Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

There’s something memorable about Cedar Falls in autumn. No, no one has written a song to that effect, but Regina fans think its true.

Regina’s football team returns to its home away from home in the UNI-Dome for a 1A semifinal after a convincing 35-0 victory over Wilton Friday at Regina Field.

Regina plays Pella Christian on Saturday at 10:06 a.m. The two teams met last year in the quarterfinals with the Regals advancing before falling in the championship game.

The Regals (9-2) had to play their starters most of the game, something they didn’t do much against 1A competition this season, and the first half was a struggle offensively. But the result was the same.

The Regal defense shut out the Beavers on their first two deep drives into Regina territory in the first quarter. A sack halted a drive on a fourth-and-7 at the Regal 14. On Wilton’s next possession it reached the Regina 19, but a 35-yard field goal attempt went wide.

“They made some big plays early on; we just knew we had to stop them defensively,” junior lineman Luke Stein said. “Eventually we got things going offensively, and we got it done.”

Later in the second quarter Regina’s Jake Phillips and Isaac Vollstedt both picked off passes in Wilton territory, the second setting up a 22-yard, six-play Regal drive for a touchdown that left Regina with a 15-0 lead at halftime.

“We wanted to establish tempo,” Stein said of the halftime plan. “That’s kind of our signature. We wanted to play fast offensively, get them tired and wear them down.”

While the Wilton offense was primarily limited to runs and scrambles by quarterback Jerome Mays, it still caused headaches for linemen who had to spend all game chasing the slippery junior.

“He’s quick,” Stein said. “He’s really fast. If we got pressure on him he was going to escape. So we game-planned all week on how we were going to contain him.

“We had a similar game plan defensively to what we had in game six (a 49-7 regular-season victory at Wilton). We really didn’t change up much; we knew what we had to do.”

Wilton got into Regina territory only twice in the second half, after Regina built a 35-0 lead and began substituting.

Regina’s defense came up with five turnovers including recovering a fumbled punt on the Wilton 6. That was promptly converted into a Vollstedt TD run.

“That’s a good Wilton team, give props to them, but I feel like our defense was really prepared for them,” Vollstedt said.

Regina’s offense wasn’t a thing of beauty, especially in the first half when field position was a problem.

“Wilton played great,” Regina coach Marv Cook said. “I thought the kids were great playmakers. They played tough and disciplined. They changed up some coverage stuff that caused us to be a little conservative.”

Stifled early, the Regals put together a grinding, 13-play, 80-yard drive to score the first touchdown three minutes into the second quarter.

The offensive line started opening holes, and Vollstedt, Phillips and Michael Conlon took advantage.

“They were playing good football, but field position and I don’t know if we were as sharp as we wanted to be,” Vollstedt said, trying to explain the slow start.

The Regals scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half to put the game away.  All three drives started in Wilton territory after the defense stuffed the Beavers’ offense.

“We made a few adjustments on offense and a few adjustments on defense,” Vollstedt said. “The line was doing a great job, and we were pounding the ball.”

“Isaac just really carried the load when he had to,” Cook said.

Vollstedt, who played last week despite an ankle injury, gained 152 hard-earned yards.

“I felt a lot better than last week,” Vollstedt said. “Last week I was still 70, 80 percent. This week I felt closer to full speed. I’m hoping to get to full speed next week.”

Wilton (9-2) did a good job gumming up Regina’s passing game. Conlon completed 8-of-15 passes for just 44 yards and had one interception. But November playoff games in 30-degree weather are usually decided by running the ball, and the Regals did it well enough to win.

                               WIL              ICR

First downs            11                 13

Rushing-yards        35-97            43-215

Comp-att-int            9-22-3           9-17-1

Passing-yards        93                 53

Punts-avg.              3-31              3-32

Fumbles-lost           2-2                4-1

Penalties-yards      7-37.5           1-12

Wilton    0  0    0   0  –  0

Regina    0 15  13  7  – 35

ICR – Michael Conlon 6 run (Conlon run)

ICR – Jake Phillips 3 run (Isaac Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Conlon 1 run (kick failed)

ICR – Vollstedt 6 run (Vollstedt kick)

ICR – Alec Wick 8 pass from Conlon (Vollstedt kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – WIL: Jerome Mays 27-88, Trey Brisker 6-16, Cory Anderson 1-7, team 1-(-14); ICR: Isaac Vollstedt 25-152, Michael Conlon 10-33, Jake Phillips 4-19, Ryan Schott 1-5, Nicholas Milder 2-(-1), team 1-(-3).

PASSING – WIL: Jerome Mays 9-22-3-93; ICR: Michael Conlon 8-15-1-44, Ashton Cook 1-2-0-9.

RECEIVING – WIL: Cory Anderson 4-61, Trey Brisker 3-12, Brock Hartley 1-12, Collin McCrabb 1-8; ICR: Jake Phillips 5-39, Bryce Barnett 1-9, Alec Wick 1-8, Ryan Schott 1-0, No. 46 1-(-3).