I want to link this post on the front page so keep all game talk/updates/postgame talk here now! Also get your picks in before things kick off as well!
******GAME TALK: Washington vs. Bishop Heelan******
- Thread starter LukeFeddersen
- Start date
pregame article from SC Journal:
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa | After 30 seasons as a head football coach, Randy Schrader has learned how a little sense of humor can come in handy.
Schrader's sixth-ranked Washington Demons take on No. 1 Bishop Heelan of Sioux City in Thursday night's Iowa Class 3A state championship game. And, he knows his team faces a challenging assignment after watching the Crusaders' spectacular passing game carve up previously unbeaten Clear Lake in a 48-13 semifinal romp here last Thursday.
"It's the old Lou Holtz thing,'' cracked Schrader. "I've been sleeping like a baby -- I wake up every two hours and cry.''
Heelan, which has stymied two of Class 3A's top running attacks in its first four postseason assignments, will be taking on a
Washington team with a 3A-leading 4,078 rushing yards in a UNI-Dome matchup slated for a 7:06 p.m. kickoff.
It will be Heelan's fifth Class 3A final in seven years and the Crusaders' 11th overall championship game, counting two wins in six Class 4A title contests before switching enrollment divisions in 2006.
And, Coach Roger Jansen isn't resting on last week's laurels after having his teams lose three of their four previous 3A
championship bids after going 5-0 in the semifinals.
"For some reason, we've played unbelievably well in the semis,'' said Jansen, a superb 144-29 in 15 seasons at the Heelan helm. "And then the finals roll around. It just seems like we have a little letdown. So, that's always a concern.
"We've addressed it. We've gone back to see if we can do anything different. I guess it's just kind of one of those things. It just
happens. Why it happens, you're not quite sure. A lot of it has to do with the other teams.''
Heelan, which won Class 4A titles in 1975 and 1982, lost its initial Class 3A final in 2007, succumbing 42-7 to Keokuk and a future Iowa quarterback in James Vandenberg.
The Crusaders used that setback as a springboard to a decisive 35-10 state championship win over Decorah in 2008, but they've lost two more disappointing finals in the last three years, falling 45-7 to Solon in 2010 and 49-21 to Decorah last fall.
Jansen is hopeful this opportunity, like in 2008, will see his team feed off last year's defeat.
"We're obviously excited for the opportunity to get back there and try to finish something that we weren't able to accomplish last year,'' said the Heelan coach, whose team takes a 13-0 record against a Washington squad that is 12-1. "If we can just take care of the football and kind of do what we've done all year, I like our chances.''
Heelan quarterback Trent Solsma completed all 19 of his first-half passes for 325 yards and five touchdowns in last week's rout of Clear Lake, finishing with a career-high 376 yards on 23-for-24 success (his last pass was intercepted).
That pushed Solsma's season numbers to 197 of 286 (.689) for 3,133 yards and 39 touchdowns, setting him up to erase city records for passing yards (3,177) and touchdowns (also 39) that he set last season. He was 202 of 311 (.650) for last year's runners-up, but he had 15 passes intercepted, compared to just seven this year, and three of those picks were instrumental in Decorah breaking the game open.
"(Solsma) is a real cool customer,'' said Washington's Schrader. "He sets back there and is able to find those receivers, who do a good job of finding holes in the defense.''
Solsma has hit six different receivers for touchdowns this fall, but he has two particularly stellar targets in seniors Connor Niles
and Philip Jacobson, who have combined for 4,129 career receiving yards.
Niles, who had 59 catches for 1,082 yards and 18 touchdowns last season, has improved on that with 67 receptions for 1,109 yards and another 18 scores despite a shoulder injury that kept him out of one full game and limited his playing time in a couple others.
Jacobson, a three-year regular, has also surpassed last year's numbers (42 for 736 yards) with 44 catches for 808 yards. He has nine TD grabs for a second year in a row while also returning three punts for touchdowns this season.
"If they have to run the football, they've got a thousand-yard rusher, too,'' noted Schrader, referring to junior running back
Tony Tobin, whose 199 carries have yielded 1,204 yards and 17 touchdowns. "They have great skill guys and they're just good across the front. They have two great defensive ends -- two great, big physical kids (Christian Brobst and Keaton Slaughter) -- and they've got a middle linebacker (junior Tyler Smith) who really brings it.''
