Metro Sports Report

Hill's 5 TDs thwart Hawks' upset bid

There were times Friday night when the Cedar Falls football team seemed to forget that they were the No. 1 ranked team in the state. Tiger running back Barkley Hill never forgot that he is one of the best players in the state.

Bulldozing for 293 yards and five touchdowns, Hill lead Cedar Falls to a 41-28 victory over Prairie at John Wall Field, as Prairie put together a solid game against the state's best team.

“Hill had a big night running for us. We were able to gain control of the line of scrimmage with our line and we did a lot of good things,” said Cedar Falls co-Coach Pat Mitchell. “We also had some disappointing parts of the game with other parts of our team but we are going to work on them and try and get better.”

Prairie quarterback Jace Hanna and the Prairie offense didn’t let Cedar Falls’ reputation worry them as Hanna threw for 361 yards and two scores and the offense put up 28 points. The Cedar Falls defense had only allowed nine total points in the first two games of the season.

“I just think that Jace is getting confidence,” said Prairie Coach Mike Morrissey. “For the most part we protected him pretty well and when we had breakdowns he was able to move around and make things happen with his feet. He has really progressed and is as tough mentally as he is physically.”

Marion blanked by Western Dubuque, 7-0

EPWORTH - There were two ways to look at Western Dubuque's 7-0 win over Marion Friday night.

It was either a case of two lackluster teams unable to muster much offensive firepower. Or it was a rock-em sock-em defensive battle, full of big-time hits in the backfield and pileups in the middle of the line.

Losing Marion Coach Tony Perkins opted for the latter view.

"It was a great high school football game," he said. "And Western Dubuque is a very good football team."

Former Dyersville Beckman and Dubuque Hempstead coach Bob Timmerman, who has a state championship on his record and is still an active volunteer freshman coach after more than 50 years in the business, agreed with Perkins.

"A lot of fans don't like these kinds of games," he said from the Mediacom television booth while doing color commentary on the game. "But I love them. Not a lot of passing, which I never cared for. Pretty much the same basic run-oriented offenses like I used to run.

"And they were really hitting on both sides."

East's big plays doom J-Hawks, 33-10

Football, in its simplest form, can be summarized as follows:

If you can't stop the big play, you better make a lot of little plays.

Jefferson did neither Thursday night against Waterloo East at Kingston Stadium.

East scored on touchdown runs of 53, 50 and 28 yards, and also a 38-yard pass play, and beat the J-Hawks, 33-10, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game.

It was the second straight year East (1-2) put a whipping on the J-Hawks. The Trojans won 48-6 last year at Waterloo.

"It might have given us a little confidence," East Coach Kody Asmus said. "But last year was last year and it's this year now."

East junior quarterback Desmond VanArsdale had scoring runs of 4, 50 and 28 yards, and also threw the touchdown pass for East.

Jefferson (0-3) ran 84 plays to just 38 for East. The Trojans outgained Jefferson 376 to 340. East had seven plays of 20 yards or more, accounting for 247 yards. The J-Hawks had 23 first downs to 15 for East, but were hamstrung by key penalties twice in the first half and turned the ball over on downs five times in the game.

Iowa vs. ISU: A history lesson

The year was 1934 as Iowa and Iowa State were to play their last football game of the series with the Cyclones winning, 31-6. And in the minds of many people at that time, the series was too hot to handle.

Consequently it was determined that for the next 43 years there would be no Iowa-Iowa State football game. Apparently, the thought was that in 43 years the Cyclones and the Hawks would become much more blase about the games and would exhibit better sportsmanship.

I don't know if that was the case, but there was a groundswell within the state to have the series resumed. Much talk went on and the state legislature threatened to pass a law demanding that the game be played.

Iowa's Forest Evashevski had been involved in the Michigan-Michigan State once-in-a-while game, and he was for the resumption although publicly not campaining for it. Evy at that time was having his own problems with the Iowa administration, so it was not a hot button for him.

He knew he would be a trend-setter, however, and when the time came he put his considerable power behind it.

So as time went on the first game was rescheduled for 1977, but before that, since freshmen were not eligible, there was a frosh game played between Iowa State and Iowa at Clyde Williams Field in Ames. And the press jumped all over that.