Your Prep Sports

Graded by the own high standard it has set through seven games top-ranked West Branch got off to a slow start in its regular season finale on Friday.

It didn’t last for long.

After going three-and-out on its opening possession of the game West Branch scored touchdown on its next eight possessions and rolled to a 54-7 win over Wilton in the regular season finale for both teams in Wilton.

West Branch improved to 8-0 on the season and will host a Class 1A opening-round playoff game next Friday at the Little Rose Bowl.

Playoff pairings are expected to be announced on Saturday morning.

Wilton closed the season at 4-4.

The Bears forced a Wilton punt on the opening possession of the game but went backwards on its first offensive series, losing seven yards in three plays.

West Branch wouldn’t be stopped again until the final drive of the game.

The Bears rattled off consecutive touchdown drives of 59, 46, 48, 88, 77, 59, 56 and 54 yards while building a 54-0 lead.

Senior tailback Andy Henson rushed for 146 yards and four touchdowns and senior quarterback Tye Hughes passed for a career-high 244 yards and two touchdowns as West Branch accumulated 442 yards of total offense.

Henson started the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run that capped a 5-play, 59-yard touchdown drive that produced the only points of the first quarter.

Kinnick Boelk scored consecutive second-quarter touchdowns on a 9-yard run and a 16-yard pass from Hughes to make the score 19-0.

Henson capped the longest Bear scoring drive of the night, an eight-play, 88-yard march that took just 2:22 with a 3-yard run.

The senior standout then gave the Bears a 33-0 halftime advantage when he ripped off a 67-yard touchdown run with 1:01 left in the first half.

Jack McCullough snagged a 29-yard scoring strike from Henson to start the second-half scoring and Henson added a 6-yard run before Cale Seydel capped the West Branch scoring with a 14-yard touchdown run.

McCullough caught two passes for 49 yards while Carver Boelk had a team-high three receptions for 90 yards and also had a pair of interceptions.

West Branch limited Wilton to 128 total yards with Henson leading the Bears with six tackles.

McCullough had five tackles including 1.5 for loss while Logan Wright had 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

                                                  WB                 WIL

First Downs                           25                    12

Rushes-yards                         32-198             27-74

Comp-Att-Int                        10-13-0           9-19-2

Passing yards                        244                  54

Total yards                            442                  128

Punts-Avg.                             2-40.5              6-39

Fumbles-lost                          1-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards                      6-70                 4-45

West Branch           7  26  14  7  –  54

Wilton                        0   0    0   7  –   7

WB – Andy Henson 5 run (Wyatt Fiderlein kick)

WB – Kinnick Boelk 9 run (Kick failed)

WB – Kinnick Boelk 16 pass from Tye Hughes (Run failed)

WB – Henson 3 run (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Henson 67 run (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Jack McCollough 29 pass from Hughes (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Henson 6 run (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Cale Seydel 14 run (Fiderlein kick)

WIL – Owen Hassell 1 run (Gatlin Rogers kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – WB: Andy Henson 17-146, Cale Seydel 5-27, Tye Hughes 4-12, Kinnick Boelk 1-9, Carver Boelk 1-7, Evan Striegel 2-0, Auron Marsh 1-(-3).

PASSING – WB: Tye Hughes 10-13-0 244.

RECEIVING – WB: Carver Boelk 3-90, Trenton Schutte 2-53, Jack McCullough 2-49, Kinnick Boelk 2-20, Andy Henson 1-32.

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