High School Football
WACO showcased the offense last night in their week zero matchup, thumping Central City 51-36 to start the season undefeated. Clayton Miller threw for 157 yards and three touchdowns, while Louden Huisenga grabbed three rushing touchdowns for the win. The Warriors will travel to take on Coon Rapids-Bayard on Saturday, August 31st, at 3 pm.
Mt. Pleasant scrimmaged Danville to conclude their “Meet the Panthers” event last night with both teams getting a chance for their varsity and younger kids gaining some experience on the field. Panthers head coach John Bowlin was eager for the opportunity,
“Well, you know, I haven’t slept for a few days, maybe a few weeks. I don’t know. I was pretty, pretty antsy today, so I was excited. I know the boys were, you know, I don’t have to say much to get them fired up to put pads on. So, they were out there having a great time. So, and you could tell by their faces just how they were playing and running. Just you know, we’ve had a really good team camaraderie this year, so that’s been really nice.”
Danville’s offense was the first to find paydirt officially after Jaden Bauer’s arm hit a deep pass to Kessler Whaley to set up a touchdown strike to senior Landon Seibert, who then caught the two-point conversion. Bears head coach Cody Thompson discussed his team’s play last night,
“So, overall I was very pleased with how the kids came out and played. You could tell right away we had some younger guys out there, you know, the bright lights in front of people. This is a great time of year to get that out of the way, saw some really good things. And we saw some areas where we need to clean up to be ready for Week 1. But overall, as far as our varsity, even our younger kids, I’m pretty happy where we’re at today.”
Payton Walker returned the favor when he broke off a huge run, then followed it up with a bruising run to score a touchdown as Zach Newton hit Aiden Humble for the two-point conversion. Coach Bowlin talked about his team’s performance last night,
“Yeah, I thought we played pretty physical, and I was really happy with what the o-line did. You know, we had some mistakes. That’s gonna happen. Some of it was not their mistakes. It’s play calling mistakes. You know that we knew we didn’t have a guy blocked and we thought we could outrun that, and we couldn’t. So those are just some little things that we got to get better at reading people, but on an overall thing, you know, our goal was just come out and execute. We’d had very few penalties. Didn’t jump offsides just played really clean tonight, you know, and I think we created a few turnovers on defense. You know, if you look at last year, we didn’t create any turnovers on defense. So just the work our guys have done, you know, I think we’re going to be able to compete. You know, I don’t know where we’re going to end, but I know that our guys are gonna come out and give it their best and just have a ton of, you know, great opportunities this year.”
Mt. Pleasant will travel to Fairfield on Friday, August 30th, at 7:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 7:15 pm.
Danville will host Lynnville-Sully on Friday at 7 pm.
New London will square off against Easton Valley on Friday at 7 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union will face off against Central City on Friday at 7 pm at home.
Central Lee will take on Van Buren County on Friday at 7 pm at home.
West Burlington/Notre Dame will take on Wapello on Friday at 7:30 pm at home.
Mediapolis will travel to compete against Columbus on Friday at 7 pm.
High School Volleyball
Holy Trinity Catholic and West Burlington will travel to Mediapolis on Monday, August 26th, at 4:30 pm for a scrimmage with Fort Madison, Wapello, and West Liberty also participating.
WACO will be hosting a tournament on Monday at 5 pm with Burlington Notre Dame, Columbus, Pekin, Centerville, and Van Buren County also competing.
West Burlington will compete in a quad on Thursday, August 29th, at Burlington with Danville and Wapello also competing.
Central Lee will hit the road to take on Fort Madison at 7:30 pm on Thursday.
Mt. Pleasant will participate in a triangular on Thursday at Ottumwa with their first game at 6:30 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union will face off against Keokuk on Thursday at 7:30 pm at home.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team traveled to Rockford, Illinois for the first day of their three-day opening weekend tournament, splitting their contests. The Blackhawks lost to Kansas City Kansas Community College 3-1, then swept Blackhawk Technical College. SCC will take on Southwestern Illinois College to start off their day.
College Football
The University of Iowa will officially kick off the season on Saturday, August 31st, at home against Illinois State at 11 am. Tune in to KILJ 105.5 FM to listen to the game.
Iowa State will take on North Dakota on August 31st at 2:30 pm at home. Tune in to KILJ 98.5 FM or AM 1130 to listen to the game.
This Day in Sports History
1804 – Alicia Thornton becomes the first female jockey in England, riding at Knavesmire in Yorkshire.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb makes the first observed and unassisted swim across the English Channel in 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1978 – MLB baseball umpires stage a one-day strike.