Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – Separately a large offensive output or a stingy defensive effort can be enough to win a state semifinal game.

Together those two things lead to titles.

Regina got both on Friday and that combination will give the Regals an opportunity to add to their championship count next week.

Third-ranked Regina rolled up 458 yards of offense and the Regal defense didn’t allow a point after halftime in a 49-28 win over third-ranked Saint Ansgar (10-1) in a Class A semifinal on Friday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

“I thought Theo did a really good job of finding the holes and the line was great and our defense was really good at stopping the run,” Regina senior quarterback Ashton Cook said. “It was just a really big team effort, everyone did their part.”

Cook passed for 251 yards and a touchdown and Theo Kolie ran for 159 yards and three scores as Regina (10-1) returned to the state title game for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.

After allowing 21 first-half points Regina held Saint Ansgar to 87 total yards and four first downs after halftime while reaching the state title game for the first time since 2017.

Regina held a Saint Ansgar team that entered averaging 352 rushing yards per game to 172 yards on the ground, limiting senior Ryan Cole who had 1,918 yards coming in to 69 yards on 17 carries.

As a result of its all-around effort Regina will face top-ranked Grundy Center (11-0) for the Class A championship on Thursday at 2 p.m.

“You watch them on film and they were daunting,” Regina coach Marv Cook said of Saint Ansgar. “They played downhill on you and they are physical and we just really challenged our guys this week and I was really proud of how they responded.”

The Regals had to respond a few times on Friday to secure its spot in the Class A title game.

Regina capped a back-and-forth first half with a buzzer-beating 2-yard touchdown run by Kolie to take a 28-21 halftime lead.

“That was a really big play,” Ashton Cook said. “I looked up at the clock and I think there were seven seconds left, probably six when we snapped it. That was really big that Theo was able to get in.”

The 2-yard run was the third touchdown of the half for Kolie who had 132 of his 159 rushing yards in the first half.

Kolie had runs of 11, 9 and 10 yards on the 9-play, 77-yard touchdown drive to end the half that all came in span of 2:09 and ended with Kolie sprinting into the end zone on the final play of the half.

“The receivers did a great job of blocking and they were able to open up a hole for me,” Kolie said. “Hats off to them.”

Regina took control early in the third quarter.

The Regina defense set the tone with a 3-and-out on the opening possession of the third quarter.

Regina’s offense followed with a 9-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 21-yard touchdown run by Cook who finished with 43 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

“The best part about us is we complement each other,” Kolie said. “If they try to stop me Ashton can always run the ball. If they try to stop the run we can always pass the ball. We are pretty balanced.”

The Regina defense forced another three-and-out on the ensuing Saint possession but Alec Wick fumbled during the punt return and Carter Salz scooped up the loose ball and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown.

Just like that the Regina lead was back down to a touchdown.

“We had two stops in a row and felt like we were really getting traction and it was a quirky thing where Alec gets hit late and the ball comes out and it’s a seven-point game again,” Marv Cook said. “It was huge to get back on top and kind of reestablish that momentum we had built up.”

Regina answered with perhaps its most impressive drive of the game.

After being sacked for an 11-yard loss on first down Cook hit Alec Wick for a 35-yard gain on second and 21 to jumpstart a 10-play, 61-yard touchdown drive.

Cook capped the drive with a 7-yard shovel pass to Levi Quinlan for a score that gave Regina a 42-28 lead with 2:16 left in the third quarter.

“I got everybody together in the huddle and I said we need to get this back and we drove down and scored,” Ashton Cook said. “There was definitely a momentum shift but we adjusted to it and we went down and scored on that drive.”

That scoring drive was the fifth consecutive Regina possession that ended with a touchdown.

All five of those touchdown drives were longer than 65 yards and took less than three and a half minutes.

“Everybody did their part on offense,” Cook said. “We were able to execute and make a bunch of big plays.”

The defense did the rest holding Saint Ansgar out of the end zone over the final 17 plus minutes of the game.

The Saints finished with 307 total yards but struggled to find running room against a swarming Regina defense.

Blake Chambliss had a team-high 7.5 tackles while Jackson Mills had six, Ronan Poynton had 5.5 and Kolie had five.

“We have a lot of guys that are able to play different positions and step up at any moment,” Kolie said of the defense. “Jackson Marx and Ronan Poynton were a big part of it today.”

Cook finished 17-of-23 passing for 251 yards with Wick hauling in nine passes for 128 yards and Quinlan catching five passes for 68 yards and a touchdown.

“This was definitely a really big win for us,” Ashton Cook said. “We knew they were a really tough team and I think they showed that, we ended up just making big plays down the stretch and our defense played really well stopping the run. They are a really run-heavy team and we held them pretty well and that was big for us.”

At UNI-Dome

ICR                 SA

First Downs                24                    13

Rushes-yards              41-207             38-172

Comp-Att-Int              17-23-0           9-17-0

Passing yards              251                  135

Total yards                  458                  307

Punts-avg.                   3-37                 5-31.2

Fumbles-lost               1-1                   1-0

Penalties-yards           4-30                 4-30

Regina                          7  21  14  7  –  49

Saint Ansgar              7  14   7   0  –  28

ICR – Ashton Cook 1 run (Alec Wick kick)

SA – Ryan Hackbart 3 pass from Ryan Cole (Sage Hulshizer kick)

ICR – Theo Kolie 6 run (Wick kick)

SA – Carter Salz 1 run (Hulshizer kick)

ICR – Kolie 3 run (Wick kick)

SA – Justin Horgen 32 run (Hulshizer kick)

ICR – Kolie 2 run (Wick kick)

ICR – Cook 21 run (Wick kick)

SA – Salz 41 fumble return (Hulshizer kick)

ICR – Levi Quinlan 7 pass from Cook (Wick kick)

ICR – Cook 1 run (Wick kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Regina: Theo Kolie 24-159, Ashton Cook 13-43, Levi Quinlan 1-5, Jack Tierney 1-2, Santana Miller 1-0, Danny Gavin 1-(-2). Saint Ansgar: Ryan Cole 17-69, Carter Salz 15-58, Justin Horgen 4-37, Lorne Isler 2-8.

PASSING – Regina: Ashton Cook 17-23-0 251. Saint Ansgar: Justin Horgen 6-14-0 116, Ryan Cole 3-3-0 19.

RECEIVING – Regina: Alec Wick 9-128, Levi Quinlan 5-68, Theo Kolie 3-55. Saint Ansgar: Ryan Cole 3-106, Bradley Hackenmiller 3-22, Taylor Hillman 1-5, Ryan Hackbart 1-3, Lorne Isler 1-(-1).

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