Heelan's defense, often overshadowed by the big-play offense, has helped the Crusaders reach a continuous clock with 35-point leads in nine of 13 games. Three shutout victims have included Harlan (31-0) and Carroll (42-0), who wound up No. 5 and No. 8 in the final Class 3A poll by Associated Press.
Brobst, a three-year starter, leads the Crusaders in tackles for a second year in a row, totaling 78 stops with 19 tackles for loss. Smith is second with 73 tackles, backed up by outside linebacker Tyler Cropley (60), junior inside linebacker Joe Kayl (59), two-way lineman Noah Svec (55) and Slaughter (50).
Niles, Jacobson and junior wide receiver/cornerback Brett Buchmann are all two-way starters along with Svec, Brobst and junior Ben Wankum, taking over when Jake Noel, an outstanding 6-3, 225-pound sophomore, fractured his left leg in Heelan's regular season finale at Spencer. Seniors Chris Hackett and Grant Duncan join Brobst, Svec and Wankum in an offensive line that has helped the Crusaders lead Class 3A with 43.3 points a game.
Washington has won 11 games in a row since a 14-7 loss to Pella in Week 2 -- a setback the Demons avenged in a 28-0 quarterfinal cruise over the No. 3-ranked Dutch, previously undefeated. Schrader's team followed that up by winning a 14-9 defensive battle over No. 7 Solon in last week's semifinals.
"I don't think their defense gets talked about enough,'' said Jansen. "I was really, really impressed with their defense against Solon. They're athletic. I think they're going to match up with us the best anybody has all year.
"They haven't seen the ball in the air all that much. We're kind of hoping that not seeing the ball in the air will be an advantage for us. We'll see how athletic they are. You've got to have five guys (defenders) back there (covering pass receivers) and that's awful hard to do.''
Washington's headliner is running back Alex Coker, a 6-1, 195-pound senior who has rushed for 1,467 yards and 25 touchdowns while also returning two punts and one kickoff for scores.
"He's a kid who's first in the weight room in the morning and the last to leave,'' said Schrader, whose head coaching stops include North Scott and Davenport West, a pair of Class 4A schools, along with the four-year stint he served at Rockford (Ill.) College before taking the Washington job in the fall of 2010. "Alex would tell you the same thing, though. He wouldn't be
doing anything without that offensive line.''
Tommy Peterson, a 6-3, 315-pound junior guard, is the only two-way line starter for the Demons, who also have 245-pound guard Derek Miller and 220-pound junior center Kyle Collier in the middle, flanked by undersized tackles that weigh in at 190 and 170.
Quarterback Darryl Seibelius has averaged fewer than 10 pass attempts per game (59 of 120), netting 937 yards, but he has thrown for 13 touchdowns while running for 774 yards and another eight scores.
Last week, when Solon limited Coker to 39 yards on 18 carries, running back Tanner Knupp came up with 138 yards on 12 carries, breaking a 52-yard touchdown that spelled the difference in the low-scoring game. That pushed Knupp's season yardage to 689.
"One thing we've got to do is try and keep the game close and play a field position game with them,'' said Schrader. "If we can keep it close and not let it get out of hand early, hopefully we can make a game of it.''
CLASS 3A TITLE GAME NOTEBOOKRewriting the record books
Heelan's prolific passing game the last two seasons will be leaving quite an imprint on the Iowa High School Athletic Association record books that have been carefully compiled and maintained by a former journalist and coach, Bud Legg, the athletic director at Ames High School before joining the IHSAA.
Heelan quarterback Trent Solsma tied the fourth highest single-season TD passing total with 39 scoring throws last season and he has already matched that number with one game remaining tonight. That means Solsma has passed for 78 touchdowns in just two seasons, a total only three Iowa quarterbacks had exceeded prior to this season.
With 6,310 passing yards in his two seasons as Heelan's QB, Solsma has joined an exclusive club that showed just 12 players passing for 6,000 or more career yards through 2012 (only six had exceeded 7,000).
