Prep Football- The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) worked all night and into the early morning crafting the postseason schedule from the list of qualifiers after last night’s week 8 matchups. Here’s a look at our local teams and their upcoming games.

Class 2A

District 5 saw Mid-Prairie collect their first district championship in over a decade, while West Burlington/Notre Dame ran behind Quincy Collins to a runner-up position. Mediapolis’ win over Central Lee sealed their 3rd place status and Albia snuck in at 4th place.

Mid-Prairie will get to host their first round matchup against Union, who finished 3-5 on the season. The Golden Hawks have won their past five games after falling to powerhouses Wilton, Regina Catholic, and Sigourney-Keota–all playoff teams–by a combined 23 points.

West/Burlington Notre Dame will get a home game to start off their postseason journey when Centerville comes to town on Friday. The Falcons have now made the playoffs for back-to-back seasons after 13 consecutive seasons of finishing under 0.500.

Centerville has lost their past two games by a combined score of 101 to 15. Quincy Collins will look to continue his record-breaking season against the team who allowed 381 rushing yards last night.

Mediapolis will make the trip to Northeast on Friday. The Bulldogs are a gritty squad with Noah Schmidgall already tallying over 1,100 yards rushing and nearing 20 touchdowns for the season. Northeast was ranked #6 in Class 2A behind a dual-threat quarterback in Gavin Kramer, who has produced 30 total touchdowns this year.

Lastly, Albia will travel to Van Meter.

Class A

Looking at District 5 again, #4 Lisbon took the top spot in a perfect regular season run as #8 Pekin took the runner-up spot. Danville’s win over Columbus gave the Bears 3rd place and the Wildcats 4th place.

Lisbon will get to host Starmont for their first postseason game.

Pekin will host North Linn, a previously ranked team. Will Adam has had an impressive senior season for the Panthers with 11 passing touchdowns and 13 rushing touchdowns along with two interceptions on defense, including a pick-six.

After being without a program for seven years, Danville has now made it two consecutive seasons of making the postseason. Jaden Bauer, who just passed for over 400 yards in an overtime thriller last night, will look to pick apart a secondary that has tabbed five interceptions on the year.

Lastly, Columbus will take on Maquoketa Valley in a road matchup. Maquoketa Valley has one of, if not, the toughest defenses in Class A, having pitched five shutouts this season for a total of 32 points allowed this season. In a battle of the Wildcats, Columbus will have to lean on Riley Kaalberg, who has turned in a season of 1,405 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns.

8-Player

#7 Iowa Valley might have lost last night, but they are still district champs for District 6. WACO finished as the runner-up and Winfield-Mt. Union fielded 3rd place.

Iowa Valley will face off against Southeast Warren at home to start their playoff journey. The Tigers have scored 70 or more points in six of their eight games this season.

WACO drew the short stick and will have to travel to start postseason play, but the Warriors will play a familiar opponent in Central City. WACO defeated the Wildcats back in the 2022 postseason and won a high-scoring affair to start the season 51-36. The defense will have to be ready for Matthew Klostermann as he rushed for 195 yards and three touchdowns in their last meeting.

WACO will lean on the arm of Clayton Miller and the legs of Louden Huisenga as the senior duo has combined for 47 total touchdowns this season. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.

Lastly, Winfield-Mt. Union will also hit the road to start their playoff journey with a trip to Montezuma. The Wolves lost to the Braves 55-14 back in week four, but an injured Jake Edwards did not play in the contest. With the senior quarterback healthy, this will be a tough team to stop through the air.

Schedule

All first round postseason matchups will start at 7 pm on Friday, October 25th.

High School Football

Mt. Pleasant’s kicker Dylan White is the hero for the second time this season after nailing a last second 32-yard field goal to spoil Fort Madison’s homecoming last night 16-14. Both defenses showed up ready to play as neither team scored until nearly four and half minutes had passed in the second quarter with Ramzy Davis walking in for a three-yard touchdown to give Mt. Pleasant the 7 to 0 lead. Head coach John Bowlin talked about his trio of runners: Zach Newton, Payton Walker, and Davis, as they combined for 180 rushing yards,

“It was a little better for us on that [left] side, so he’s got Peyton Walker and Merrick Lamm, who was great tonight at tight end. So we give him a lot of carries just because it suits our offense well. But like you said, Zach Newton’s running the ball great for us and Peyton Walker, you know, I know he’s always lead blocking for us, but he’s a guy that we’d like to get a few more carries for because he’s just a tough nose kid. He’s a great football player, I love watching him.”

Bloodhound senior quarterback Marcus Guzman would not let his team go down without a fight as he scampered 28 yards on 4th down to tie the game at 7 on the next drive. 

Neither team would find the endzone in the 3rd quarter, but it did not take long in the 4th quarter for Guzman to scramble for his second touchdown of the game to give Fort Madison a 14 to 7 lead. The Bloodhounds had complete control of the game until William Birdsell blocked a punt, which set up the Panthers with a short field, ending in a 20-yard Newton to Merrick Lamm connection for a touchdown. However, the extra point was blocked, keeping the lead in Fort Madison’s favor.

