Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – In a season filled with close losses that have come down to the wire West High was hoping to avoid any late-game anxiety on senior night.

Instead the Trojans found themselves in another nail-biter on Friday against Davenport North only this time it was West High that made the plays late.

Marchaun Hoover scored the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 23 seconds left to lift West High (2-5) to a 21-14 win over Davenport North (4-3) on a chilly night at Trojan Field.

“That was scary,” West High senior Will Hoeft said. “We are in to theatrics I guess, we never want to go win a game by 20 points but I’ll take it however we got it.”

It has been a season filled with close calls and missed opportunities for West High.

The Trojans lost three games by a combined 11 points during an 0-4 start and led Linn-Mar by as many nine points in the first half of what turned into a 28-12 loss last week.

Sooner or later, it seemed West High would end up on the right side of a close game.

That time came on Friday as West High put together a 10-play, 65-yard game-winning drive in the final 3:27.

“It’s time that we stepped up and made some plays,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “This game reminded me of a lot of the games we have played this year we just made the plays to win at the end. The boys never quit and I’m very proud of them for that.”

On a night when the defense led West High for much of the game it was the Trojan offense that came up big at the right time.

Davenport North erased a 14-0 West High lead in a span of less than eight minutes in the fourth quarter with back-to-back scoring drives of 15 and 10 plays.

West High opened the second half with a 15-play, 78-yard drive, taking a 14-0 lead on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Morgan to Tate Crane.

North responded with a 15-play, 80-yard march of its own, cutting the lead to 14-7 when Jack West found a sliding Priest Sheedy in the corner of the end zone on fourth down with 10:53 left.

Following a West High punt the Wildcats marched 72 yards in 10 plays and tied the score when Kade Schultz burst untouched into the end zone from three yards out with 3:27 left.

The 3:27 proved to be just enough time for Morgan and the Trojan offense.

 “We knew we had time we just had to go put a drive together,” Morgan said. “We wanted to go win the game and take it ourselves.”

West High avoided a three-and-out on the drive when Davenport North was called for a roughing the passer penalty on third-and-six.

Two plays later Morgan hit junior Ian McAreavy with a 26-yard pass down to the Wildcat 16 yard line.

“That was a great catch,” Morgan said. “Coach Durham drew up a good play and Ian went up and made a great play for me.”

Morgan set up the Trojans first and goal from the two when he raced six yards on a third-and-two play.

Two plays later Hoover scored the game-winner on a 1-yard burst.

“I was saying in the huddle to the guys lets go finish this ourselves,” Morgan said. “That’s what we did. We had the option to kick it if we had to but we wanted to get it in.”

The Hoover touchdown gave the Trojans their first home win of the season in perhaps the final game for the seniors at Trojan Field.

“It was really emotional after Marchaun scored that touchdown I hugged him and I told him I was so proud of him and he was crying,” Hoeft said. “It’s special, it’s important to us.”

Morgan was 3-for-3 for 36 yards passing on the game-winning drive and finished 15-of-23 passing for 125 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 36 yards.

“Marcus is one of the best quarterbacks in the state without a doubt and when they scored to tie it up and we still had three minutes left I felt pretty comfortable,” Hartwig said. “I felt good putting the game in his hands.”

West High improved to 2-1 in Class 4A, District 4 play with the win and trails district leader Linn-Mar (3-0) by a game with two games to go.

West High closes the season with back-to-back road games at Muscatine and City High while Linn-Mar hosts City High and travels to Pleasant Valley.

“It would mean everything,” Hoeft said to close out the season with two more wins. “To go out with a bang would mean a lot to us. We still have a chance if we win out so you never know but just control what you can control.”

                                    ICW                DN

First downs                19                    13

Rushes-yards             39-166             35-171

Comp-Att-Int             15-23-0              11-24-2

Passing yards             125                  90

Total yards                    291                 261

Punts-avg.                    3-26              3-26.33

Fumbles-lost                  0-0                   2-0

Penalties-yards             4-45                 6-50

Davenport North                 0  0  0  14  –  14

West High                             7  0  7   7   –  21

ICW – Fabian Brown 15 run (Owen Smith kick)

ICW – Tate Crane 6 pass from Marcus Morgan (Smith kick)

DN – Priest Sheedy 5 pass from Jack West (Isaac Griffiths kick)

DN – Kade Schultz 3 run (Griffiths kick)

ICW – Marchaun Hoover 1 run (Smith kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICW: Tyuss Bell 15-56, Marcus Morgan 6-36, Marchaun Hoover 10-33, Will Hoeft 6-25, Fabian Brown 2-16. DN: Kade Schultz 23-95, Jack West 7-59, Koby Dirks 4-21, Team 1-(-4).

PASSING – ICW: Marcus Morgan 15-23-0 125. DN: Jack West 11-23-2 90, Yovani Morales 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – ICW: Ian McAreavy 7-56, Tate Crane 5-42, Mikey Brown 2-9, Tyuss Bell 1-17. DN: Kade Schultz 4-37, Priest Sheedy 4-27, Trevor Collins 2-9, Quincy Wiseman 1-17.

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