West Branch – Regina Photo Gallery

Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – For nearly a generation the Regina football team has taken the measure of rival West Branch.

It was 2005 when the Bears last beat the Regals.

On Friday night the Bears gave the Regals a taste of their own medicine, dominating the game on defense and winning 23-0.

The victory gave the Bears (7-0) the Class 1A, District 5 championship and a victory next week in the regular-season finale will give them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“It’s just crazy,” a smiling junior lineman Logan Wright said.

Regina has dominated 1A football with its defense, especially in its championship seasons.

This time it was the Bears who would not be moved.

Regina (4-3) was held to one first down in the first half and didn’t get a second until the first play of the fourth quarter.

Regina rushed for only 30 yards after averaging 148 per game in its first six games.

“We just did our basic defense, and we worked all together,” Wright said. “Everybody ran to the ball, and we made tackles. That just set the tone for the entire game. They couldn’t go anywhere.”

As good as the defense was, the Bears’ offense was sluggish at the start.

The first score came, naturally, from the defense, when senior Jack McCullough broke through the line and blocked a punt that sailed out of the end zone.

Regina struggled with field position most of the game, and this was just another incidence.

With the game still scoreless, an interception by Steven Liu gave the Regals the ball at their 14. But after a couple penalties the Regals had to punt with the ball at the 5.

McCullough came streaking in from the right side, nearly untouched, and batted the ball with his left hand.

“There was a punt before where I saw that I could kind of go in if I wanted to,” McCullough said. “So I just thought, ‘I’m going in; I’m going in; I’m going in.’ And sure enough I went in and blocked it. I had a clear lane all the way to the punter.”

For a while it looked like the two points might be a bargain for the Regals because Regina’s kickoff ended up flipping the field, as the Bears took over on their own 26 with just 4:51 left in the half.

But the offense got moving, and behind star running back Andy Henson the Bears drove 74 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

Henson accounted for 71 of the 74 yards, including an 11-yard bolt over right tackle for the TD.

“After the first touchdown we started running the ball really well and got a good push,” wideout Kinnick Boelk said.

The 9-0 margin stood at halftime.

“At halftime we told them to calm down, relax, refocus, things would be fine,” West Branch coach Butch Pedersen said. “Keep playing defense the way you’re playing, and the offense will start changing a little bit.”

“I think we were a little nervous (early),” quarterback Tye Hughes said. “I know for my part, I didn’t play the best first half, but we stayed together and kept picking each other up and played really well from then on. I wasn’t there for the first quarter, but our defense was really good. They held them to nothing. That safety sparked us.”

Regina was stifled on its possession after intermission.

The Bears marched 55 yards using a short passing game and the running of Henson.

Hughes scored the touchdown on an option around left end with Henson trailing.

A 16-0 lead is still precarious, but the way the Bears’ defense was playing it seemed bigger.

“We could see that they were hurting a little bit; they were really tired,” Wright said. “We just needed to push and push until we got more touchdowns and held them.”

Again Regina was stopped, this time by an interception by Boelk that set the Bears up at the Regal 34.

On the second play from scrimmage Hughes lofted a 33-yard pass to Trenton Schutte, who was behind the secondary, and Schutte barreled into the end zone for the 23-0 lead. He caught five passes for 67 yards.

“John Hierseman, our offensive coordinator, we’d been running bubbles all night; he saw the advantage and we took it,” Schutte said.

“We thought they were biting on (the short passes) pretty hard, so we thought we could go deep on them,” Hughes said. “I underthrew him a little bit. He was so wide open that you don’t want to overthrow. I was a little short, but he made a good play to get it into the end zone.”

Henson finished with 149 yards on 25 carries. Hughes connected on 13-of-26 passes for 126 yards and one touchdown.

But the defense shut out Regina and held it to five first downs, 30 yards rushing and 105 passing. Not to mention scoring a safety.

“It’s nice; it’s kind of a weight off your back,” Boelk said.

                                                    ICR                  WB

First downs                                5                      18

Rushing-yards                         21-30               37-184

Comp-att-int                           8-20-1             14-22-1

Passing-yards                          105                  145

Punts-avg.                               5-34                 4-31

Fumbles-lost                           3-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards                       6-46                 5-39

Regina              0  0   0   0  –  0

West Branch  0  9  14  0  –  23

WB – Safety punt blocked out of end zone by Jack McCullough

WB – Andy Henson 11 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

WB – Tye Hughes 13 run (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Trenton Schutte 33 pass from Hughes (Fiderlein kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – ICR: Levi Daniel 11-24, Jackson Naeve 3-24, Ronan Poynton 1-0, Gentry Dumont 5-(-9), Team 1-(-9). WB: Andy Henson 25-149, Tye Hughes 8-13, Carver Boelk 1-10, Kinnick Boelk 3-8.

PASSING – ICR: Gentry Dumont 8-20-1-105. WB: Hughes 12-21-1-126, Henson 1-1-0-19.

RECEIVING – ICR: Jack Hoover 2-51, Naeve 2-38, Steven Liu 3-11, Alex Jensen 1-5. WB: Trenton Schutte 5-67, Henson 2-27, Kinnick Boelk 5-23, Hughes 1-19, Carver Boelk 1-9.

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