Iowa City West continues dominant postseason, beats C.R. Washington in 4A semis, 35-7

CEDAR FALLS — They earned this. There's zero argument against that.

The Iowa City West Trojans are headed to the Class 4A state championship football game, and they did it with an impressive postseason run that included a 35-7 semifinal win Friday night over Cedar Rapids Washington at the UNI-Dome.

West (10-2) went through fifth-ranked Bettendorf, sixth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie and fourth-ranked Wash to make it to the finals for the first time since 1999. The first two wins came on the road, no less.

They probably should sweat championship opponent West Des Moines Dowling, which is 4A's gold standard and looking for a four-peat. But the way they've played these past three weeks, don't give these guys guff if they're not.

'This team is not afraid of the moment,' said West Coach Garrett Hartwig. 'They hate to lose.'

'We know we're good,' said West's Oliver Martin. 'Each week, we know we can beat anyone. If we play our best, we can compete with anyone. Then it just comes down to making plays and who's most physical during the game.'

West completely took over a tight game with a dominant third quarter in which Washington (10-2) didn't even get off its first offensive play until 4:33 remained. Devontae Lane had a pair of 2-yard touchdown runs, Washington fumbled a kickoff return, and West's Lucas Karwal recovered his own onside kick, if you're wondering how the Trojans were able to play keep away.

The spread went from 14-7 to out of control just like that.

'Really, we got out of our way,' said West quarterback Evan Flitz. 'We kind of got in our way in the first half with turnovers and stuff. Putting things together really put us in a good place.'

Flitz was absolutely brilliant, completing 19 of 25 passes for 260 yards and a pair of scores, both, of course, to Martin. The all-stater and uncommitted big-time college recruit caught nine passes for 119 yards.

Absolutely do not discount the factor West's defense played here. Washington did very, very little until late, its only touchdown coming in the first quarter on an Ian Thomas 1-yard plunge.

That came after Wash's Drew Dostal picked up a fumble following a West pass completion and returned it 69 yards to the Trojans 10. The Warriors had only 143 total yards, held to 14 fewer points than their lowest previous output this season.

'Obviously not the way we wanted to go out,' Dostal said. 'They made some plays, and we, obviously, made a lot of mistakes. They took advantage and just got to us in the second half.'

'We made mistakes, and they capitalized,' said Washington's Rane Weiland. 'On special teams, we had a couple of turnovers, and they went in and scored. That really shifted the momentum towards them.'

It's crazy to say when you look at the final score, but this game really flipped midway through the second quarter on a roughing-the-punter penalty. Washington led, 7-0, and appeared to be getting the football back.

Instead the Trojans got a 1st-and-10 at the Warriors 47. On the third play after the reprieve, Flitz hit Martin on a pump-and-go route for a 34-yard touchdown that tied the game 3:51 before the break.

'Everything turned at that point,' said Washington Coach Paul James. 'There's no blame or anything like that. It just happened that way. It's tough to contain all the good athletes they have.'

'Every game there are plays that kind of change the momentum,' Flitz said. 'The key is capitalizing on those changes. We did that with a couple of scores there and really changed the outcome of the game.'

West got the ball back at its own 43 with 1:41 left after a Washington punt and drove downfield for a go-ahead TD. Flitz and his feet were pivotal, as he avoided a pass rush and scrambled for eight yards to the Wash 28, then ran a QB draw for 15 to the Warriors 13.

On 1st-and-goal at the 3 with 10 seconds remaining and West out of timeouts, Flitz avoided a blitzing linebacker and flipped an outlet pass to Lane for a 3-yard touchdown and a 14-7 lead.

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com