Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The final defensive possession for Regina in its opening round playoff win over South Winneshiek ended with a goal line stop on fourth down in double overtime.

Momentum from that stop seemed to carry over to Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with Wilton.

Regina (9-2) forced five turnovers in its first shutout of the season, a 35-0 blanking of the Beavers that returned the fourth-ranked Regals to the state semifinals for the eighth straight season.

“I think we’ve been close on defense,” Regina coach Marv Cook said. “The shutout obviously was huge and offensively we put them in a couple spots where they had short fields. At the end of the day you are trying to get a cumulative effective of minimizing points and I think it was a great effort from that stand point.”

Regina held Wilton to 205 total yards and kept dual-threat quarterback Jerome Mays under wraps and out of the end zone.

The lone player in Class 1A with 1,000 yards rushing and passing, Mays entered Friday’s quarterfinal with 35 touchdowns and better than 2,400 total yards.

Regina limited Mays to 97 yards rushing and 93 through the air of 9-of-22 passing.

The Regals made things difficult for Mays all game, finishing with 10 sacks.

Defensive linemen Steve Sehl, Luke Stein and Cole White all had two sacks while Isaac Vollstedt, Ryan Schott, Jake Phillips and Alex Moore each had one sack.

“A think a lot of it was we had seen him once and we understood that we really had to rally to the football and gang tackle and we couldn’t rely on one guy to get him down,” Cook said. “I think the lessons we learned from that first game against him really paid off the second game and we just did a better job rallying.”

Parker Eden, Phillips and Vollstedt all had interceptions and Sehl and Phillips recovered fumbles as Regina forced five turnovers against Wilton for the second time this season.

“I thought our pass coverage was pretty solid for the most part and we created some turnovers,” Cook said. “Jake Phillips made an unbelievable interception and Isaac had an interception that was big for us.”

Trumell Time

Running the football becomes critical in playoff football.

For top-ranked West High postseason time has been Trumell Roberts time in the backfield.

Roberts recorded his second straight 100-yard rushing effort on Friday, running for 130 yards on 17 carries in a 27-9 win over fifth-ranked Cedar Falls.

The 6-foot, 200-pound Roberts rumbled for a career-high 183 yards and 12 touchdowns in an opening round win over Cedar Rapids Washington and leads West High with 738 yards on the season.

1,000 and Counting

With his second straight 100-yard performance in the postseason on Friday Regina senior Isaac Vollstedt became the first area player to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark.

Vollstedt rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries in a 35-0 win over Wilton on Friday to push his season total to 1,020 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Consistently Efficient

When you are 10-0 and haven’t had a game decided by less than 19 points like top-ranked Solon this season there isn’t a lot to nitpick about.

Still if there was one area Kevin Miller wanted to see his team improve in it was offensive consistency.

The Spartans showed that consistency on Friday scoring touchdowns on eight of their 10 offensive possessions, including each of their final six in a 54-14 win over West Delaware. 4

“We know that we can throw the football what we’ve lacked is just consistency on offense,” Miller said. “We do some good things but we do them periodically and we need to be more consistent and tonight we were more consistent.

Offensive Player of the Week

Solon turned in its best offensive performance of the season in a 54-14 win over West Delaware on Friday and Cam Miller was a big part of the Spartans’ offensive explosion.

The sophomore quarterback completed 9-of-10 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns as Solon rolled up 469 yards of offense.

Miller had touchdown passes of 39 and 58 yards in the win.

Best of the Rest

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>West High senior quarterback Evan Flitz completed 12-of-18 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown in a 27-9 win over No. 5 Cedar Falls.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>Regina senior Isaac Vollstedt rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>Solon junior Adam Bock rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 20 yards in a 54-14 win over West Delaware.

Defensive Player of the Week

West High picked the perfect time for its best defensive performance of the season and senior defensive end Dillon Shephard was at the center of it.

Shephard had three tackles for loss and two sacks while racking up four tackles as West High finished with six sacks in a 27-9 win over fifth-ranked Cedar Falls.

Best of the Rest

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>West High senior linebacker Trumell Roberts had six solo stops and a sack among his team-high 9.5 tackles and also recovered a fumble in the win over Cedar Falls.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>Solon senior Greg Brandt had 3.5 tackles, 3 solos and an interception in a 54-14 win over West Delaware.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>Regina defensive linemen Cole White, Steve Sehl and Luke Stein all had two sacks as Regina finished with 10 sacks as a team in a 35-0 shutout of Wilton.