It's all about the blitz for Oelwein in upset of North Fayette

OELWEIN - Say he's nuts, call him crazy, a mad scientist. Oelwein football coach Jim Yokas figured the only way his Huskies were going to beat mighty North Fayette on Friday night was to be aggressive defensively.

So they blitzed. Then they blitzed. To change it up a little bit, they blitzed.

Get the picture here? North Fayette ran 60 offensive plays, Oelwein blitzed 60 times.

“Not going to lie about it,” Yokas said after his team's 26-20 home upset. “We came up with every angle we could. Safeties, cornerbacks, we brought them from every place we could think of. We're not very big, but we run well. It was a gamble, high risk.”

And high reward. Class 3A Oelwein improved to 2-0 in handing Class 2A third-ranked North Fayette its first regular-season loss since 2008.

Quarterback Stephen Meyer's 12-yard touchdown pass to Cody Rath with four minutes left was the winning score. North Fayette (1-1) got as far as the Oelwein 20 in the final minute, but the Huskies held.

Blitzing all the way, of course, and avenging a 42-27 loss last season.

“It's kind of a mixed feeling,” Yokas said. “It's a big win, but we've got Decorah and Waverly-Shell Rock back to back here to start district play. We really wanted to play well heading into our district.

“We've got an excellent quarterback and enough weapons to go with him. We're not going to overpower anybody with our offense, but we've got some guys who can play.”

Breaking the huddle

- While most folks are looking at Lisbon and WACO in Class A, District 5, it'd be wise not to sleep on Lone Tree. The Lions blasted Belle Plaine Friday night, 56-7, to move to 2-0. Six different players had touchdowns as Lone Tree rushed for 400 yards.

- Starmont finished non-district play with a pair of shutouts, including Friday night's 45-0 whitewashing of Edgewood-Colesburg. The Stars open defense of their Class 1A District 5 championship next week at Clayton Ridge (2-1).

- Midland goes into a bye week 3-0 after a 41-22 win over Meskwaki Settlement School. The Eagles were 4-5 in their first 8-man season last year but appear to have one of the game's top running backs in junior Ryan Leonard, who has reached 200 yards rushing in all three games.

- A look ahead to next week sees a juicy matchup between 4A-ranked and unbeaten city rivals Iowa City High and Iowa City West in the “Battle for the Boot” at Bates Field. District openers for the rest of the classes include North Fayette at Dyersville Beckman (2A).