Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina’s unbeaten season and its 20-game winning streak both dissolved in a 21-7 loss Friday night in the second round of the Class 1A playoffs.

Unheralded MFL-Mar-Mac had the offense to match Regina’s stout defense and dominated field position and time of possession in the crucial first half.

The Bulldog defense completely bottled up the Regal offense until it scored with only 4 minutes left in the game.

The Regals finished the season 9-1, while the Bulldogs improved to 8-2 as they will head to Dyersville Beckman for the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

“I’m really proud of the kids,” Regina coach Jason Dumont said. “It just wasn’t our night tonight.”

MFL Mar-Mac scored a touchdown on its first possession with a 65-yard drive in which it converted one fourth-down play.

A wide-open Karter Decker caught a 37-yard TD pass from Carver Blietz-Bentien for the score.

“Our blockers did really well and gave us good protection for the quarterback,” Decker said. “He made a super good throw there. I was open and I made the catch.”

Regina tried to counter early in the second quarter with a drive that reached the Bulldogs’ 37-yard line, but an interception and return by Wyatt Powell set the Bulldogs up at midfield.

Three plays later Cullen McShane raced around left end 22 yards for the score.

“At some point we knew we were going to have to throw the football,” Dumont said. “This is one of those games, a little bit windy, wet night. We were close on a lot of stuff.”

Again the Regals moved the ball into MFL territory but turned it over on downs at the Bulldog 30.

And the Bulldogs turned that possession into a third TD when Blietz-Bentien faked a dive play and gave the ball to Decker on a sort of jet sweep with a great cutback for 33 yards.

“I went out to the right and our lineman was kind of looking at me and there was no one for him to block,” Decker said. “And I just said, ‘Just keep going; just go.’ And he went and he picked up a block, and I made a cut and the rest is history I guess.”

MFL-Mar-Mac’s offense is something like a Wing-T with slots and one or two backs. Sometimes no wide receiver is in, although usually the formation included one guy split wide.

It thrives on deception and the talent of Decker, McShane and Gabe McGeough.

“They are really good at running what they run,” Dumont said.

“The Wing-T, the option, it’s always a tough offense to prepare for,” Regina quarterback Jack Tierney said. “Our coach put in a great game plan, they just beat us tonight.”

“It’s tough to stop our offense because we have two or three guys going on fakes on every play,” Decker said. “You don’t know who has the ball most of the time. Up front our offensive linemen knew who they had to block and really communicated well on the offensive line. Our backs are going to run hard, and we’re going to make plays.”

A 21-0 halftime margin was enough considering how well the MFL defense was playing.

Regina had 70 yards rushing and 27 passing in the first half and never had good field position to start a drive.

“They were doing some stuff inside,” Tierney said. “They were getting past our blockers. They just had a very strong defense. But our guys gave 100 percent effort all night. I love playing with them.”

Regina’s defense made adjustments in the second half and kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard. The Regals limited MFL to 191 yards rushing, 90 less than its average. But the damage had been done.

“I’m going to take the blame on the first half,” Dumont said. “We put in a little bit different defense in there, and then I switched it back at halftime and I think that helped quite a bit. We got quite a few stops.

“They’re really good at what they do, and we just weren’t able to get much rolling offensively.”

Regal running back Levi Daniel went over 1,000 for the season after two carries.

He ended up with 41 yards total, as the Regals were unable to rush the ball effectively.

                                    MFL               ICR

First downs                 14                    15

Rushing-yards            43-191             25-76

Comp-att-int               3-6-0               15-32-1

Passing yards              66                    138

Punts-avg                    5-40                 4-30.5

Fumbles-lost               0-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards           5-35                 1-10

MFL-Mar-Mac         7  14   0   0  –  21

Regina                        0   0    0   7  –   7

MFL – Karter Decker 37 pass from Carver Blietz-Bentien (Jonah Wille kick)

MFL – Cullen McShane 22 run (Wille kick)

MFL – Decker 33 run (Wille kick)

ICR – Jack Tierney 1 run (Andrew Deninger kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – MFL-Mar-Mac: Cullen McShane 14-70, Karter Decker 10-66, Gabe McGeough 17-62, Carver Blietz-Bentien 1-(-6), Team 1-(-1). Regina: Levi Daniel 13-41, Jack Tierney 6-32, Gentry Dumont 6-3.

PASSING – MFL-Mar-Mac: Blietz-Bentien 3-6-0 66. Regina: Tierney 7-20-0 85, Dumont 8-12-1 53.

RECEIVING – MFL-Mar-Mac: Decker 1-37, Kaden Stocker 1-26, McShane 1-3. Regina: Sam Aitchison 7-56, Blake Chambliss 4-32, Jackson Naeve 2-22, Daniel 1-20, Tierney 1-2.

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