Your Prep Sports

Another week, another road win for West Branch.

Gavin Hierseman threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another score as Class 1A fourth-ranked West Branch earned its third win away from home in four weeks with a 24-14 victory over Cedar County rival Tipton on Friday in Tipton.

West Branch improved to 4-0 with its second consecutive road win while Tipton dropped to 2-2.

Hierseman passed for 112 yards and tossed scoring strikes of 69 yards to Tanner Lukavsky and 20 yards to Trey Eagle.

The junior quarterback also added a 1-yard touchdown run that gave West Branch a 24-7 lead with under eight minutes to play.

West Branch took a 10-0 halftime lead after Hierseman hooked up with Lukavsky for a 69-yard touchdown on a third-and-17 play with 1:52 left in the opening quarter.

Cael Fiderlein added a 33 yard field goal in the final seconds of the first half.

West Branch stretched the lead to 17-0 less than five minutes into the second half when Hierseman hit Eagle with a 20-yard scoring strike.

After Tipton cut into the lead to 17-7 the West Branch defense set up a score when Morgan Hartz pounced on a fumble at the 1 yard line.

Hierseman scored on the next play to put the Bears up 24-7 with 7:52 left.

That was plenty for the West Branch defense which held Tipton to 248 yards of total offense.

Fiderlein led the defensive charge with a team-high nine tackles including 2.5 for loss and also recovered a fumble.

Lukavsky added seven tackles and Eagle and Cameron Howsare each had six.

Lukavsky rushed for 75 yards and caught three passes for 72 yards while Eagle had three grabs for 33 yards and Dakota Kaalberg caught four passes for 37 yards.

                                    WB                      TIP

First Downs                 12                       16

Rushes-yards             31-72                 45-192

Comp-Att-Int              10-17-0                4-11-0

Passing Yards            142                      56

Total yards                   214                     248

Punts-avg.                  7-41.9                 5-31.4

Fumbles-lost               0-0                       3-2

Penalties                     5-57                    4-30

West Branch                       7  3  7  7  –  24

Tipton                                    0  0  7  7  –  14

WB – Tanner Lukavsky 69 pass from Gavin Hierseman (Fiderlein kick)

WB – Fiderlein 33 field goal

WB – Trey Eagle 20 pass from Hierseman (Fiderlein kick)

TIP – 25 pass (PAT)

WB – Hierseman 1 run (Fiderlein kick)

TIP – 5 run (PAT)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – WB: Tanner Lukavsky 13-75, Gavin Hierseman 15-3, Dakota Kaalberg 4-(-6).

PASSING – WB: Gavin Hierseman 9-16-0 112, Trey Eagle 1-1-0 30.

RECEIVING – WB: Dakota Kaalberg 4-37, Tanner Lukavsky 3-72, Trey Eagle 3-33

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by becoming a member.