Your Prep Sports

During its current string of consecutive state title game appearances Regina has made a habit of testing itself with a rugged non-district schedule.

This year the Regals early season slate is one of the toughest yet.

Head coach Marv Cook believes his team got its most difficult challenge out of the way first.

Defending Class 3A champion Cedar Rapids Xavier roared to a 37-0 halftime lead on its way to a 44-7 win over Regina on Friday in the season opener for both teams at Regal Field.

“I am hoping that is as hard as it gets for us in hopefully 12 more games,” Cook said. “(Xavier) Coach (Duane) Schulte and his staff are great guys. Our kids can hold their heads up high knowing they are the best in the state.”

Cedar Rapids Xavier quarterback Quinn Schulte threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more as the Saints ran their winning streak to 14 dating back to last season.

Schulte had touchdown runs of 1 and 4 yards and threw scoring strikes of 21, 56 and 9 yards as Xavier built a 37-0 halftime lead.

The win was the fourth straight in the series for Xavier after Regina won the first game between the two perennial powers 21-7 in 2014.

“We are a good football team I just think Xavier is really, really, really good,” Cook said. “I’m not saying good, I hope they are really, really good because they looked like it tonight.”

Schulte directed a balanced Xavier offensive attack, accounting for 240 of the Saints’ 363 yards of total offense.

The senior quarterback went 9-of-14 passing for 182 yards and also rushed for a team-high 58 yards as Xavier finished with 181 yards on the ground.

Meanwhile Regina struggled to get anything going against a stout Xavier defense.

Sophomore quarterback Ashton Cook finished 19-of-28 through the air for 167 yards and a touchdown but Regina finished with just 17 yards rushing.

“We felt like we could maybe do some things (passing) and then hopefully try to soften them up inside,” Cook said. “We knew they were going to be pretty good inside, they had a great inside linebacker and their defensive tackles were stout and they are so fundamentally sound defensively and we feel like some of our strength is on the outside and we tried to take advantage of it but unfortunately they were better than us obviously.”

Sophomore Alec Wick caught eight passes for 97 yards and Patrick Clark grabbed five passes for 37 yards and caught a 10-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

“I’m excited about this group, we are young I think we are going to get better and better and better each day,” Marv Cook said. “Alec Wick is a great player, Bryce Barnett is starting to show flashes. Nick Milder is playing well, Scott Arendt. We have a lot of guys that I’m excited about.”

Regina travels to Anamosa (1-0) next Friday.

Anamosa defeated Maquoketa 17-6 in its opener on Friday.

                                    ICR                 CRX

First downs                12                    11

Rushes-yards             16-17               31-181

Comp-Att-Int             20-31-1            9-14-0

Passing yards             179                  182

Punts-avg                   4-23.5              2-22

Penalties-yards          7-44                 3-25

Regina                         0   0   0   7  –   7

Cedar Rapids Xavier    16  21  7   0  –  44

CRX – Quinn Schulte 1 run (Ben Conrad kick)

CRX – Safety blocked punt through endzone

CRX – Quinn Schulte 4 run (Conrad kick)

CRX – Matt Jordebrek 21 pass from Schulte (Conrad kick)

CRX – Kyle Moeder 56 pass from Schulte (Conrad kick)

CRX – Braden Stovie 9 pass from Schulte (Conrad kick)

CRX – Kyle Moeder 39 pass from Schulte (Conrad kick)

ICR – Patrick Clark 10 pass from Ashton Cook (Michael Dunn kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICR: Nick Milder 2-11, Kieler Brown 7-9, Levi Quinlan 1-4, Ashton Cook 6-(-6). CRX: Quinn Schulte 8-58, Braden Stovie 8-56, Christian Klein 7-36, Tyler Dupont 3-16, Patrick Chambers 3-14, Jon Bell 1-1.

PASSING – ICR: Ashton Cook 19-28-1 167, Scott Arendt 1-3-0 12. CRX: Quinn Schulte 9-14 182.

RECEIVING – ICR: Alec Wick 8-97, Patrick Clark 5-37, Scott Arendt 3-17, Nick Milder 2-6, Bryce Barnett 1-10, Levi Quinlan 1-12. CRX: Kyle Moeder 3-113, Derrick Skala 2-33, Nate Skala 2-8, Matt Jordebrek 1-21, Braden Stovie 1-9.