Meanwhile, wide receiver Connor Niles, also a two-year starter, already trails only three other players with 36 career touchdown catches (18 last season and 18 more this year). Grant McGraw of Pleasantville holds the 11-man record with 46 scoring catches in a career spanning four seasons (1992-95) for Pleasantville. Keokuk's James Hurt (2005-07) and
Ar-We-Va's Tyler Tryon (1991-92) are tied for second with 38 apiece.
Niles' 126 receptions and 2,191 receiving yards should rank him in the state's updated Top 25 when the season concludes and teammate Philip Jacobson should also make the all-time charts with 120 catches for 1,938 yards as a three-year regular.
Turnovers costly last year:
Three pass interceptions in last year's Class 3A state championship game proved costly to Heelan in a 49-21 loss to a Decorah team that had no turnovers while exacting revenge for a loss to the Crusaders in the 2008 final.
Decorah picked off a Trent Solsma pass on the game's very first play from scrimmage and a 14-yard return left the Vikings just 16 yards from a quick 7-0 lead.
Another pick preceded a 59-yard drive that gave Decorah a 14-0 advantage with 6:30 left in the opening quarter and the Vikings gained a 21-0 lead three plays into the second quarter after a 64-yard march.
Heelan rallied to score two second-quarter touchdowns, pulling within 21-14 on a TD with just 13 seconds left in the half. However, Josey Jewell's 47-yard touchdown run on the seventh play of the third quarter restored a 28-14 Decorah lead. Then, just two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Jewell also had an interception and a 20-yard return to the Heelan 6-yard line,
opening up a 35-14 margin that eventually reached 49-14.
Coach knows Western Iowa:
Washington Coach Randy Schrader is a 1974 graduate of Pekin High School, a perennial Southeast Iowa football power in Packwood, Iowa.
Schrader played defensive end at William Penn College in Oskaloosa before an injury brought an end to his playing career and landed him on Coach Jim Spry's staff as a student assistant.
After college, Schrader landed a head coaching job in Western Iowa at Dow City-Arion, now part of the Boyer Valley district. After two years in Dow City, he spent three as an assistant at Cherokee before a five-year stint as head coach in Clarinda.
That earned him a nine-year sojourn as the head coach at North Scott before two years as the district athletic director for the
Davenport Community School District. He left that position to return to coaching at Davenport West before the college coaching stop at Rockford, where he was also the athletic director.
--Terry Hersom
This post was edited on 11/20 10:25 PM by Crusader Power
http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/high-school/football/contrasting-styles-meet-for-class-a-crown/article_85b3ae55-e4fa-5823-9f66-b2894bd6fc8e.html
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa | After 30 seasons as a head football coach, Randy Schrader has learned how a little sense of humor can come in handy.
Schrader's sixth-ranked Washington Demons take on No. 1 Bishop Heelan of Sioux City in Thursday night's Iowa Class 3A state championship game. And, he knows his team faces a challenging assignment after watching the Crusaders' spectacular passing game carve up previously unbeaten Clear Lake in a 48-13 semifinal romp here last Thursday.
"It's the old Lou Holtz thing,'' cracked Schrader. "I've been sleeping like a baby -- I wake up every two hours and cry.''
Heelan, which has stymied two of Class 3A's top running attacks in its first four postseason assignments, will be taking on a
Washington team with a 3A-leading 4,078 rushing yards in a UNI-Dome matchup slated for a 7:06 p.m. kickoff.
It will be Heelan's fifth Class 3A final in seven years and the Crusaders' 11th overall championship game, counting two wins in six Class 4A title contests before switching enrollment divisions in 2006.
And, Coach Roger Jansen isn't resting on last week's laurels after having his teams lose three of their four previous 3A
championship bids after going 5-0 in the semifinals.
"For some reason, we've played unbelievably well in the semis,'' said Jansen, a superb 144-29 in 15 seasons at the Heelan helm. "And then the finals roll around. It just seems like we have a little letdown. So, that's always a concern.
"We've addressed it. We've gone back to see if we can do anything different. I guess it's just kind of one of those things. It just
happens. Why it happens, you're not quite sure. A lot of it has to do with the other teams.''
