Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – If West Branch is to claim a district title this year, it begins with two stout opponents in consecutive weeks.

One down.

One more awaits.

Senior Andy Henson ran for 164 yards and scored four touchdowns while leading a defensive effort that surrendered just 61 total yards as the Class 1A second-ranked Bears mauled No. 7 Mediapolis, 35-13, in a top-10 prep football district tussle at Butch Pedersen Field inside The Little Rose Bowl.

“We just took it personal,” Henson said. “They took us out my sophomore year. Hit me really hard. Kept training. We ended up beating them last year. Record was 1-1 against them. Someone had to come home and win it all.”

The two teams split their two matchups over the past two seasons.

Mediapolis ended the Bears’ 2020 season with a 20-13 playoff victory at The Little Rose Bowl before West Branch won by a field goal at Mediapolis in last year’s district game.

Sixteen seconds in, the rubber match had the look of another back-and-forth battle courtesy of an electrifying 95-yard touchdown return of the game’s opening kickoff by Mediapolis senior speedster Anthony Isley.

“We were disappointed, obviously, in the first kickoff going back,” West Branch Coach Butch Pedersen said. “But we didn’t panic. We stayed together. We kept fighting. We kept battling and I think we wore them down. I think we got them a little discouraged because they had a hard time stopping our offense.”

West Branch shook off the opening salvo and calmly, methodically went to work on offense.

The Bears took advantage of great field position – three of their first four drives started within three yards of midfield – and produced a trio of first-half touchdown drives.

Henson sandwiched scoring bursts of four and three yards around a 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tye Hughes to senior receiver Carver Boelk.

“The line just being dominant,” Henson said. “We wanted it more, obviously. I was running hard downhill, everyone on the line doing great, that is about it. Tye doing well on his reads, wide receivers blocking, everyone. Whole team effort.”

Henson – a Minnesota State commit – ran for two more scores in the second half and also accounted for a successful two-point conversion when he received a pass from Hughes. Depending on other outcomes, Henson’s 17 total touchdowns and 15 on the ground may be enough to take over the 1A lead in both categories.

“Just a complete, all-around athlete,” Pedersen said. “Offensively, defensively. I think he will play linebacker up there and he has improved so much as a linebacker. All he is going to do is get better and better.”

Isley entered the game ranked second in 1A in rushing yards (756) and fifth with 8.4 yards per carry, but was limited to just seven yards via 17 carries – many by taking a direct shotgun snap from the center – and one short touchdown in the final seconds against the stout West Branch defense.

“We have just been watching film, saw all their plays and called them out before they even ran them,” junior linebacker Reese Trepanier said. “We knew where he was going and we stopped him pretty well.”

Hughes finished with 141 passing yards and 85 rushing for West Branch (5-0, 2-0 District 5), which has outscored its five opponents this season to the tune of 169-38.

Boelk collected three receptions for 64 yards.

Mediapolis is now 4-1 overall and 1-1 in District 5.

West Branch gets another stiff district test when it visits fifth-ranked Durant next Friday.

Both teams will enter the game with identical 5-0, 2-0 records.

“Our slogan this year was ‘No Entitlement,’” Pedersen said. “That is what we are going to keep pushing. Don’t be satisfied. We could have done better. We are going to get better, so that is the way you have to do it, I think. We play one game at a time. It is an old cliche, obviously, you’ve heard five-thousand times. But it is pretty true.”

                                        MED               WB

First Downs               5                      16

Rushes-yards             36-42               52-249

Comp-Att-Int            4-9-0               10-13-0

Passing yards            19                    141

Total yards                61                    390

Punts-avg                   7-47                 3-33.3

Fumbles-lost              1-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards         5-45                 5-55

Mediapolis                 7   0   0   6  –  13

West Branch              14  7  14  0  –  35

MED – Anthony Isley 95 kickoff return (Drew Miller kick)

WB – Andy Henson 4 run (kick failed)

WB – Carver Boelk 34 pass from Tye Hughes (Hughes pass to Andy Henson)

WB – Henson 3 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

WB – Henson 11 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

WB – Henson 2 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

MED – Isley 8 run (kick blocked)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – MED: Anthony Isley 17-7, Noah Schmidgall 1-2, Ben Egan 15-(-14), Jackson Hutcheson 2-52, Team 1-(-5). WB: Tye Hughes 16-85, Andy Henson 36-164.

PASSING – MED: Ben Egan 4-9-0 19. WB: Tye Hughes 9-12-0 141.

RECEIVING – MED: Trent Hicks 1-1, Aedin Nelson 1-8, Anthony Isley 1-1, Jackson Hutcheson 1-9. WB: Carver Boelk 3-64, Kinnick Boelk 1-15, Jack McCullough 1-18, Trenton Schutte 2-25, Andy Henson 1-9, Jake Swisher 1-10.

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