Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY –Regina knew West Branch was bringing a stout rushing attack.

The well-prepared and focused Regals proved to be up to the task.

“I just really felt we did a good job on defense,” Regina coach Dustin Elsbury said after the Class 1A third-ranked Regals overpowered West Branch, 28-16, in a non-district prep football game Friday night at Regal Field. “Rallying to the ball. Bringing all 11 (players) to the ball. We knew that they were going to come in and try to run smashmouth football and be really physical up front and run the ball if they could and run that clock. So we really took it upon us this week to stop the run.”

A week after the Bears ran for 372 yards against West Liberty, the Regina defense – led by defensive linemen Tate Wallace, Will Litton, Nathan Parizek and Gabriel Hegelheimer, plus linebackers Luke Hamilton, Roan Eckhoff and James Whisler – stuffed the West Branch ground game to the tune of just 52 rushing yards allowed in a first half that Regina led, 14-0.

“We have just great coaches on the defensive side,” Regina senior defensive back Drew Greve said. “They got us prepared. There were multiple times throughout the game where I could say to myself, ‘This is exactly what we talked about. This is exactly what they did.’ Hats off to our coaches. They get us ready to go every week and we just have ballplayers on both sides of the ball. But on defense, we were flying around and making tackles.”

West Branch (1-1) got loose a couple of times in the second half, highlighted by a 61-yard run by tailback Keaton Gates.

Gates finished the game with 89 rushing yards, while Bears’ quarterback Brennen Dale threw for 103 yards and two scores, both in the second half and both in response to double-digit Regina leads.

“Yeah, we gave up a couple of big plays on the pass (game) and we need to clean that up,” Elsbury said. “But I’m really happy with how those front seven guys were up front.”

On offense, Regina junior standout tailback Savion Miller ran for 181 yards, including a 62-yard scoring scamper on the first play of the game.

“That was amazing,” Miller said. “Every time a big run happens, we just get rolling.”

Regina senior quarterback Kyle Tracy converted a fourth down late in the second quarter by finding receiver Trey Streb in the back of the end zone for a score.

Tracy later added a rushing score.

“All glory to God, that is the reason I am here,” Tracy said. “We were able to pound the rock and then we also, we executed our passing plays. We didn’t have anything fancy. It was a great called game.”

A short touchdown run by sophomore Gabriel Hegelheimer pushed the Regals’ lead to 21-3 late in the third quarter.

West Branch responded with a couple of touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but never got closer than 12 points.

Tracy threw for 132 yards for Regina (2-0), while Greve caught four passes for 51 yards.

West Branch hosts Camanche next Friday, while the Regals entertain Alburnett.

“Our three non-district games are all great challenges to prepare us for the postseason,” Elsbury said. “Alburnett is a really good team. I know just from because I coach track, they have some really fast guys. This win is huge for us, just to build off of.”

WB                   ICR

First Downs               9                      18

Rushes-yards             24-172             40-256

Comp-Att-Int            6-14-2             11-17-1

Passing yards            103                  142

Total yards                275                  398

Punts-avg.                  3-25.3              2-27.5

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   1-0

Penalties-yards         2-25                 10-65

West Branch              0     0    3    13 –  16

Regina                        14   0    7     7  –  28

ICR – Savion Miller 62 run (Gabriel Hegelheimer kick)

ICR – Trey Streb 27 pass from Kyle Tracy (Gabriel Hegelheimer kick)

WB – FG Reese Gingerich 27

ICR – Gabriel Hegelheimer 4 run (Gabriel Hegelheimer kick)

WB – Nolan Staker 69 pass from Brennen Dale (kick failed)

ICR – Kyle Tracy 3 run (Gabriel Hegelheimer kick)

WB – Cooper Gates 10 pass from Brennen Dale (Reese Gingerich kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – West Branch: Keaton Gates 14-89, Cooper Gates 1-5, Brandon Pedersen 1-0, Brennen Dale 7-78, Conner Capper 1-0. Regina: Savion Miller 21-181, Kyle Tracy 11-31, Gabriel Hegelheimer 6-32, Nathan Parizek 1-0, Edwin Gangba 1-12.

PASSING – West Branch: Brennen Dale 6-14-2 103. Regina: Kyle Tracy 9-13-1 132, Zachary Poe 2-4-0 10.

RECEIVING – West Branch: Griffin Seydel 1-10, Cooper Gates 2-18, Nolan Staker 2-76, Brandon Pedersen 1-(-1). Regina: Tate Wallace 3-36, Edwin Gangba 2-28, Drew Greve 4-51, Trey Streb 1-27, Gabriel Hegelheimer 1-0.

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