Heelan, which won Class 4A titles in 1975 and 1982, lost its initial Class 3A final in 2007, succumbing 42-7 to Keokuk and a future Iowa quarterback in James Vandenberg.
The Crusaders used that setback as a springboard to a decisive 35-10 state championship win over Decorah in 2008, but they've lost two more disappointing finals in the last three years, falling 45-7 to Solon in 2010 and 49-21 to Decorah last fall.
Jansen is hopeful this opportunity, like in 2008, will see his team feed off last year's defeat.
"We're obviously excited for the opportunity to get back there and try to finish something that we weren't able to accomplish last year,'' said the Heelan coach, whose team takes a 13-0 record against a Washington squad that is 12-1. "If we can just take care of the football and kind of do what we've done all year, I like our chances.''
Heelan quarterback Trent Solsma completed all 19 of his first-half passes for 325 yards and five touchdowns in last week's rout of Clear Lake, finishing with a career-high 376 yards on 23-for-24 success (his last pass was intercepted).
That pushed Solsma's season numbers to 197 of 286 (.689) for 3,133 yards and 39 touchdowns, setting him up to erase city records for passing yards (3,177) and touchdowns (also 39) that he set last season. He was 202 of 311 (.650) for last year's runners-up, but he had 15 passes intercepted, compared to just seven this year, and three of those picks were instrumental in Decorah breaking the game open.
"(Solsma) is a real cool customer,'' said Washington's Schrader. "He sets back there and is able to find those receivers, who do a good job of finding holes in the defense.''
Solsma has hit six different receivers for touchdowns this fall, but he has two particularly stellar targets in seniors Connor Niles
and Philip Jacobson, who have combined for 4,129 career receiving yards.
Niles, who had 59 catches for 1,082 yards and 18 touchdowns last season, has improved on that with 67 receptions for 1,109 yards and another 18 scores despite a shoulder injury that kept him out of one full game and limited his playing time in a couple others.
Jacobson, a three-year regular, has also surpassed last year's numbers (42 for 736 yards) with 44 catches for 808 yards. He has nine TD grabs for a second year in a row while also returning three punts for touchdowns this season.
"If they have to run the football, they've got a thousand-yard rusher, too,'' noted Schrader, referring to junior running back
Tony Tobin, whose 199 carries have yielded 1,204 yards and 17 touchdowns. "They have great skill guys and they're just good across the front. They have two great defensive ends -- two great, big physical kids (Christian Brobst and Keaton Slaughter) -- and they've got a middle linebacker (junior Tyler Smith) who really brings it.''
Heelan's defense, often overshadowed by the big-play offense, has helped the Crusaders reach a continuous clock with 35-point leads in nine of 13 games. Three shutout victims have included Harlan (31-0) and Carroll (42-0), who wound up No. 5 and No. 8 in the final Class 3A poll by Associated Press.
Brobst, a three-year starter, leads the Crusaders in tackles for a second year in a row, totaling 78 stops with 19 tackles for loss. Smith is second with 73 tackles, backed up by outside linebacker Tyler Cropley (60), junior inside linebacker Joe Kayl (59), two-way lineman Noah Svec (55) and Slaughter (50).
Niles, Jacobson and junior wide receiver/cornerback Brett Buchmann are all two-way starters along with Svec, Brobst and junior Ben Wankum, taking over when Jake Noel, an outstanding 6-3, 225-pound sophomore, fractured his left leg in Heelan's regular season finale at Spencer. Seniors Chris Hackett and Grant Duncan join Brobst, Svec and Wankum in an offensive line that has helped the Crusaders lead Class 3A with 43.3 points a game.
Washington has won 11 games in a row since a 14-7 loss to Pella in Week 2 -- a setback the Demons avenged in a 28-0 quarterfinal cruise over the No. 3-ranked Dutch, previously undefeated. Schrader's team followed that up by winning a 14-9 defensive battle over No. 7 Solon in last week's semifinals.
"I don't think their defense gets talked about enough,'' said Jansen. "I was really, really impressed with their defense against Solon. They're athletic. I think they're going to match up with us the best anybody has all year.
