Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • D1

00 1 SPORTS Sunday, november 11, 2018 siouxcityjournal.com SeCTIon JOURNAL STAFF JAMESTOWN, N.D. The elements even slow the high-powered Morningside College offense in a 49-13 victory over Jamestown that clinched the eighth straight Great Plains Athletic Conference foot- ball championship here Saturday. NAIA top-ranked Morninigside negotiated its way through snow and single-digit temperatures at Rollie Greeno Field for 538 yards of total of- fense. All-Amer- ican quarterback Trent Solsma threw four touch- down passes, equaling his own single-season national, con- ference and school record with 55. Solsma also tossed 55 scoring passes last season.

Morningside closed the regu- lar season 11-0 overall and 9-0 in the GPAC and extended its reg- ular season winning streak to 29 straight and 34 in a row in con- ference play. Jamestown wound up 3-8 and 2-7 in its first season of GPAC competition. CEDAR FALLS, Iowa Your thoughts today are about the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Armi- stice Day. some space for sport, though, however insignificant.

The sports section of the newspaper all depended upon for 130 years or so no longer (space limitations) runs the Fearless Foot- ball Forecast so reprise the award-winning Triple how- ever briefly, for prep foot- ball playoff title games. It remains a mystery as to when Sioux City will return a public school team to the Class 4A semifinals so shift those picks to a post-script and commence with 3A. Cedar Rapids Xavier is clearly the favorite over Western Dubuque in the championship game. As mentioned previously, Xavier just has too many weap- ons beyond slick quarterback Quinn Schulte. Western Dubuque has a Di- vision I quarterback of its own in Calvin Harris, who will play baseball at Southeastern Con- ference power Mississippi.

a calm and cool customer, much like Schulte, whose father and Xavier Coach Duane Schulte, once coached girls basketball at Bishop Heelan. be up to Western superb lineback- ers, who outquicked Sergeant speedy running backs, to slow polished offense. Xavier pummeled Council Bluffs Lewis Central in a semi- final in which Schulte clearly outplayed publicized Lewis Central quarterback Max Dug- gan, a TCU recruit. In the 2A semis Saturday, our picks were Valley over Waukon and Mon- roe PCM over West Liberty. With the final prediction RV over PCM.

In the 1A semis Saturday, it was difficult to pick one of own, Hawarden West Sioux over defending Briefly rekindling dormant picks ERIC OLSON Associated Press LINCOLN high-powered offense made Il- linois pay for its many mistakes Saturday. The Cornhuskers converted four of the five turnovers into 24 points while pulling away for a 54-35 win, their third in four games after an 0-6 start. got some good breaks today. We were probably due for some good Nebraska first-year coach Scott Frost said. made a couple mistakes and got us some good situa- tions.

You take advantage of those if not doing the right The Huskers (3-7, 2-5 Big Ten) did plenty right. Wearing alter- nate uniforms to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War the Huskers rolled up 606 total yards on a raw afternoon when the wind chill dipped to 13 degrees. Illinois amassed 509 yards in the meeting of the Big worst defenses. early on in the game, watching our offense executing, man, fun calling plays; it was a thing of Frost said. guys were executing ev- erything we were Adrian Martinez threw for 290 yards and accounted for four touchdowns and Devine Ozigbo ran for 162 yards and three scores.

Illinois (4-6, 2-5) had three turnovers in the first half two muffed punts and a fumble by quarterback AJ Bush. Those led to 17 points for Nebraska, which led 38-21 at half. Bush moved the Illini into Ne- braska territory on the opening series of the second half but was intercepted when his pass went through Dominic hands into safety Aaron Wil- The Huskers embarked on a 17-play, 82-yard drive that chewed nearly 8 minutes off the clock, with Ozigbo scoring his second touchdown for a 24-point lead. Martinez leads Cornhuskers past Illini, 54-35 Morningside captures 8th straight GPAC title naTI HarnIK, ASSOCIATED PRESS Nebraska running back Devine Ozigbo (22) carries the ball between Illinois defensive backs Delano Ware (15) and Jartavius Martin (21) during the first half in Lincoln, Saturday. JEFF BUDLONG CEDAR FALLS, Iowa West Sioux showed the heart of a champion and a jaw of steel.

