Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – West Branch battled.

For four quarters the Bears scratched and clawed defensively while hanging around with Waterloo Columbus.

West Branch just couldn’t land enough blows on offense to outlast the Sailors.

Waterloo Columbus (1-1) got a rushing and passing touchdown from senior quarterback Carter Gallagher while outslugging West Branch 17-6 on Friday on a damp evening at the Little Rose Bowl in West Branch.

“They were giving a good effort, they were trying as hard as they possibly could and that’s all we’ve ever asked kids to do, ever since I’ve been here,” veteran West Branch coach Butch Pedersen said. “If they give a good effort and they do everything they possibly can as a team then I’m going to be happy no matter what the outcome is.”

West Branch did enough defensively to be in the game.

The Bears limited Waterloo Columbus to 106 yards on the ground and 240 total yards but couldn’t must much on offense.

West Branch finished with 93 yards of total offense, including just 37 yards on the ground on 27 carries while dropping to 1-1 on the season.

“Offensively we need to keep looking at some things to try to open things up a little bit,” Pedersen said. “I didn’t think we blocked very well early and I thought the backs ran a little tentative early and certainly we have a lot of room to improve in that area.”

Following a scoreless first quarter Waterloo Columbus took advantage of some good field position to take an early lead.

After forcing West Branch to punt from its own 10 yard line the Sailors took over at the Bear 48 and put together an 11-play touchdown drive that ended with Gallagher scoring on a 1-yard plunge.

The Gallagher touchdown came on the third consecutive quarterback sneak by the Sailors after the senior quarterback set up a first and goal from the one with a 12-yard run.

“I thought early we were a little sluggish on defense,” Pedersen said. “I thought then the defense started to get it together and get after them.”

West Branch got on the board when junior quarterback Carver Boelk capped an eight-play, 43-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 7-6 with 3:23 left in the first half.

Another West Branch goal line stand held the Sailors to a 27-yard field goal with 56 seconds left in the first half as Waterloo Columbus took a 10-6 lead into the locker room at the half.

West Branch had chances to take the lead but went three-and-out on its first six possessions of the second half.

“We are still lacking the consistency on offense,” Pedersen said. “We aren’t block who they supposed to be block, our reads are poor, we dropped some passes. We have to take a good long look at who we have on the field and what we have coming back the rest of the season and in the future.”

Waterloo Columbus took control of the game when Gallagher connected with senior wideout Caden Hartz for a 22-yard touchdown strike with 3:43 left in the third quarter.

Hartz finished with five receptions for 113 yards while Gallagher threw for 134 yards and ran for a team-high 47 yards.

“They are very good and I give them a lot of credit,” Pedersen said. “I’d like to play them again, I think we are going to improve we have a bunch of kids that care for one another and that’s

Andy Henson rushed for 42 yards for West Branch and Boelk threw for 56 yards.

Senior linebacker Cole Bailey had a pair of sacks among a team-high 13 tackles to lead the West Branch defensive effort while Brady Hunger had 11 stops and Logan Wright had a sack.

“I’m not happy that we lost of course but I do see some glimpses,” Pedersen said. “I see some things we can work on, some things we can improve and that’s going to start tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock.”

                                    WB                 WC

First downs                 5                      12

Rushes-yards              27-37               44-106

Comp-Att-Int              6-17-2             10-18-1

Passing yards              56                    134

Total yards                  93                    240

Punts-avg.                   7-40                 6-33.2

Fumbles-lost               3-0                   1-1

Penalties-yards           2-13                 2-15

West Branch                            0   6   0  0  –  6

Waterloo Columbus             0  10  7  0  –  17

WC – Carter Gallagher 1 run (Ben Trost kick)

WB – Carver Boelk 17 run (Kick failed)

WC – Trost 27 field goal

WC – Caden Hartz 22 pass from Gallagher (Trost kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – West Branch: Andy Henson 14-42, Kinnick Boelk 1-1, Carver Boelk 11-(-5), Team 1-(-1). Waterloo Columbus: Carter Gallagher 19-47, Josh Heine 14-41, Caleb Holthaus 6-29, Caden Hartz 2-(-1), Team 3-(-10).

PASSING – West Branch: Carver Boelk 6-17-2 56. Waterloo Columbus: Carter Gallagher 10-18-1 134.

RECEIVING – West Branch: Holden Arnaman 2-20, Cash Woody 2-7, Wyatt Fiderlein 1-29, Andy Henson 1-0.  Waterloo Columbus: Caden Hartz 5-113, Ben Trost 2-10, Josh Heine 1-7, Nick Merrifeld 1-4, Caleb Holthaus 1-0.

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