"They haven't seen the ball in the air all that much. We're kind of hoping that not seeing the ball in the air will be an advantage for us. We'll see how athletic they are. You've got to have five guys (defenders) back there (covering pass receivers) and that's awful hard to do.''
Washington's headliner is running back Alex Coker, a 6-1, 195-pound senior who has rushed for 1,467 yards and 25 touchdowns while also returning two punts and one kickoff for scores.
"He's a kid who's first in the weight room in the morning and the last to leave,'' said Schrader, whose head coaching stops include North Scott and Davenport West, a pair of Class 4A schools, along with the four-year stint he served at Rockford (Ill.) College before taking the Washington job in the fall of 2010. "Alex would tell you the same thing, though. He wouldn't be
doing anything without that offensive line.''
Tommy Peterson, a 6-3, 315-pound junior guard, is the only two-way line starter for the Demons, who also have 245-pound guard Derek Miller and 220-pound junior center Kyle Collier in the middle, flanked by undersized tackles that weigh in at 190 and 170.
Quarterback Darryl Seibelius has averaged fewer than 10 pass attempts per game (59 of 120), netting 937 yards, but he has thrown for 13 touchdowns while running for 774 yards and another eight scores.
Last week, when Solon limited Coker to 39 yards on 18 carries, running back Tanner Knupp came up with 138 yards on 12 carries, breaking a 52-yard touchdown that spelled the difference in the low-scoring game. That pushed Knupp's season yardage to 689.
"One thing we've got to do is try and keep the game close and play a field position game with them,'' said Schrader. "If we can keep it close and not let it get out of hand early, hopefully we can make a game of it.''
CLASS 3A TITLE GAME NOTEBOOKRewriting the record books
Heelan's prolific passing game the last two seasons will be leaving quite an imprint on the Iowa High School Athletic Association record books that have been carefully compiled and maintained by a former journalist and coach, Bud Legg, the athletic director at Ames High School before joining the IHSAA.
Heelan quarterback Trent Solsma tied the fourth highest single-season TD passing total with 39 scoring throws last season and he has already matched that number with one game remaining tonight. That means Solsma has passed for 78 touchdowns in just two seasons, a total only three Iowa quarterbacks had exceeded prior to this season.
With 6,310 passing yards in his two seasons as Heelan's QB, Solsma has joined an exclusive club that showed just 12 players passing for 6,000 or more career yards through 2012 (only six had exceeded 7,000).
Meanwhile, wide receiver Connor Niles, also a two-year starter, already trails only three other players with 36 career touchdown catches (18 last season and 18 more this year). Grant McGraw of Pleasantville holds the 11-man record with 46 scoring catches in a career spanning four seasons (1992-95) for Pleasantville. Keokuk's James Hurt (2005-07) and
Ar-We-Va's Tyler Tryon (1991-92) are tied for second with 38 apiece.
Niles' 126 receptions and 2,191 receiving yards should rank him in the state's updated Top 25 when the season concludes and teammate Philip Jacobson should also make the all-time charts with 120 catches for 1,938 yards as a three-year regular.
Turnovers costly last year:
Three pass interceptions in last year's Class 3A state championship game proved costly to Heelan in a 49-21 loss to a Decorah team that had no turnovers while exacting revenge for a loss to the Crusaders in the 2008 final.
Decorah picked off a Trent Solsma pass on the game's very first play from scrimmage and a 14-yard return left the Vikings just 16 yards from a quick 7-0 lead.
Another pick preceded a 59-yard drive that gave Decorah a 14-0 advantage with 6:30 left in the opening quarter and the Vikings gained a 21-0 lead three plays into the second quarter after a 64-yard march.
Heelan rallied to score two second-quarter touchdowns, pulling within 21-14 on a TD with just 13 seconds left in the half. However, Josey Jewell's 47-yard touchdown run on the seventh play of the third quarter restored a 28-14 Decorah lead. Then, just two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Jewell also had an interception and a 20-yard return to the Heelan 6-yard line,
opening up a 35-14 margin that eventually reached 49-14.
