Iowa high school football playoffs: Scores, stats and more from Round of 16

It's playoff time in all seven classes now. The Iowa high school football Round of 16 was Friday night, the second round of the playoffs for 2A, 1A, A and 8-Player and the first round in 5A, 4A and 3A.

Find all the scores, plus Gazette area stats and coverage from Friday night below.

[Here is the postseason breakdown]

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No. 7 Iowa City High 47, No. 9 Urbandale 21 (5A)

You can’t have a renaissance football season without a playoff win.

That one got checked off the list Friday night for Iowa City High. The Little Hawks used a very large, bold pen, too.

City High scored on its first three offensive possessions, got a 98-yard kickoff return for touchdown by Jamari Newson, three interceptions and two touchdown passes on gadget plays by Gable Mitchell and beat up Urbandale, 47-21, in a Class 5A first-round game at Bates Field.

“We played really good the first half,” said City High running back-defensive back Joey Bouska. “The third quarter was not our best, we didn’t play very good. But we closed it out.”

This was City High’s first playoff victory since 2016. The Little Hawks (9-1) came in ranked seventh and Urbandale (7-3) ninth, with the teams having similar state RPI rankings: City High seventh and Urbandale 10th.

» Read the full story from Jeff Johnson

No. 4 Cedar Rapids Prairie 24, Bettendorf 6 (5A)

It was a grind, but the Hawks are moving on. Class 5A No. 4 Cedar Rapids Prairie found the going much tougher than what they remembered from Week 4, but did enough to beat Bettendorf, 24-6, in a first-round playoff game Friday night at John Wall Field.

“They came out with some different looks than they showed us in week 4,” Prairie Coach Mark Bliss said. “I call it a junk defense. Basically they came out and played something completely different than they played us the first time. It took us three or four series to figure out what they were doing.”

The Bulldogs (5-5) defense has been impressive this season aside from one performance. Prairie (8-2) put up over 600 yards of offense in a 54-20 win over Bettendorf in Week 4. Minus that game, Bettendorf gave up an average of 11 points during the regular season.

It took the Hawks 23:03 of game clock to find the scoreboard.

“It’s hard to beat a team twice,” Prairie quarterback Brandon Vlcko said. “It’s especially hard to end a team’s season.”

» Read the full story from Culley Kline

No. 1 Cedar Rapids Kennedy 23, Dubuque Senior 9

Cedar Rapids Kennedy focused on its rush attack this week in practice.

The Cougars struggled at times running the ball this season and needed that phase of the game to advance in the postseason.

The work paid dividends — 278 yards worth.

Jazan Williams scored two first-half touchdowns in consecutive possessions to help top-ranked Kennedy defeat Dubuque Senior, 23-9, in a Class 5A first-round playoff game Friday night at Kingston Stadium. The Cougars improve to 10-0 and host No. 7 Iowa City High (9-1) next week.

“Playoff teams have to be able to run the ball,” Kennedy Coach Brian White said. “If you can’t run the ball, it’s going to be tough going. We put an emphasis on being able to run the ball.

“Running the ball was really good. I’m really happy with our rush offense.”

» Read the full story from K.J. Pilcher

No. 7 Independence 26, No. 6 Benton Community 6 (3A)

Marcus Beatty on the carry.

That was the dominant and recurring theme on a cold, blustery night in the opening round of the Class 3A state football playoffs.

The explosive Beatty carried the ball on the game’s first 12 plays, setting the tone for No. 7 Independence’s 26-6 road win over No. 6 Benton Community on Friday night.

The 200-pound Beatty amassed a school-record 319 yards on 45 carries and three touchdowns as the Mustangs rolled up a huge edge in time of possession.

“We try to be balanced on offense, but we knew we were going to have to run it more with all the wind,” Beatty said. “My line blocked great and gave me the opportunity to make some big runs. They weren’t able to stop us early and I knew it could be a special night.”

» Read the full story from Craig Sesker

MFL MarMac 21, No. 3 Iowa City Regina 7 (1A)

Some would call it an upset.

The Bulldogs wouldn’t.

MFL MarMac (8-2) advanced to the state quarterfinals for the third straight year following a 21-7 victory over Class 1A No. 3 Iowa City Regina on the road Friday night.

“People can say it’s an upset,” junior wing back Karter Decker said. “We felt all week that we could win this game. We didn’t consider ourselves underdogs.”

