Richard Podhajsky

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High and Dubuque Senior are each off to surprising starts to the football season. Unfortunately for West, that trend continued on Friday, as the Rams knocked off the Trojans 23-21 in Iowa City.

The Trojans (0-4) lost a pair of fumbles – the only turnovers of the game – each coming at a great cost.

The first led to a second-quarter field goal and the second ended a fourth quarter drive which had reached the red zone with the Trojans trailing by two.

“We came into the season with a young team but we continue to make mistakes and we’ve got to improve,” head coach Garrett Hartwig said. “You know, the youth excuse is no more. We’ve got to practice better, we’ve got coach better and the players have to perform better.”

Following the second fumble, Senior (3-1) ground out a long drive, leaning on junior running back Cain McWilliams.

McWilliams, who finished with 178 yards on 28 carries and two touchdowns, carried the ball on nine plays of the ensuing drive, setting up a one-yard touchdown plunge by quarterback Tom Casey to give the Rams a nine-point lead with 2:07 to play.

“Mistakes and penalties (cost us),” Hartwig said. “Our third down defense is not up to standard. We need to get off the field. And then whenever we get some momentum offensively it’s fumble or it’s a penalty that puts us behind the chains again, a dropped pass here.

“It’s youth; we have 14 or 15 new starters on this team this year. We’re in game four, though, so that’s something I’m not going to let become an excuse at all.”

The Trojans got off to a slow start but the offense seemed to find a rhythm late in the first half.

Junior Marcus Morgan, the quarterback and punter, found Grant Henderson for eight yards on a fake punt from the West 34 yard line with a little more than three minutes left in the first half to continue the drive.

Three plays later, Morgan saw a hole up the middle, sidestepped a pair of Ram defenders and scampered 52 yards to give West the lead, 7-6, heading into halftime.

“Marcus is a great player,” Hartwig said of Morgan, who finished 15 of 27 for 174 yards passing to go along with a team-high 107 yards rushing. “He does excellent things and we need to get him more support. And he needs to play better himself, too. He’ll be the first one to say that.

“But it’s a team game. You can’t win this game one-on-eleven and we’d never ask a player to do that. So we need to continue to get guys up to speed at all positions, including Marcus.”

The Trojans extended that lead to begin the second half, going 65 yards and getting in the end zone when Morgan again found Henderson, this time for 10 yards and the score.

But Senior chipped away, using a good kick return to set up an Adam Wessels 27-yard field goal.

Following a West High punt, McWilliams went around left end, scooting 30 yards to give the lead back to the Rams, a lead they would not relinquish.

West High had one last chance, with Morgan connecting with Grahm Goering from 25 yards out for a touchdown with 21 seconds left.

But the ensuing onside kick went out of bounds.

“As tough as 0-4 feels, we still have an opportunity to win the district, make the playoffs and who knows,” Hartwig said. “We’re a very talented team but we’re not performing at our level.”

The Trojans start district play next week, traveling to Pleasant Valley.

                                      DS             ICW

First downs                  16                 15

Rushes-yards             43-212          29-172

Passing yards              111              174

Total yards                    323              346

Comp-Att-Int              11-21-0         15-27-0

Punts-avg.                  2-25.0           2-32.5

Fumbles-lost                1-0               3-2

Penalties-yards             7-66            6-45

 

Dubuque Senior       3  3 10  7  –  23

West High                  0  7  7   7  –  21

 

DS – Adam Wessels 25 field goal

DS – Wessels 29 field goal

ICW – Marcus Morgan 52 run (Owen Smith kick)

ICW – Grant Henderson 10 pass from Morgan (Smith kick)

DS – Wessels 27 field goal

DS – McWilliams 30 run (Wessels kick)

DS – Tom Casey 1 run (Wessels kick)

ICW – Grahm Goering 25 pass from Morgan (Smith kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – DS: Cain McWilliams 28-178, Tommy Casey 6-22, DJ Hoskins 5-8, Kendrick Watkins-Hogue 2-8, Team 2-(-4). ICW: Marcus Morgan 11-107, Tyuss Bell 10-55, Marchaun Hoover 3-11, Grant Henderson 1-4, Alex McKay 1-3, Graham Goering 3-1, Tate Crane 1-(-2)

PASSING – DS: Casey 11-21-0 111 yards. ICW: Morgan 15-27-0 174 yards

RECEIVING – DS: Kendrick Watkins-Hogue 6-71, Ben Hefel 2-24, Preston 2-19, Hoskins 1-(-3). ICW: Grant Henderson 2-38, Goering 2-33, Tate Crane 3-30, Eric Torres 3-25, McKay 2-21, Ian McAreavy 2-14, Logan Moel 1-13

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