Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High showed an unusual knack for producing the right play at the right time, whether it was offensively or defensively, Friday in a 40-15 victory over Dubuque Hempstead.

The reason it might be somewhat unusual is that the Trojans are a bit wet behind the ears.

“We have a skilled team; we have a young team,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “We have a 71-man varsity roster, but only 15 are seniors. I’m lucky because it’s the right seniors for this group. And they all took a big step forward tonight. We have not played football to our capabilities yet and tonight…there was quite a bit of growth, and it was senior-led.”

In building a 23-7 first-half lead the Trojan defense accumulated 12 tackles for loss, blocked a punt and scored when Quinn Abbott scooped up the bounding ball and ran 10 yards to the end zone.

“Last week wasn’t so great on the defensive side,” junior linebacker Ashton Honore said. “We were just trying to push it in practice. Guys improved in staying on task, got the calls right. I feel good about it; last year wasn’t so good against that team.”

In addition to Honore, junior Santana Miller created havoc in Mustangs’ backfield.

The offense did its part in retaliating after the Mustangs’ touchdown in the second quarter with a 50-yard touchdown drive set up by Mason Woods’ kickoff return.

Quarterback Jack Wallace hit Christian Janis on a slant for the 14-yard score.

Freshman kicker Adam Salem also contributed a 29-yard field goal.

Hempstead was determined to run the ball in second half after having only 24 yards rushing in the first half.

The Mustangs racked up 137 yards on the ground and another 100 in the air but produced only one second-half touchdown.

“As long as I’ve been a coach here we’ve rarely had a team that can just line up and beat, we’ve won a lot of games here, but we rarely had a team that can lineup (and beat you) man for man,” Hartwig said. “But we’ve had skilled players, and we’ve had to try to seize opportunities and try to use our speed.”

The Trojans made key plays at key times in the second half.

After failing to move the ball in its first second-half possession, West’s nine-yard punt set the Mustangs up on their own 42.

Eight plays later, seven via the run, the Mustangs’ Brayden Stendler scored on a six-yard run. Hempstead ran for a two-point conversion, and suddenly West’s 23-15 lead was precarious.

“We just had to bring it back together, get our heads straight and get it going again,” Janis said.

But after each team failed to move the ball West pulled off perhaps a game-saving drive starting at its own 17.

The key play was a 53-yard pass from Wallace to Janis that might have gone for a TD, but a Hempstead defender was able to run down Janis at the Mustang 12.

“I had him beat but I had to slow down for the ball, but you know we got points on the board,” Janis said.

“That’s how our offense works,” Hartwig said. “We’re not going to line up and just smash people. We’re going to get outside. Our positioning, our athleticism and our strength gives us an advantage.”

While West’s drive stalled after a sack by Hempstead’s Christian Pettinger, the key is that the Trojans got a 30-yard field goal from Salem to bump the lead to 11 points with just 8 minutes left in the game.

On Hempstead’s second play from scrimmage in the ensuing possession, West’s Seth Overton recovered a fumble at the Mustang 43.

West High got no points out of its possession but put the Mustangs in a big hole.

The Mustangs gambled, trying a pass on fourth-and-6 from their own 26. Janis intercepted and ran it in 42 yards untouched for a 33-15 lead with 5 minutes left.

“It felt good to score,” he said. “Interceptions, they’re going to come every once in awhile. Guys were blocking; guys knew what they were doing.”

Hempstead moved the ball all the way to the West 9 on the ensuing drive when Woods picked off Joe Helminik’s pass and raced 97 yards for the final TD of the game.

Wallace finished with 181 yards passing and Janis had 129 yard receiving.

Honore led the way with 62 rushing yards. West improved to 2-1 and travels to Davenport North Friday for its next game. Hempstead is 0-3.

                                                     DH                   ICW

First downs                             15                    9

Rushes-yards                        41-161             24-76

Comp-att-int                        12-27-2           9-21-1

Passing yards                        231                  181

Total yards                                 392                  257

Punts-avg.                               6-23                 6-27

Fumbles-lost                          2-1                   1-0

Penalties-yards                     3-45                 3-30

Dubuque Hempstead            0   7   8   0   –  15

West High                              7  16  0  17  –  40

ICW – Quinn Abbott 10 blocked kick return (Adam Salem kick)

ICW – Salem 29 field goal

ICW – Ashton Honore 5 run (kick failed)

DH – Justin Potts 24 pass from Joe Helminik (Alex Tackney kick)

ICW – Christian Janis 14 pass from Jack Wallace (Salem kick)

DH – Brayden Stender 6 run (run)

ICW – Salem 30 field goal

ICW – Janis 42 interception return (Salem kick)

ICW – Mason Woods 97 interception return (Salem kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – DH: Andrew Tharp 6-48, No. 40 7-34, Joe Helminik 16-31, Brayden Stender 6-29, team 3-24, Justin Potts 3-(-5). ICW: Ashton Honore 4-62, Davontae Morris 12-6, Christian Janis 2-3, Santana Miller 1-3, Zion Shaw 1-2, Jack Wallace 4-0.

PASSING – DH: Helminik 12-27-2 231. ICW: Jack Wallace 9-21-1 181.

RECEIVING – DH: Jase Runde 3-86, Jashawn McCarter 2-44, Tate Woodruff 1-31, Alex DeWitt 3-24, Potts 1-24, Andrew Helle 1-13, Matt Glennon 1-13. ICW: Janis 5-129, Miller 1-25, Jesus Marungo-Murillo 1-11, Mason Woods 1-13, Zion Shaw 1-3.

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