Coach knows Western Iowa:
Washington Coach Randy Schrader is a 1974 graduate of Pekin High School, a perennial Southeast Iowa football power in Packwood, Iowa.
Schrader played defensive end at William Penn College in Oskaloosa before an injury brought an end to his playing career and landed him on Coach Jim Spry's staff as a student assistant.
After college, Schrader landed a head coaching job in Western Iowa at Dow City-Arion, now part of the Boyer Valley district. After two years in Dow City, he spent three as an assistant at Cherokee before a five-year stint as head coach in Clarinda.
That earned him a nine-year sojourn as the head coach at North Scott before two years as the district athletic director for the
Davenport Community School District. He left that position to return to coaching at Davenport West before the college coaching stop at Rockford, where he was also the athletic director.
--Terry Hersom
This post was edited on 11/20 10:25 PM by Crusader Power
http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/high-school/football/contrasting-styles-meet-for-class-a-crown/article_85b3ae55-e4fa-5823-9f66-b2894bd6fc8e.html
Picking Washington to get shutout is just ridiculous. Knupp and Cocker will not let that happen, kids run hard and are determined. This game will be a lot closer than people believe. If Washington can get their running game going and have the time of possession in their favor they WILL make a game of it. Looking forward to a wild game! Washington also has a pretty decent kicker, not sure about Heelan, guessing they do as well. May come down to them!
is anybody having trouble with the webcast on the iahsaa site? Mine says it is unable to download. If so, is there anywhere else to watch it online?
MJ,
I am at the high school I teach at and do not know the internet provider. Any other suggestions? What worked for you?
I am at the high school I teach at and do not know the internet provider. Any other suggestions? What worked for you?
I was not required to select an internet provider...espn3 normally does not work for me but I am able to view the Heelan-Washington championship game. try this link:
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1216415/size/condensed/
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1216415/size/condensed/
Hmmm...got me to a video viewing page, but then asked for my provider. Thanks for the help. Looks like I will have to try something else.
Here's a link to a Sioux City radio station where you can listen online:
http://www.kscj.com/streamplayer.html
http://www.kscj.com/streamplayer.html
the ihsaa website for free game coverage is BACK UP and online, go watch it now.
For a while, the obama idiots must have had their techs running the website, and some 3 year old china/American kid got it up and going again.
For a while, the obama idiots must have had their techs running the website, and some 3 year old china/American kid got it up and going again.
I spoke too soon, obama is running the website again - it's frozen and it says try again in 2014 after you pay a $6000 fine
heelans left tackle keeps holding or tackles wash's defensive guy and the officials aren't catching it
This post was edited on 11/21 8:08 PM by LincolntwspFarmer
This post was edited on 11/21 8:08 PM by LincolntwspFarmer
yawn, any bets at what point in the game that heelan will put subs in?
my bet is like 2 mins or less to go in the 4th qtr.
my bet is like 2 mins or less to go in the 4th qtr.
With 11:21 left in the quarter, Heelan starting QB is coming out. Along with some other positions.
Lol is the 8-man game really gonna be the most exciting finals contest?
What the heck is with all these blowouts?
What the heck is with all these blowouts?
Got to give Heelan credit they have a very fine football team in all phases of the game.
The level of talent on that team is good at every position.
The level of talent on that team is good at every position.
geezuz.. damn near Techmo Bowl like numbers for Solsma... is that 11 passing TD's in Semi-Final / Final.. and just over 800 yards total passing? Wow..
I would think he just upped his stock heading into the off-season in terms of offers he's about to receive..I"m wondering if any bigger D1 schools come knocking... I'm pretty sure UNI already has..
http://www.iahsaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/3ACHAMP.htm
I would think he just upped his stock heading into the off-season in terms of offers he's about to receive..I"m wondering if any bigger D1 schools come knocking... I'm pretty sure UNI already has..
http://www.iahsaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/3ACHAMP.htm
Don't see him on the QB Quick list for college - Elli Dunne is out there but not Solsma. What is his size, that is a big factor in getting offers.
Yeah.. Solsma is like 6' 1" 205 I believe.. so not your 6' 4" QB you'd like to have.. but not sure it matters if you can throw the ball.. it's not like he' s 5' 9" or something..
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