Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina’s first set of downs was inauspicious.

Three plays netted two yards and a punt followed. But the punt was allowed to bounce and it hit the would-be West Liberty returner and bounced away.

Ty Joss was on it, and all of a sudden the Regals had a reprieve.

It took eight plays to move 27 yards, but Gentry Dumont’s pass to Jackson Naeve by the goal-line pylon produced a touchdown and elicited a giant sigh of relief.

Regina had scored its first points of the season and thereafter dominated the Comets for a 49-14 victory.

“It did help, definitely to get down there and get on the board,” Regina coach Jason Dumont said. “We missed a block and then we had a missed assignment on one of the pass plays, and the first thing you know you’re behind the sticks. Offensively we kind of just took off from there.”

“It gave us all the momentum,” Regina’s Jack Tierney said. “It gave us the spark we needed to go down and score and we kind of took over.”

“It gave us the confidence we needed to take off,” Naeve said.

The opportunistic Regals got a second touchdown about a minute later when Tierney picked off a Drake Collins pass and weaved his way 35 yards for the score and a 14-0 lead.

“We were preparing all week for the quarterback who likes to roll out,” Tierney said. “Sometimes he runs and sometimes he passes.  I saw him roll out and he overthrew the receiver, and I saw it and then I was just running, trying find holes.”

Naeve nudged Tierney to mention the fine blocking he received en route to the end zone.

The Regal defense held the Comets without a first down in the first half. The Comets had just 9 yards total offense in the half.

The game got away from the visitors in the second quarter when Regina scored four touchdowns.

With Tierney at quarterback the Regals drove 56 yards, all on the ground, and senior Ronan Poynton rumbled 24 yards through the middle for the score.

Two plays later Poynton turned around and intercepted a Collins pass and returned it to the Comet 17.

The Regals turned that into another TD two plays later and had a 28-0 lead.

“We repped it all week,” Poynton said. “And I saw it. I knew every time he rolled out I had a chance to bait him. I knew it was coming. He was a player we needed to account for, and we knew that.”

After stuffing the Comets the Regals had another short field.

On the first play from scrimmage, Gentry Dumont threw a gorgeous 34-yard pass to Naeve for a 35-0 lead.

“We were going to run something short, but we knew if they came up we could beat then over the top,” Naeve said. “It was another great throw.”

The Comets scored on Regina’s only big mistake of the half when Josh Zeman picked up a muffed punt and ran 25 yards for the TD.

But Regina responded with another TD drive in the final 3 minutes of the half.

The Regals drove 91 yards in eight rushing plays, the key being a 58-yard read option by Tierney, for their fourth TD of the quarter and a 42-6 halftime margin.

Regina used both Dumont and Tierney at the quarterback position and coach Dumont said that will continue.

“We’ve got two quarterbacks who are extremely talented and they both bring something different to the team, so it’d be crazy not to use them,” coach Dumont said.

After losing 31-0 last week to 2A power Williamsburg and accumulating only 26 yards of offense the Regals emerged Friday.

Dumont connected on 6-of-8 passes for 77 yards. The Regals rushed for 186 yards in a game shortened by the 35-point mercy rule.

“I think we’re light years ahead of where we were last week,” Tierney said. “We worked hard this week to clean up the mistakes we made last week. We wanted to play the Regal football that we know how to play.”

West Liberty   0   6   0  8  –  14

Regina            14  28  7  0  –  49

ICR – Jackson Naeve 12 pass from Gentry Dumont (Evan Lacina kick)

ICR – Jack Tierney 35 interception return (Lacina kick)

ICR – Ronan Poynton 24 run (Lacina kick)

ICR – Chris Waikel 5 run (Lacina kick)

ICR – Naeve 34 pass from Dumont (Lacina kick)

WL – Josh Zeman 25 fumble recovery (run failed)

ICR – Tierney 1 run (Lacina kick)

ICR – Alex Jensen 4 pass from Dumont (Lacina kick)

WL – Mason Young 35 pass from Drake Collins (Collins run)

WL                   ICR

First downs                             3                      12

Rushing-yards                       7-(-10)             34-186

Comp-att-int                          15-22-3           6-9-0

Passing-yards                        63                    77

Punts-avg.                               4-29                 2-33

Fumbles-lost                           1-1                   1-1

Penalties-yards                     8-78                 5-30

Individual statistics

RUSHING – WL: Mason Young 1-(-2), Josh Zeman 1-(-2), Drake Collins 5-(-7). ICR: Jack Tierney 5-83, Ronan Poynton 6-58, Chris Waikel 11-43, William Aitchison 5-33, Colin Baker 1-(-2), Gentry Dumont 5-(-11), team 1-(-16).

PASSING – WL: Collins 15-22-3 63. ICR: Dumont 6-8-0 77, Tierney 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – WL: Ty Jones 5-27, Zeman 4-19, Young 2-8, Blaze Maas 1-4, Morgan Lehman 1-4, No. 86 1-4, Jayce McHugh 1-(-3). ICR: Naeve 4-63, Steven Liu 1-10, Alex Jensen 1-4.

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