Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – It was win or possibly go home for Wilton in its regular season finale on Friday at West Branch.

For the Bears it was win for the opportunity to stay at home.

West Branch defended its home turf and in the process secured another opportunity to do it again next week.

Andy Henson rushed for 237 yards and four touchdowns as West Branch locked up a home playoff game with a 28-12 win over Wilton (5-3, 2-3) in a Class 1A, District 5 matchup at the Little Rose Bowl.

“It was pretty important for us because tonight could have been our last game on this field,” West Branch senior Cash Woody said. “We get another game on this field and that was really important to us.”

West Branch had already locked up a postseason berth before Friday but had a chance to earn a home game.

The Bears did just that as Henson hammered his way to a career-high rushing total and West Branch picked off a pair of passes while improving to 6-2 on the season and 4-1 in district play.

West Branch will host a 1A playoff opener next Friday and will learn its first-round opponent on Saturday when the Iowa High School Athletic Association releases the postseason pairings.

“We knew Wilton was going to come in and play hard because this was a play in game for them for the playoffs,” Henson said. “Even though we had already made it we wanted to get another home game for our seniors.”

Henson scored on runs of 5, 74, 4 and 19 yards on Friday while pushing his season rushing total to 1,108 yards.

The 205-pound junior had 85 yards in the second half, including 38 on a game-clinching 13-play, 70-yard fourth-quarter touchdown drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock.

“He told me at halftime ‘give me the ball I can run this sucker’,” West Branch coach Butch Pedersen said of Henson. “I said, ‘you are going to get the ball’.”

Henson gave West Branch a 14-0 lead in the second quarter when he ripped off a 74-yard touchdown run one play after the Bears stuffed Wilton on a fourth-and-three play.

The 74-yard touchdown run gave Henson 152 yards in the first half on nine carries.

“We ran an outside iso and Wyatt Fiderlein made a huge block,” Henson said. “I just took off from there.”

Wilton got back into the game with 10 seconds left before the half when senior quarterback Mason Ormsby scored on a 7-yard touchdown run to cap a 15-play, 65-yard drive by the Beavers that cut the lead to 14-6 at the half.

West Branch answered quickly after halftime.

Woody set up a 4-yard Henson touchdown run with a 44-yard reception on the opening drive of the second half.

“We ran that sometime during the first half and we came back out and ran it and the coaches said they would all bite on the bubble route,” Woody said. “I just took off and had to catch it and not fall.”

Wilton made one final charge to get back into the game with a 13-play, 69-yard march that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Ormsby that cut the lead to 21-12 with 9:26 left.

Jackson Hull had 82 rushing yards and Ormsby 61 as the Beavers rushed for 149 yards on 36 carries.

“Wilton is a very good football team they are very physical team, they have some good hard running backs and (Caden Kirkman) hurt us on the pass a little bit and we are going to have to correct some of those mistakes,” Pedersen said. “Our kids never give up, they play hard, we are 6-2 and we have a lot of kids coming back so we are going to keep getting better.”

West Branch answered quickly with it’s 13-play drive that took nearly six minutes off the clock and ended with a 19-yard touchdown run by Henson.

Woody then put the finishing touches on the win when he picked off an Ormsby pass over the middle with a little more than a minute left.

“I just dropped back into my coverage and saw the ball come out and I knew it was low enough I could jump and catch it,” Woody said. “It feels amazing and I hope we can keep it going in the playoffs.”

                                     WB                 WIL

First downs                 18                    14

Rushes-yards              42-321             36-149

Comp-Att-Int              4-6-0               12-21-2

Passing yards              68                    92

Total yards                  389                  241

Punts-avg.                   0-0                   2-40

Fumbles-lost               0-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards           4-50                 3-25

West Branch              6  8  7  7  –  28

Wilton                          0  6  0  6  –  12

WB – Andy Henson 5 run (Kick failed)

WB – Henson 74 run (Carver Boelk run)

WIL – Mason Ormsby 7 run (Run failed)

WB – Henson 4 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

WIL – Ormsby 1 run (Run failed)

WB – Henson 19 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – West Branch: Andy Henson 25-237, Carver Boelk 9-46, Wyatt Fiderlein 3-13, Peyton Miller 1-23, Kinnick Boelk 2-5, Team 2-(-3). Wilton: Jackson Hull 21-82, Mason Ormsby 13-61, Owen Hassell 2-6.

PASSING – West Branch: Carver Boelk 4-6-0 68. Wilton: Mason Ormsby 12-20-2 92, Aidan Walker 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – West Branch: Cash Woody 1-44, Holden Arnaman 2-22, Andy Henson 1-2. Wilton: Caden Kirkman 4-51, Jackson Hull 3-20, Aidan Walker 2-8, Landyn Putman 1-8, Gavin Schnepper 1-4, Clayton Guyer 1-1.

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