Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The 2025 regular season is officially in the rearview mirror for prep football teams.

Postseason play began for the four smallest classes on Friday as the three largest classes wrapped up regular season play.

All seven classes are down to 16 teams all seeking a spot in the state semifinals next month at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

West Branch coach Matt Hughes summed up the feeling for many of the coaches of the 112 teams still playing this week after his team’s 22-15 Class 2A opening-round playoff win over Denver.

“We are still playing, it’s awesome,” Hughes said. “We are still playing.”

While the weekly rewind is meant to take a look back at the previous week’s action this week it takes a quick look at what lies ahead.

Five Your Prep Sports area teams advanced to the Round of 16 this week with Liberty High and West High opening postseason play in Class 5A on Friday and Solon opening playoff action in Class 3A.

West Branch and Regina each will host second-round postseason games in Classes 2A and 1A.

Here is a first quick glance at the postseason paths for each of the five area teams.

West High (7-2) will travel to Cedar Falls (7-2) for a Class 5A playoff opener on Friday.

The winner of the Cedar Falls and West High contest will face the West Des Moines Dowling (8-1) and Waterloo West (5-4) winner in the quarterfinals.

Liberty High (8-1) will host Waukee (4-5) in a Class 5A opening-round contest for the second consecutive season.

Last season the Lightning scored the final 17 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter of a 31-14 win over the Warriors in the 5A opening round.

Waukee won three of its final four games to reach the postseason including back-to-back wins over playoff qualifiers Waukee Northwest and Waterloo West to close the season.

The winner of the opening-round matchup between Liberty High and Waukee will face the winner of Southeast Polk (5-4) and Ankeny (7-2) in the 5A quarterfinals.

Solon opens the Class 3A postseason with a rematch against WAMAC foe Benton Community (5-4)

The opening-round game in Solon will be the fourth meeting between the Solon and Benton Community  in the past two seasons.

The two teams split two games last season with Benton Community winning 21-20 in the regular season and Solon winning 34-27 in a playoff rematch.

Solon won at Benton 28-21 on September 19 this season.

The winner of the opening-round game between Solon and Benton Community would face the winner of Independence (6-3) and Winterset (6-3) in the quarterfinals.

West Branch (7-2) will host River Valley Conference rival Wilton (7-2) in a Class 2A second-round contest on Friday.

Wilton defeated West Branch 39-20 last season in West Branch.

The Wilton and West Branch winner will face the winner of Pella Christian (3-6) and PCM (8-1) in the quarterfinals.

Regina will host Cascade (7-2) in a Class 1A second-round contest on Friday.

The Regals defeated Cascade 21-7 last season in Iowa City.

The winner of the game between Regina and Cascade would face the winner of the second-round game between Pleasantville (8-1) and Hudson (5-4) in the quarterfinals.

News and Notes

Updated Unbeatens: Entering the Round of 16 in all seven classes this Friday only 20 teams in the state remain unbeaten.

Regina (9-0) and Solon (9-0) are among the remaining undefeated teams in the state and are both on a short list of undefeated in their respective classes.

Solon joins Clear Lake as the only remaining unbeaten team in Class 3A while Regina joins defending state champions Grundy Center and West Lyon as the only undefeated teams in Class 1A.

Class 4A and Class 2A each have two unbeaten teams while Class A has six unbeaten teams and 8-player has five undefeated teams.

1,000 and Counting: West High put an exclamation point on its most successful regular season since 2018 with a 42-14 win over red-hot Linn-Mar on Friday.

A couple of Trojans hit impressive personal milestones in Friday’s regular season finale.

Senior running back Campbell Janis eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark on the season rushing for a career-high 268 yards and two touchdowns in the win.

Janis has rushed for 1,128 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season and became the first 1,000-yard rusher for the Trojans since Mason Applegate ran for 1,099 yards in 2021.

Senior receiver Ethan Headings went over 1,000 yards receiving in the win over Linn-Mar hauling in six passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions.

On the season Headings has 1,062 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns on 41 receptions.

Headings gives the Trojans a 1,000-yard receiver for the second consecutive season after Mason Woods had 1,057 receiving yards last season.

Tracy Perfect Again: For the fourth time in the past six games Regina senior quarterback Kyle Tracy didn’t have an incompletion in a Regina win.

Tracy completed all five of his pass attempts for 145 yards and three touchdowns in a 69-0 win over Northeast.

The senior quarterback threw touchdown passes of 14 yards to Savion Miller, 43 yards to Drew Greve and 59 yards to Carter Slager.

On the season Tracy has completed 78-of-100 passes for 1,544 yards and 24 touchdowns with three interceptions.

Strong Close for Kabaiza: City High sophomore quarterback Chris Kabaiza had a brilliant close to his debut season.

Kabaiza closed the season with three consecutive 300-yard, multi-touchdown performances helping the Little Hawks go 2-1 in their final three games.

After throwing for a school-record tying five touchdowns in a win at Des Moines East in week seven Kabaiza threw for 326 yards and four touchdowns at Liberty High in week eight.

Kabaiza completed 18-of-21 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns in a 60-14 win over Ottumwa in the regular season finale on Friday.
In the final three games Kabaiza passed for 958 yards and 13 touchdowns while completing 79 percent (68-of-86) of his passes.

Players of the Week

Offensive player of the week: Regina junior running back Savion Miller rushed for 108 yards and three touchdowns on four carries and caught a 14-yard touchdown pass in a 69-0 win over Northeast.

Defensive player of the week: City High senior linebacker Blaine Heick had the best game of his career in the season finale against Ottumwa. Heick had 15 tackles including 13 solo stops and two tackles for loss, recovered a fumble and picked off two passes, returning one for a touchdown in a 60-14 win over Ottumwa.

Special teams player of the week: West Branch senior punter Nolan Staker averaged 46 yards per punt on four punts in a 22-15 win over Denver. Staker had a 55 yard punt and had two punts downed inside the 10 yard line pinning the Cyclones at the nine and one yard lines with punts.

Helmet stickers

Offense: West Branch senior wide receiver Brandon Pedersen had three receptions for 52 yards and also returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown in a 22-15 win over Denver.

Offense: Liberty High senior quarterback Reece Rettig completed 18-of-26 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for 30 yards and a touchdown in a 68-14 win over Muscatine.

Offense: City High junior Chayse Newton had six receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown in a 60-14 win over Ottumwa.

Offense: West High senior quarterback Reece Wheeler completed 11-of-16 passes for 150 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-14 win over Linn-Mar.

Offense: Solon junior Maddox Kelley rushed for 22 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns in a 51-2 win over Fort Madison.

Defense: West Branch senior linebacker Cooper Gates had seven tackles with 2.5 for loss and a sack in a 22-15 win over Denver.

Defense: Clear Creek Amana senior defensive back Aren Schlemme had a pair of interceptions, returning one for a touchdown and also had a 15-yard touchdown run in a 43-0 win over Oskaloosa.

Defense: Clear Creek Amana senior linebacker Wyatt Key had 3.5 tackles including 2.5 for loss and 1.5 sack and an interception in a 43-0 win over Oskaloosa.

Defense: West High sophomore defensive lineman Ashten Holmes had 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack among three tackles in a 42-14 win over Linn-Mar.

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