Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WILTON – Back-to-back losses don’t go over very well in a program that has lost a total of four games over the past three seasons combined.

Gavin Hierseman and his West Branch teammates found that out in the days leading up to Friday’s road trip to Wilton.

“The last few weeks practices have been hard to say the least,” Hierseman said straight faced. “It’s been hard on us all.”

On Friday the Bears got back to what is expected at West Branch.

Hierseman threw four touchdown passes as West Branch (2-2, 1-1) snapped a two-game losing skid with a 43-8 win over Wilton (1-3, 0-2) in a Class 1A, District 5 matchup in Wilton.

“Last year we had a heck of a team and we didn’t blow teams out like this,” Hierseman said. “Growing up watching West Branch football this is like what I remember watching. Tonight, this was West Branch football and it showed what kind of potential we have on this team.”

Hierseman was picked off twice last week in a 21-14 loss to Cascade as West Branch lost consecutive games for the first time since 2016.

The senior quarterback was razor sharp Friday as the Bears got back on track in a big way at the expense of the Beavers.

Hierseman completed his first six passes and finished 16-of-22 for 253 yards and four scores as West Branch rolled up a season-high 466 yards of total offense.

“We needed that. There were a lot of young guys that I think were a little worried going 1-2, that’s not a West Branch start. After losing last week, we said ‘we aren’t going to do this any more’,” Hierseman said. “We are a scary team and that’s what we showed tonight and we are going to build off of this.”

Hierseman threw three first-half touchdown passes, two to sophomore speedster Carver Boelk, as the Bears bolted to a 33-0 lead at intermission.

While Hierseman was locked in from the start it was actually the West Branch defense that set the tone early.

West Branch forced the Beavers to go 3-and-out on each of their first two possessions and the Bear offense followed each punt with a score.

“That was a hurtful game last week and this week we really worked hard on defense,” West Branch senior linebacker Kaleb Sexton said. “We really found out on defense what we need to do. We just had to be more connected and I think we did that tonight.”

After the West Branch defense forced a punt on the Beavers’ opening drive Cael Fiderlein capped a 12-play drive with a 28 yard field goal that put West Branch up 3-0 with 4:12 in the first quarter.
Wilton went 3-and-out on its second drive and on the first play following a punt Hierseman hit Boelk in stride for a 59-yard touchdown strike and a 10-0 lead.

“We know we’ve come out flat every week so emotion was everything this week,” Hierseman said. “We got that first drive, that got everyone going and from that we never let up.”

The West Branch defense set up another Fiderlein field goal when Andy Henson picked off a Caleb Sawvell pass and returned it to the Beaver 10 yard line.

On the first play Following another Wilton punt Henson ripped off an 87-yard touchdown run that put West Branch up 21-0 with 10:12 left in the opening half.

“We need a win bad,” West Branch coach Butch Pedersen said. “We played a good game against Tipton, we played not very good against West Liberty and last week we came back and rallied in that fourth quarter and I think showed a lot of character and this week we knew we had to get out here and win this football game. We played extremely well.”

Seven first-half offensive possessions for Wilton produced three first downs, 55 yards of offense and ended with four punts, two interceptions and a fumble.

West Branch scored points following all three Beaver turnovers.

Sexton picked off a pass on fourth down that set up a 32-yard scoring strike from Hierseman to Boelk.

Brady Hunger hopped on a fumble with 52 seconds left in the opening half that led to a 5-yard pitch and catch from Hierseman to Simon Palmer with 6 seconds left in the first half.

“We needed a game like this,” Sexton said. “It felt so good once we started scoring touchdowns and offense and defense both started playing really well.”

Sexton spearheaded a West Branch defensive effort that limited Wilton to 164 yards and forced three turnovers coming up with two sacks to go with his interception.

Fiderlein and Morgan Hartz each added a sack as West Branch held Wilton to 32 yards rushing.

“We’ve been working really hard and we were focused coming into this game,” Sexton said. “We knew we needed to come out and play tough tonight.”

WB                 WIL

First downs                 19                    8

Rushes-yards              33-213             25-32

Comp-Att-Int              16-22-0           11-18-2

Passing yards              253                  132

Total yards                  466                  164

Punts-avg                    2-33.5              6-36

Fumbles-lost               0-0                   1-1

Penalties-yards           12-91               8-75

 

West Branch              10  23  7  3  –  43

Wilton                         0    0   8  0  –   8

WB – Cael Fiderlein 28 field goal

WB – Carver Boelk 59 pass from Gavin Hierseman (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Fiderlein 22 field goal

WB – Andy Henson 87 run (Hierseman run)

WB – Boelk 32 pass from Hierseman (Kick failed)

WB – Simon Palmer 5 pass from Hierseman (Run failed)

WB – Palmer 32 pass from Hierseman (Fiderlein kick)

WIL – Colby Sawvell 42 pass from Caleb Sawvell (Colby Sawvell pass from Caleb Sawvell)

WB – Fiderlein 29 field goal

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – West Branch: Andy Henson 17-165, Gavin Hierseman 4-21, Dominic Culver 6-20, Kinnick Boelk 1-4, Peyton Miller 1-3, Kaleb Sexton 1-2, Team 1-(-2). Wilton: Jackson Hull 11-47, Kael Brisker 2-6, Aiden Walker 1-4, Caleb Sawvell 11-(-25).

PASSING – West Branch: Gavin Hierseman 16-22-0 253. Wilton: Caleb Sawvell 11-18-2 132.

RECEIVING – West Branch: Kaleb Sexton 4-46, Peyton Miller 4-30, Carver Boelk 3-109, Simon Palmer 3-52, Kinnick Boelk 1-5, Andy Henson 1-3. Wilton: Colby Sawvell 5-65, Jackson Hull 2-36, Caden Kirkman 2-16, Gage Rosenkild 1-10, Gavin Schnepper 1-5.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.