said.

That left the Lynx with the one-two rushing punch of Miller and Becker, but it was not enough.

“We just stressed to watch them and know where they’re at so we were watching for them,” Hartz said.

Early in the second half Lukavsky took a screen pass 54 yards for a touchdown that put the game out of reach.

The Bears caught the Lynx in a blitz and had the perfect play called.

Lukavsky caught the ball, turned and followed his blockers.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that wide open of a field ever,” he said. “Obviously I’m not fast enough to out run those guys. They were chasing me down, but my blockers got them.”

He cut across the field, following his downfield entourage as it picked off the few defensive backs that were left and went untouched into the end zone.

The game included nine turnovers and 13 penalties.

While the weather probably had nothing to do with the penalties, it had everything to do with the turnovers.

“I really underestimated it when I first touched the ball,” Eagle said. “I fumbled that one third-down conversion. But I think, we had a couple fumbles on pitches, but for the most part we did pretty well handling it in these conditions.

“We definitely had to run the ball a lot more. We couldn’t air it out as much as we usually do.”

The Bears improved to 10-0 and will face a Regina team that is 8-2.

 “We’ll see what happens now with Regina coming to town,” Pedersen said. “We’re excited. Should be a lot of fun. It’s what high school football is supposed to be about.”

                                    NL                  WB

First downs                12                    15

Rushing-yards           36-115             41-147

Comp-att-int              6-14-3              9-13-0

Passing-yards             47                    180

Punts-avg.                  5-31                 3-30

Fumbles-lost               2-2                   4-4

Penalties-yards          4-30                 9-105

North Linn       0   0   0  0  –   0

West Branch  3  13  7  0  –  23

WB – Cael Fiderlein 25 field goal

WB – Tanner Lukavsky 37 run (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Dakota Kaalberg 12 pass from Gavin Hierseman (Kick blocked)

WB – Lukavsky 54 pass from Hierseman (Fiderlein kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – NL: Austin Miller 22-66, Brennan Becker 14-49. WB: Tanner Lukavsky 21-104, Gavin Hierseman 11-47, Andy Henson 3-7, Dakota Kaalberg 1-4, team 5-(-15).

PASSING – NL: Austin Miller 6-13-2 47, Austin Hilmer 0-1-1 0. WB: Gavin Hierseman 9-13-0 180.

RECEIVING – NL: Austin Hilmer 2-42, Cade Haughenbury 1-10, Heath Moyer 1-3, Brennan Becker 1-(-4), Nathan McEnany 1-(-8). WB: Trey Eagle 5-74, Tanner Lukavsky 1-54, Wyatt Goodale 2-40, Dakota Kaalberg 1-12.

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