The defending Class A cham- pions needed it all as third- ranked Van Meter used a 16-play drive that covered 84 yards and used more than eight minutes off the third quarter clock to grab its first lead over fifth-ranked West Sioux. It was the kind of knockout punch of a drive that teams often recover from. The Falcons not only recovered but delivered one of their own. Senior wide re- ceiver Chase Koopmans caught a deep pass from Hunter Dekkers on third-and-15 before throwing Cody Coffman away from him as he tried to make a tackle and raced a total of 55 yards. was huge call that said Koopmans.

know it is go- ing to take three people to take me down because I am not going down on that. That is for a big gain and I wanted it more than they was a huge play because it was on third West Sioux coach Ryan Schwiesow said. was a pass combo that we put in this week in a formation they had not seen and the kids just executed. ran a clear-out route un- derneath and sent Chase over the top and Hunter saw him. It was fairly well covered, but you have a kid that has the softest hands in the world and a kid that can put it on him.

It was just two great players that made a great Dekkers would race in from seven yards out to give West Sioux a 31-28 lead it would not relinquish as it went on to defeat the defending Class 1A cham- pion 38-35 in a 1A semifinal at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls on Saturday. Koopmans finished the game with five receptions for 103 yards and ran for 57 more. The Falcons would increase the lead to 38-28 using another long drive that was capped by a Dekkers to Kade Lynott 6-yard scoring strike with 7:36 to play. The Bulldogs did not go quietly as they again used their run game and a couple of big plays before quarterback Anthony Potthoff found JJ Richards on a 10-yard scoring strike to close within three. knew how good of a team Van Meter is and my hat is off to them because they are well coached and they played so Schwiesow said.

were times where our kids make a play to get off the field, but that is just good offense on their part. They are a champi- onship team and they showed it and we are a championship team and we showed West Sioux was unable to run out the remaining time on the clock giving the Bulldogs one more chance as they converted a fourth-and-15 on the ensuing drive, but on fourth-and-7 Logan Koedam sacked Potthoff for a big loss to seal the victory and send West Sioux back to the title game. is a huge moment for our team because still being here and being up a class is a huge deal for Dekkers said. The Falcons (11-1) will face top-ranked Dike-New Hartford (12-0) Friday for the 1A title. The two teams traded scores throughout the first half as the Falcons struck first with Koop- mans racing 56 yards on the first play of West second drive to go up 7-0.

work on (the run play) in practice and knowing our line and how good we can be we know we can do Koopmans said. O-line did amazing and we pushed through and got The lead would double quickly as Victor Hernandez had a strip sack of Van Meter quarterback Potthoff and he was able to re- cover the ball on the Bulldog 10. Koopmans was in the end zone for the second time on the day in short order as he hauled in a 5-yard pass from Hunter Dek- kers to make it 14-0 with 3:17 to go in the first quarter. Van Meter would put to- gether an eight-play drive, all runs, highlighted by 40-yard dash. The quarterback would score two plays later as he pushed his way into the end zone from a yard out as the first quar- ter expired.

Van Meter would pooch kick the ball on the ensuing kickoff and recover the ball, but the West Sioux would record a pair of sacks to get the ball back. West Sioux would turn that possession into three points as Jason Topete con- nected on a 31-yard field goal. West Sioux makes repeat trip to state title game brandon PoLLoCK PHoToS, COURIER L-R: West Hunter Dekkers, Kyler Bak and Chase Koopmans celebrate a narrow victory over Van Meter during the Iowa high school state football semifinals Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa. STeve aLLSPaCH mornInGSIde 49, JameSToWn 13 Solsma nebraSKa 54, ILLInoIS 35 Freshman throws for 290 yards, accounts for 4 TDs Please see aLLSPaCH, Page D6 Please see mornInGSIde, Page D3Please see nebraSKa, Page D6 IoWa STaTe FooTbaLL SemIFInaLS West Kade Lynott is pushed out of bounds by Van Zach Madden after a long gain during the Iowa high school state football semifinals Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Check out a photo gallery from the West Sioux and Van Meter game at siouxcityjournal.com/photos Please see WeST SIouX, Page D6 HOLIDAY SPECIAL Southern Hills Mall (712) EVERY DIAMOND TELLS A STORY.