Koch sparkles in West victory

IOWA CITY - Steam rose off Iowa City West receiver Xavier Koch as he answered questions after West's 28-0 victory over Ottumwa in a Class 4A first-round playoff game Wednesday night. The evening was cold, but Koch was that hot.

The Trojan senior scored three second-quarter touchdowns, each more spectacular than the last, to give the home team a 21-0 halftime lead and all but clinch the victory.

Koch caught a pass in the corner of the end zone on third-and-goal from the 20 with 7:07 left in the half.

'Aaron (Bleil) threw a perfect ball,” Koch said. 'I just reached for it and I got it.”

Later, West put together a 2-minute drill and moved from its 19 to the Bulldog 38. But a sack moved the ball back to the 49 for a fourth-and-15 play. Bleil fired the ball down the middle to Koch for a TD with 39 seconds left.

'It was a post; I faked to the corner and just went deep,” Koch said. 'It was a perfect ball again.”

'They brought two guys up on our short routes,” Bleil said. 'They only had one guy back on Xavier on the deep, and he beat the guy and all I had to do was throw it up.”

Bleil was sharp all night and threw for 230 yards.

Ottumwa connected on a long pass and threatened to score in the waning seconds but had to settle for a 35-yard field-goal attempt. When the ball was blocked it went to Koch.

'I just looked up in the air and got it,” he said. 'Everyone was screaming ‘go, go, go,' so I just ran as fast as I could. My teammates were there to block. John Milani had a couple key blocks at the end.”

He followed his teammates 80 yards along the sideline, pausing at just the right times to allow blockers to pick off pursuers.

Koch wasn't tackled until he reached the goal line as time expired. The officials conferred and ruled it a touchdown.

'I just reached when I got to the end zone,” Koch said. 'I was a little worried because I was going to be mad if we didn't get that.”

West's Gabe Huinker intercepted two passes and Connor Greene recovered a fumble all in the first half as the Trojan defense posted its first shutout of the season.