Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Friday’s Class 2A, District 5 showdown between West Branch and Anamosa was a physical, hard-hitting, defensive slugfest.

In other words it was a game made for the Gates brothers.

Keaton and Cooper Gates combined for three second-half rushing touchdowns and a slew of key defensive plays as West Branch overcame a sluggish first half to post a 23-3 win over Anamosa at Butch Pedersen Field at the Little Rose Bowl in West Branch.

“I knew it was going to be a very physical game coming out here and that’s just what I like,” Cooper Gates said. “A good physical football game and that’s what it was.”

The Gates brothers combined for 124 rushing yards, 90 of which came after halftime as West Branch rattled off 23 unanswered points.

Cooper Gates had a pair of second-half touchdown runs and Keaton Gates added another as the Bears improved to 5-2 on the season and moved to 3-1 in District 5 play.

West Branch will travel to fourth-ranked Bellevue (8-0, 4-0) on Friday to determine the district champion.

“It feels great,” Keaton said. “Getting late in the season and we are getting better and better as the weeks go on and that’s a great feeling because I think we are a pretty good team and we keep getting better.”

Trailing 3-0 at the half West Branch needed a second-half boost to keep its district title homes alive.

The Bears found it in the Gates.

Cooper Gates rushed for 60 of his 73 yards in the second half and Keaton Gates had 30 of his 51 yards after halftime as West Branch outgained Anamosa 168-4 in the second half.

“It was our mentality, it was Bear mentality,” West Branch coach Matt Hughes said. “We talked all year about we are always play better in the second half. Now we have to become a first-half team too so we can put a full game together but it’s 100 percent mentality of those kids. We didn’t call much different players but we were actually executing the game plan.”

Anamosa (3-4, 2-2) took a 3-0 lead into the half after West Branch failed to get a field goal attempt off just before the first half clock expired.

West Branch put together a 15-play drive to open the second half, tying the score on a 34 yard field goal by senior Reese Gingerich.

The West Branch defense forced Anamosa to go three-and-out on its next possession and the Bears got great field position when Conner Capper blocked a punt to set West Branch up at the Blue Raider 17 yard line.

Four players later West Branch took its first lead at 10-3 when Keaton Gates scored on a 6-yard touchdown run.

“Our o-line improved huge in the second half,” Keaton Gates said. “They got dirty, they put the work in and that’s what made me and Cooper do what we did.”

Cooper Gates took care of the rest.

The senior two-way standout ended the ensuing Anamosa drive forcing a turnover on downs with a sack on a fourth-and-six play from midfield.

Six plays later Cooper Gates scored on a 8-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a 17-3 lead.

“In the first half I didn’t feel myself, I wasn’t doing very good,” Cooper Gates said. “At halftime I really got locked in and came back with a better attitude and put more effort in and it showed on the field.”

Cooper Gates repeated the same feat one more time to secure the win.

He stopped Anamosa quarterback Reilly Shaw for no gain on fourth-and-five with 3:38 remaining and added a second touchdown on a 9-yard run four plays later.

“We barely change anything on offense, it’s just the little details and attitude and effort,” Cooper Gates said. “We’ve been working hard the past few weeks on keeping our focus and I think it helped us out.”

After averaging 4.2 yards per carry while rushing for 55 yards in the first half the Bears averaged 5.1 yards per run and rolled up 107 yards per game in the second half.

Senior quarterback Brennen Dale rushed for 38 yards for the Bears.

“Honestly the offensive line just took it personal, we challenged lightly at halftime to come out in the second half and prove to us that they are the offensive line that we think they are because they didn’t’ show it in the first half,” Hughes said. “They did it in the second half. They accepted the challenge.”

Cooper Gates finished with seven tackles including a sack and Keaton Gates has five stops and a sack as West Branch limited Anamosa to 165 total yards and just 98 yards on the ground.

“Tenacity, they bring tenacity,” Hughes said of the Gates. “Our team plays to the level of those guys.”

WB                 ANA

First downs                17                    9

Rushes-yards             34–160             31-98

Comp-Att-Int            14-20-0           9-15-1

Passing yards             121                  67

Total yards                281                  165

Punts-Avg.                 2-41.5              3-23.3

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   1-0

Penalties-yards          9-95                 5-45

Anamosa                    3  0   0    0   –  3

West Branch             0  0  10  13  – 23

ANA – Eli Breitbach 28 field goal

WB – Reese Gingerich 34 field goal

WB – Keaton Gates 6 run (Gingerich kick)

WB – Cooper Gates 8 run (Gingerich kick)

WB – Cooper Gates 9 run (Kick failed)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – WB: Cooper Gates 12-73, Keaton Gates 15-51, Brennen Dale 7-38. ANA: Hudson Welton 12-44, Hudson Scranton 9-50, Colt Nebergall 2-8, Reilly Shaw 8-(-4).

PASSING – WB: Brennen Dale 14-20-0 121. ANA: Reilly Shaw 9-15-1 67.

RECEIVING – WB: Brendon Pedersen 8-64, Conner Capper 2-6, Cooper Gates 1-26, Nolan Staker 1-10, Maddux Rushton 1-9, Olivier Trepanier 1-6. ANA: Adam Brophy 5-55, Dane Owen 2-1, Asa Bentley 1-9, Hudson Welton 1-2.

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