Will City High be able to run away from Xavier?

CEDAR RAPIDS - You know they're going to run the football. They know you know they're going to run the football.

You know they know you know they're going to run the football ...

All right, enough's enough. But the winner of what appears to be the best prep football game in the state tonight could be determined by one thing.

Can Cedar Rapids Xavier's defense stop, or at least slow down, Iowa City High's powerful running game?

“Typical City High,” said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte. “Big, strong, the line gets off the ball, they're well coached, they have athletes. Everything.”

These teams are 3-0 and ranked in the top 10 in Class 4A (City High second, Xavier seventh), though they've gotten there in different ways.

City High has done what City High usually does - run the football behind a big offensive line, mostly with Ronald Thompson. The 6-foot, 200-pounder is coming off a school-record 362 yards last week against Iowa City West.

City High has 1,228 rushing yards, third in 4A behind teams that have played one more game. It averages 8.2 yards per rushing play.

Little doubt what the Little Hawks will try to do. Impose their will.

“It's going to boil down to who wins the defensive-line play, and just being tough,” Schulte said. “(Thompson) is like a man-child, like a high-school kid playing in a junior-high game. So we've got to be tough and try to slow him down. I don't know if we can, but we'll try.”

“They have a good back in Ronald Thompson, a good quarterback in Jasper Washington,” said Xavier linebacker Jack Boland. “We're real worried about the run. We're just trying to mentally and physically prepare for it. We know it's coming.”

Xavier is unbeaten thanks primarily to its defense, which has pitched three consecutive shutouts. The Saints allowed just 146 yards in their opener against Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 222 in Week Two against Cedar Rapids Prairie and 186 last week against Dubuque Hempstead.

This is a program that prides itself on consistently being sound defensively. Xavier may not have the biggest or most athletic kids, but they're tough and carry out their assignments well.

“Just wrap them up, tackle good,” said linebacker Josh Nelson. “Have everybody do exactly what they're supposed to do. Do their jobs. It's just team play. Having everybody do exactly what they need to do.”

Of course, Xavier is going to have to score some points as well to win. Special teams always are important in big games.

And don't get too wound up emotionally. Respect your opponent - one that has a 31-game regular-season win streak, by the way - but don't fear them.

“I don't know if they are relishing this (opportunity) or not. We haven't even brought it up this week, that we're facing City High,” Schulte said. “We're just trying to get better and play another game.

“But they're not stupid. They all have really good ACT scores here. They know who we're playing Friday night.”