Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports 

There are times when adverse weather conditions might lessen the gap between two football teams, but that didn’t happen when Regina traveled to rain-soaked and foggy Stanwood to face North Cedar on Friday.

The Class A third-ranked Regals led 34-0 after the first quarter and cruised to a 62-0 victory, improving to 2-1 on the season.

Friday’s game marked the first time in three games this season that Regina faced the opponent it was scheduled to play heading into the season.

Regina had to reschedule games in each of its first two weeks after its first two opponents – Dyersville Beckman and Mid-Prairie – canceled due to positive tests for the coronavirus.

Regina lost to Class 4A Pleasant Valley 45-13 in the season opener, but then hung on to defeat Class 2A power Clear Lake 21-20 last Friday in Clear Lake.

Those two difficult tests had the Regals ready for Friday’s game against North Cedar, and the under-matched Knights (0-3) had no answer on either side of the line of scrimmage.

The field was engulfed by a heavy fog, but that didn’t stop Regina from finding the end zone, early and often.

It started with a Theo Kolie touchdown run, followed by another Kolie touchdown run, followed by an Ashton Cook touchdown run, followed by another Kolie touchdown run and then finally a touchdown run by Levi Quinlan.

And that was just the first quarter, which ended with Regina leading 34-0

The lead swelled to 48-0 by halftime, and the game was played with a continuous clock for the entire second half.

A continuous clock is used when a team leads by at least 35 points.

Regina almost achieved that margin in the first quarter, and head coach Marv Cook thinks that having a full week to prepare for an opponent was a key factor, even though it rained for most of the week.

“You get a chance to settle in, and get a normal game routine, although, we weren’t able to practice outside at all this week,” Cook said. “Our kids did a really nice job when we did our walk-throughs and our film studies, they were really locked in and prepared.

“In the first three weeks, we’ve really challenged them and razor-sharped them a little bit to be extra diligent of what they’re doing with their preparation. So I thought they were extremely focused tonight.”

Regina only had two days to prepare for its opponent in each of the first two weeks because neither game was finalized until late Wednesday of that week.

But with a full week to prepare for North Cedar, the Regals started quickly and didn’t let up until Cook started to empty in his bench late in the second quarter.

“With Pleasant Valley and Clear Lake, it just forces you to be incredibly sharp and crisp and playing with great pad level and intensity and focus,” Cook said. “So we just carried that over from week one and two into week three.

“And, unfortunately, for North Cedar, they were kind of on the other end of it tonight. We just got off to a great start and we’re running the ball extremely well. I’m just so excited for our guys. It’s just great to see a bunch of guys play. A bunch of guys got in late and did a lot of great things for us.”

Kolie only had five rushing attempts, but he made the most of them by scoring four touchdowns and gaining 125 yards on the ground.

“He just was slicing up the defense pretty efficiently for us,” Cook said.

Senior quarterback Ashton Cook, who is Marv Cook’s son, completed 9-of-13 passes for 108 yards and one touchdown from five yards to senior Alec Wick.

Jack Goedken and Gentry Dumont scored Regina’s last two touchdowns on runs of 21 and 2 yards, respectively, in the second half.

Dumont also had an interception to help set up his touchdown.

Regina              34  14  0  14  –  62

North Cedar    0    0   0   0   –  0

ICR – Theo Kolie 6 run (kick failed)

ICR – Kolie 16 run (Kolie run)

ICR – Ashton Cook 16 run (Andrew Denniger kick)

ICR – Kolie 49 run (Denninger kick)

ICR – Levi Quinlan 5 run (Kick failed)

ICR – Kolie 46 run (Denniger kick)

ICR – Alec Wick 5 pass from Cook (Denniger kick)

ICR – Jack Goedken 21 run (Denniger kick

ICR – Gentry Dumont 2 run (Denniger kick)

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