Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – In its foray into Class A prep football this season, Iowa City Regina had only begun to get its feet wet.

Faced with a Friday night tussle against No. 8 Lisbon, it was time to see how the Regals stacked up.

“They were a really tough team,” Regina senior quarterback Ashton Cook after the third-ranked Regals routed the Lions, 56-26, in a District 6 game at Regal Field. “We knew that going in. (Regina senior tailback) Theo Kolie played a great game. He had some big catches and he ran the ball. He was crazy. Overall, they started tough. We just kept executing on offense as the game went on. We had some big plays on offense and that helped us. The defense stepped up, too.”

The win moves Regina (4-1, 3-0 District 6) into sole possession of first place in the district.

A program with four state titles at the 1A level and three in 2A throughout the previous 15 seasons looked every bit a Class A contender.

“To score 56 points takes a lot,” Regina Coach Marv Cook said. “It takes a lot of offensive skill guys. … We had to change some things up and get the ball to some different people. I thought Ashton did a pretty good job. He has got a couple of plays that he is going to want to have back on film. For the most part, I thought he was really throwing it around pretty good. When we put him in good positions, he was making a lot of good plays for us and moving the ball. A lot of things to grow with and continue to get better.”

Ashton Cook – a 6-foot-5 lefty with scholarship offers from Eastern Michigan, Northern Iowa, South Dakota and Western Illinois – threw for 256 yards, ran for 35 and accounted for four total touchdowns with one interception.

The last of his three touchdown passes capped a 35-0 Regina explosion that turned a 12-7 Regals’ deficit into a blowout.

“If they load the box, playing for Theo, we can throw the ball more,” Ashton Cook said. “But if they are in coverage trying to stop the pass, we can run Theo. It really adds to the offense and makes us tough to defend.”

Kolie finished the game with a career-high 205 rushing yards and touchdown sprints of seven, 31, 29 and 15 yards against a Lisbon defense that had held three of its four opponents to 40 or fewer rushing yards and allowed just 8.5 points per game entering Friday night.

“They have a lot of great guys,” said Kolie, who also caught four passes for 95 yards. “A lot of them are wrestlers, so they are tough guys. At the end of the day, we just needed to come out here and man up and give it all we have got.”

The Regina defense forced two turnovers and apart from two kickoff returns for touchdowns and a long TD run against its defensive reserves, held down a Lisbon team that was without its starting quarterback and tailback.

“We didn’t really know what to expect.” said Regina junior safety Sam Aitchison, who recovered a fumble and caught a TD pass. “Our defense stepped up big. Our linebackers and D-ends made plays and we really held their run game and made stops when it counted, especially at the goal line.”

Regina receiver Alec Wick – a leader in Class A in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns – caught five passes for 69 yards and two leaping, acrobatic scores.

Jamien Moore ran for 154 yards and a TD for Lisbon (3-2, 1-1), while senior defensive stalwart Truman Krob recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.

Regina visits Columbus Junction next week, while Lisbon hosts Highland Community.

                                  LIS                  ICR

First Downs                8                      14

Rushes-yards              42-223             32-237

Comp-Att-Int              5-11-0             18-31-1

Passing yards              78                    256

Total yards                  301                  493

Punts-avg.                   4-33.5              0-0.0

Fumbles-lost               2-2                   2-1

Penalties-yards           11-105             6-45

Lisbon                          6    6    0   14  –  26

Iowa City Regina      0   21  21  14  –  56

LIS – Cole Clark 43 pass from Cohen Kamaus (Kick failed)

ICR – Ashton Cook 10 run (Alec Wick kick)

LIS – Devyn Decious 89 kickoff return (Run failed)

ICR – Theo Kolie 7 run (Alec Wick kick)

ICR – Sam Aitchison 6 pass from Cook (Wick kick)

ICR – Theo Kolie 31 run (Wick kick)

ICR – Theo Kolie 39 run (Wick kick)

ICR – Wick 32 pass from Cook (Wick kick)

ICR – Wick 8 pass from Cook (Wick kick)

LIS – Decious 85 kickoff return (Tyson Scott kick)

ICR – Kolie 15 run (Wick kick)

LIS – Jamien Moore 79 run (Scott kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Lisbon: Jamien Moore 25-154, Cohen Kamaus 5-19, Will Bennett 6-34, Cole Clark 5-17, Devyn Decious 1-(-1). Regina: Theo Kolie 18-205, Ashton Cook 8-35, Danny Gavin 3-5, Levi Quinlan 1-1, Gentry Dumont 2-(-9).

PASSING – Lisbon: Cohen Kamaus 5-9-0 78, Jamien Moore 0-2-0 0. Regina: Ashton Cook 18-30-1 256, Gentry Dumont 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – Lisbon: Cole Clark 2-59, Devyn Decious 2-16, Braden Gladwin 1-3. Regina: Alec Wick 5-69, Levi Quinlan 6-71, Theo Kolie 4-95, Sam Aitchison 2-11, Carson Jensen 1-10.

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