Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Most of the talk about the West High football team this fall has seemed to center on the offense.

When a team has a Division I caliber quarterback leading an offense averaging nearly 40 points and 400 yards per game that tends to be what dominates the discussion.

That’s the case at West High where Marcus Morgan has the Trojan offense running in high gear.

Senior linebacker Kalen Haworth is the first to acknowledge the offensive adulation this season is more than justified.

Haworth also doesn’t have a problem pointing out the Trojans can do a lot more than just score.

“People know that we have an explosive offense that can make big plays but our defense steps up when we need to step up,” Haworth said. “We sort of have that chip on our shoulder because people know about how good our offense is but we feel like we can step up any time.”
Haworth and his defensive teammates will have an opportunity to step up on a big stage on Friday when seventh-ranked West High (6-0) travels to No. 4 Pleasant Valley (9-0) for a Class 4A quarterfinal at 7 p.m.

Pleasant Valley presents one of the unique challenges of the season for a stout West High defense with a triple option offense that ranks second in 4A with 292 rushing yards per game.

It’s a challenge that Haworth and the Trojans are looking forward to after holding sixth-ranked Dubuque Hempstead to seven second-half points in a 38-24 win last week.

“Last week Hempstead passed a lot so we’re looking forward to this challenge of playing a good running team,” Haworth said. “It’s always fun to just be constantly hitting somebody.”

Haworth and fellow senior linebacker Ian McAreavy both saw action last season as West High went 4-5 and missed a spot in the postseason.

This year the duo has been the backbone of a Trojan linebacking corps that has become the heart of an improved West High defense.

“We are never going to be the biggest team out there but it’s a credit to the work that they put in during the offseason,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “We focus on speed and explosiveness in this program more than anything and size is important but our defense is representative of what we try to do in the offseason with undersized guys that are quick and aggressive.”

West High allowed 22 points and 311 total yards per game during its 4-5 season a year ago.

Those are hardly what would be considered porous defensive statistics.

Still, they weren’t good enough for West High to reach the playoffs.

Led by McAreavy and Haworth and behind the play of the rest of the defense those numbers have dripped dramatically this fall.

West High is holding teams to 15.8 points and 270 total yards this season while allowing just 146 rushing yards per game.

“We’ve been working hard on defense,” McAreavy said. “We have a really good coaching staff on that side of the ball that helps us a lot get the right looks.”

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound McAreavy is a fearless hitter that has amassed a team-high 47.5 tackles from his outside linebacker spot.

“He’s been awesome,” Hartwig said. “He is tough, he’s smart out there and he’s probably the best open-field tackler on our team.”

Opposite McAreavy is the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Haworth who has made 40.5 tackles this season.

Haworth and McAreavy have teamed up for 7.5 tackles for loss.

“He has a year of experience which helps a lot, he did put on some size and strength but I think a year of experience has really showed the game down for him,” Hartwig said of Haworth. “He’s tough and he’s fast. He’s one of the top 10 fastest guys on our team and he’s a linebacker.”

Senior Dijon Genus and junior Boaz Abramoff round out a linebacker group that has been a key in West High’s defensive success this season.

All four linebackers rank in the top five on the team in tackles and have combined for 130 stops including 15 behind the line of scrimmage.

“Ian and I played last year so we have played through it all,” Haworth said. “We have chemistry this year at linebacker and we have the guys that can make plays.”

The biggest test of the season for the linebackers and the West High defense in general comes Friday in the form of the Pleasant Valley triple option.

An unorthodox offense in high school football in 2020, the first step in stopping the triple option is not trying to do too much.

“Coach has been on us all week about playing that assignment football,” McAreavy said. “You have to do your assignment.”

If that’s the first step the second step for West High is attempting to tackle the duo of Pleasant Valley junior quarterback Barrett Lindmark and senior running back Caden Kipper.

The two have combined to run for 1,565 yards and 12 touchdowns helping the Spartans rank second in 4A with 7.8 yards per carry.

“You don’t really even see an option team like that,” Haworth said. “Their quarterback is fast and he’s good and their running back comes in hard so it just comes down to assignment football and doing a job.”

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