Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – If the Class 5A opening-round contest between Eastern Iowa heavyweights West High and Cedar Falls was a boxing match the two teams skipped the jabs and went straight to throwing haymakers.

In a back-and-forth brawl from the beginning it was West High that was left standing.

Campbell Janis rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns and West High got a late defensive stop in the red zone to outslug Cedar Falls 38-31 on Friday on a cool and breezy night in Cedar Falls.

“We just kept fighting,” West High head coach Garrett Hartwig said. “Cedar Falls is a great program. Coach (Brad) Remmert does a great job. It’s playoff football and you can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. It’s a playoff game and somebody has to lose and I’m glad we won and we get to play next week.”

West High improved to 8-2 with the win and advanced to the 5A quarterfinals for the second consecutive season.

The Trojans will face West Des Moines Dowling (9-1) in a Class 5A quarterfinal next Friday at 7 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines.

“It’s fun but we are on the next one,” West High senior offensive lineman Colin Whitters said. “We will celebrate this one tonight and flush it tomorrow morning and get ready for Dowling.”

Reece Wheeler threw for 219 yards and a touchdown and West High racked up over 450 yards of offense on Friday but needed all 48 minutes to outlast Cedar Falls (7-2).

Trailing 38-31 Cedar Falls had a first down at the Trojan 16 yard line with under five minutes to play when the West High defense came up with a stand.

Senior defensive end Jackson Law had his third sack of the game on second down and the Trojans forced a Leyton Wolf incompletion on fourth and 11.

“They made some plays but we just made more,” Law said. “We were more disciplined, we played harder and we got everyone to the ball and that’s what we have to do to win games.”

Janis picked up two first downs on three carries on the ensuing West High possession to secure the win.

The 175-pound Janis carried 33 times on Friday, scoring on touchdown runs of 6, 18 and 23 yards.

His final three carries went for 12, 4 and 7 yards as West High ran out the clock behind its big offensive line.

“They are just absolute animals, they are dogs,” Janis said of the West High offensive line. “They want to get violent when they need to and I love it out of them.”

Cedar Falls took an early 7-0 lead marching 93 yards in 14 plays on its first series of the game.

Senior tailback Ian Fuchtman capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

West High responded in a big way, rattling off 21 unanswered points and never trailed again.

Wheeler connected with Julian Manson for a 12-yard touchdown pass and Janis scored on runs of 6 and 18 yards in a span of four minutes and three seconds to give West High a 21-7 lead.

The Trojans led 21-10 at the half.

The second half was a back-and-forth slugfest.

“I’m just proud of our team, we kept battling,” Wheeler said. “We kept battling, we kept grinding and we came out on top.”

West High appeared to take control when Henry Elser connected with Mikey Moody on a 12-yard touchdown on a reverse pass with 11:06 remaining.

Cedar Falls wouldn’t go quietly.The Tigers scored five plays later to cut the lead to 38-31 and got the ball back with a chance to tie in the final six minutes.

“That’s a 5A playoff football game that went back and forth,” Hartwig said. “I credit Cedar Falls, they didn’t quit and they never would and neither do we.”

Wheeler finished 15-of-20 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown and also ran for 60 yards as West High racked up 454 yards of total offense.

The Trojans ran for 223 yards on 50 carries.

“I feel like we are getting cleaner and everything is getting smoother,” Wheeler said. “We are rolling into next week.”

Ethan Headings had six receptions for 75 yards for West High and Manson had five catches for 86 yards and a touchdown.

ICW                CF  

First downs                25                    14

Rushes-yards             50-223             33-143

Comp-Att-Int            16-21-0           13-18-0

Passing yards             231                  253

Total yards                454                  396

Punts-Avg.                 2-25                 1-28

Fumbles-lost              2-1                   2-2

Penalties-yards          15-98               7-60

West High                  7  14  10  7  –  38

Cedar Falls                7   3   14  7  –  31

CF – Ian Fuchtman 14 run (Cael Harms kick)

ICW – Julian Manson 12 pass from Reece Wheeler (Adam Salem kick)

ICW – Campbell Janis 6 run (Salem kick)

ICW – Janis 18 run (Salem kick)

CF – Harms 28 field goal

ICW – Salem 39 field goal

CF – Anthony Pattee 20 pass from Leyton Wolf (Harms kick)

ICW – Janis 23 run (Salem kick)

CF – Fuchtman 1 run (Harms kick)

ICW – Mikey Moody 12 pass from Henry Elser (Salem kick)

CF – Fuchtman 1 run (Harms kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICW: Campbell Janis 33-165, Reece Wheeler 13-60, Adrian DeWaard 1-3, Team 3-(-5). CF: Ian Fuchtman 26-155, Carsen Gary 1-5, Leyton Wolf 6-(-17).

PASSING – ICW: Reece Wheeler 15-20-0 219, Henry Elser 1-1-0 12. CF: Leyton Wolf 12-17-0  222, Ian Fuchtman 1-1-0 31.

RECEIVING – ICW: Ethan Headings 6-75, Julian Manson 5-86, Cade Towler 1-23, Neil James 1-17, Mikey Moody 1-12, Henry Elser 1-10, Campbell Janis 1-8. CF: Will Remmert 5-137, Carsen Gary 3-33, Trey Reuter 2-56, Ian Fuchtman 2-7, Anthony Pattee 1-20.

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