The Bloodhounds had another chance to run out the clock, but the Panther defense held strong and got the ball back with a little over two minutes to go at their own 16-yard line. Coach Bowlin talked about his thought process heading into that final drive,

“I mean number one was trying to figure out what we can do. You know, we hadn’t run the ball well, had two timeouts, you know, with two minutes and 40 seconds left. So, we knew we had to try to throw the ball and really went to some stuff we hadn’t been doing, went to a twins look. Missed on those and we started running a couple routes to our outside that we, you know, Zach was really poised, made some great plays on the outside, hit a couple swings to our tail back that we knew were there. We tried to hit them earlier, but we didn’t quite go there. So, you know just a lot of poise out of those guys and I got a ton of faith in Dylan that, you know, obviously if we’d score a touchdown, would be happy as all get out, but a ton of faith that he’s going to come in and, you know, give us his best and, you know, going to make that kick, that’s two of them for him this year. So just, you know, happy for him and just our guys competing all night.”

The Panthers will end the regular season on Friday, October 25th, at 7:30 pm at home against Assumption. 

Van Buren County was shutout by #4 Lisbon last night 49-0. The Warriors end the season with a 1-7 record. 

Winfield-Mt. Union closed out the regular season with a 58-18 clobbering of HLV last night. The Wolves qualified for the postseason. 

New London ended the regular season with a crushing win over English Valleys last night 56-22. The Tigers collected a 2-6 record for the season. 

Danville and Columbus had their postseason tickets booked heading into last night’s matchup; it did not stop the two from engaging in an overtime epic that Danville managed to come out on top of 31-24. Jaden Bauer tossed for 402 yards and two touchdowns in the winning effort. 

Wapello lost to Highland last night 43-0. 

Fairfield ran into an angry Solon squad last night, falling 61-19 to the Spartans. The Trojans will close out the season at home on Friday at 7:30 pm against Grinnell. 

West Burlington/Notre Dame’s path to the postseason continued with a 49-21 thumping of Davis County last night. The Falcons await their postseason matchup. 

Mediapolis punched their ticket to the postseason with a dominant 48-14 victory over Central Lee last night. The Hawks ended the season with a 4-4 record. 

In other Class 3A District 4 matchups, #7 Mt. Vernon outpaced Washington 42-21 and Assumption beat down Keokuk 35-14 last night.  

WACO qualified for the postseason in 8-Player. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call for their matchup on Friday.

Postseason matchups for 8-Player and Classes A, 1A, and 2A will be released today at 10 am. 

Postseason Volleyball

Classes 1A and 2A will have their first round matchups start on Monday, October 21st, at 7 pm. Here’s a look at our local matchups. 

In Class 1A Region 2, Winfield-Mt. Union will face off against Lone Tree at home on Monday at 7 pm. The winner will take on #2 Holy Trinity Catholic on Wednesday, October 23rd, at 7 pm in Fort Madison. 

Burlington Notre Dame will host WACO at 7 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm. The winner will take on the winner between Wapello and New London with the Arrows acting as the hosts against the Tigers.

In Class 2A Region 2, Van Buren County will take on Cardinal on Wednesday at 7 pm at home. Columbus will battle with Danville at home with the winner advancing to play #14 West Burlington. 

Class 3A Region 5 will have Washington hosting Mediapolis on Tuesday, October 22nd, at 7 pm. Region 8 will see Fairfield travel to Wilton and Central Lee making the trip to West Liberty. 

Lastly, for Class 4A Region 4, Mt. Pleasant will take on Fort Madison at home on Tuesday at 7 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.

High School Cross Country

Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield will travel to Pella for their Class 3A state qualifying meet set for Wednesday, October 23rd, at 4 pm. Class 4A’s Burlington will also run on Wednesday at Pleasant Valley. 

The state qualifying meets for Classes 1A and 2A will commence at 4 pm on Thursday, October 24th. 

For Class 1A at Regina Catholic, Danville will run against Van Buren County as the two boys’ teams will enter the race ranked. Joining them will be Wapello, New London, and the Holy Trinity Catholic boys’ team.

WACO and Winfield-Mt. Union will make the trip west to Pleasantville to compete, while Columbus will be on its own at North Linn.

In Class 2A, Central Lee and Notre Dame/West Burlington will make the trip to Monticello, while Mediapolis will follow the highly ranked Mid-Prairie teams to Pella Christian. 

Southeastern Community College

The volleyball team will host a triangular today with their first match against Kansas City Kansas Community College at 11 am. 

College Football

#9 Iowa State will host UCF tonight at 6:30 pm. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will have the broadcast. 

Iowa will square off against Michigan State on the road tonight at 6:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM will be on the call. 

This Day in Sports History

1957 – Montreal Canadien Maurice “Rocket” Richard becomes the first NHL player to score 500 goals.

1966 – Bobby Orr makes his NHL regular-season debut for the Boston Bruins against the Detroit Red Wings.

2022 – Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola faces his brother San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola in first MLB playoff sibling pitcher-batter battle; Austin goes 1-2, with a rally starting RBI in an 8-5 win at Petco Park, San Diego.