Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West football coach Garrett Hartwig said Friday’s season opening 28-7 victory was a coach’s dream.

“Because you get the win, but you’ll sure get to hammer the boys a little bit,” he said, smiling.

West overcame three turnovers and 10 penalties to grab the victory over the Class 3A Lancers.

A big-play offense directed by two different quarterbacks and a defense that shut down the Lancers’ running game were keys.

In the first quarter both offenses were sluggish.

North Scott took advantage of a West High fumble and got as far as the Trojan 15 before just missing a 39-yard field goal on fourth down.

Quarterback Joey Kuehn took the first snap and threw downfield to a streaking Jalen Gaudet, who had gotten behind the defense.

Gaudet caught the ball and ran untouched for an 80-yard score to break the ice.

“We tried to run the ball a lot in the first quarter, and we really weren’t getting much but we had them flying up,” Kuehn said. “We started to think like play-action maybe, like fake and drop back. The O-line made this great bubble pocket, and I was just standing there. I saw Jalen go deep and he was held, but I thought if I threw it deep and gave him a chance he might score a touchdown. And that’s what happened.

“It was so fun.”

North Scott evened the score early in the third quarter after an interception set it up on the West 44.

Nile McLaughlin’s 11-yard pass to Carson Rollinger with 8:40 left in the third quarter left it at 7-7.

Noah Aanestad directed the next West possession.

On first down at the 25 the snap went awry but Aanestad, in a shotgun formation, gathered it in on the bounce.

With a rush coming he somehow kept his poise, rolled out and threw to Gaudet, about 20 yards downfield in traffic. Gaudet grabbed the ball and somehow ran through the crowd across the field to another touchdown.

“He pulled something out of a hat and threw a really great touchdown. At first I was like, ‘Oh crap what are we going to do,’” Kuehn said of his view from the sideline. “We’re going to lose like 10 yards, and Noah just pulled something out. I was sprinting down the sideline trying to chase Jalen. It was unbelievable, a great play.”

Later in the third quarter West added to the lead on a 53-yard drive directed by Kuehn.

Gaudet’s 11-yard run gave the Trojans a 21-7 lead after three quarters.

West scored its final TD in its next possession on a 45-yard drive that featured running backs Marchaun Hoover and Landon Green.

Hartwig wanted to play both quarterbacks, and they rotated series, although Kuehn got more snaps.

Kuehn completed 8-of-17 with one interception and one touchdown, while Aanestad completed 2-of-4 for 79 yards and one TD. Kuehn also ran for 41 yards and Aanestad 10.

“You’ve got two kids who’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do, and we’re looking for our best varsity starter,” Hartwig said. “Both of them played very well. We have a four-game stretch before district where we have to find out who and what you are.”

Kuehn was on board with Hartwig’s two-quarterback rotation in the opener.

“We’ve been doing this since we were freshmen and sophomores and junior year,” he said. “Every year we’ve just been like a tandem. He’s a really good player. We’re both turning on all cylinders right now. We expected it. I’ll keep trying to step up, and he’ll try to do the same thing.”

The Trojan defense was physical, aggressive and usually in the right spots.

It held North Scott to 62 rushing yards, and 55 of those came against reserves on the Lancers’ final fourth-quarter possession.

“We knew who we had coming back. Our defensive coordinator Tyler Meade does a great job of putting players in the right spot,” Hartwig said.

West High travels to Bettendorf next Friday.

                                 NS                   ICW

First downs                15                    16

Rushing-yards           26-62               39-199

Comp-att-int              16-33-0             10-21-1

Passing-yards            171                  196

Punts-avg.                  9-37                 5-39.4

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   2-2

Penalties-yards          3-15                  10-76

North Scott    0   0  7   0 –  7

West High      7   0 14  7 – 28

ICW – Jalen Gaudet 80 pass from Joey Kuehn (Josh Jasek kick)

NS – Carson Rollinger 11 pass from Nile McLaughlin (Andrew Lundvall kick)

ICW – Gaudet 75 pass from Noah Aanestad (Jasek kick)

ICW – Gaudet 11 run (Jasek kick)

ICW – Kuehn 1 run (Jasek kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing – NS: Luke Kroeger 3-37, Trent Allard 2-17,  Jacob Porth 8-16, Quentin Allison 3-7, Carson Rollinger 1-1, Nile McLaughlin 9-(-16). ICW: Marchaun Hoover 8-56, Joey Kuehn 8-41, Landon Green 6-23, Xarminto Lubuelo 8-21, Jalen Gaudet 2-15, Cole Mabry 2-9, Noah Aanestad 1-10

Passing – NS: Nile McLaughlin 16-33-0 171. ICW: Joey Kuehn 8-17-1 117; Noah Aanestad 2-4-0 79.

Receiving: NS: Carson Rollinger 8-98, Ty Anderson 1-17, Grant Solis 2-15, Jacob Porth 1-14, Cade Akers 1-10, Andrew Lundval 2-10, T.J. Yates 1-7. ICW: Jalen Gaudet 2-155, Landon Green 2-14, Tate Crane 1-13, Justin Thomas 2-12, Cole Mabry 2-7, Xarminto Lubuelo 1-5, Will Hoeft 1-4.