» Read the full story from Ryan Pleggenkuhle

No. 2 Cedar Rapids Xavier 45, Burlington 8 (4A)

The Grayhounds delivered the opening salvo, but it was all Saints from there.

Second-ranked Xavier scored 45 unanswered points and marched to a victory over Burlington in a Class 4A first-round playoff game at Saints Field on Friday night.

Xavier advances to the second round on Nov. 5 to face No. 8 Webster City at Saints Field.

Burlington (7-3) drove 93 yards in six plays on the opening possession. Bryant Williams scampered 65 yards and scored on the two-point conversion run to give the Grayhounds an 8-0 lead 2:52 in.

Xavier scored the first six times it had the ball and seven of eight times for the game.

Xavier's Christian Stanek rushed for just 19 yards on four carries, but scored three touchdowns.

Michael Cunningham scored two second-half touchdowns for the Saints.

Xavier rushed for 291 yards.

— Matt Levins, Burlington HawkEye

No. 3 West Delaware 48, Grinnell 0 (3A)

Kyle Cole scored two rushing touchdowns and passed for two more as the Hawks rolled to a first-round playoff win at home.

Cole rushed for 136 yards, scoring on runs of 45 and 4 yards. He completed 4 of 5 passes for 64 yards, including TD passes to Luke Kehrli (42 yards) and Will Ward (6).

Wyatt Voelker added 133 rushing yards and TD runs of 1 and 4 yards as West Delaware rushed for 411 yards.

Haze Seibert scored on a 29-yard run for the Hawks.

— Bill Logan, correspondent

No. 6 Dyersville Beckman 24, West Branch 7 (1A)

Owen Huehnergarth rushed for 231 yards on 36 attempts to lead the Blazers to a Round of 16 victory.

Peyton Miller tallied the only West Branch (7-3) score on a 7-yard run. It made the score 17-7.

However, Beckman (10-0) kept plugging away and finally broke through.

It will advance to play MFL-MarMac in the Class 1A quarterfinals.

— Jason Miller, correspondent

No. 5 Sigourney-Keota 18, No. 10 Waterloo Columbus 7 (1A)

Colten Clarahan did a bit of everything as the Cobras won at home.

Clarahan threw for a touchdown, ran for one and blasted two long field goals to aid his team to victory.

Trailing 7-6 in the second quarter, Clarahan's foot changed the game. He hit field goals of 41 yards and 52 yards with the latter coming at the first-half buzzer.

Clarahan ran for a 10-yard touchdown on the Cobras' first play of the third quarter. His one passing touchdown was a 22-yard strike to Cade Streigle in the first quarter.

— Andy Krutsinger, Southeast Iowa Union

No. 10 Decorah 14, No. 1 North Scott 10 (4A)

Keenan Tyler’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Noah Storts with 26.5 seconds left lifted the Vikings to an upset over the top-ranked Lancers.

North Scott led 10-0 after the first quarter on a 20-yard field goal by Oliver Hughes and a 2-yard run by Drew Kilburg with 40 seconds to go in the first quarter.

The Vikings got on the board in the second quarter when Tyler hit Joe Bockman on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 7:44 to go before halftime.

Joe Bockman set up the winning TD drive with an interception with 4:15 to go.

— Randy Iverson, correspondent

No. 10 North Fayette Valley 27, Monticello 14 (2A)

North Fayette Valley fell behind 14-0 in the first nine minutes, but rallied to score 27 unanswered points over the final three quarters to win at Monticello.

The TigerHawks (9-1) took control on the strength of their 330-yard rushing attack, led by junior Blake Reichter, who carried 25 times for 135 yards and two second-half touchdowns on runs of 3 and 1 yard. NFV quarterback Kaleb White had just six completions for 78 yards, but two of those went for touchdowns in the first half, 20 yards to Tayler Luzum and 12 yards to Wil Miller.

Monticello (7-3) took its two-score lead in the first quarter on passes from Preston Ries to Caleb Sauser, one for 13 yards and one for 43. Ries finished with 209 passing yards; Sauser had 114 receiving yards.

Monticello led 14-13 at halftime.

— Pete Temple, correspondent

No. 9 Lansing Kee 42, No. 6 Turkey Valley 40 (8-Player)

Damon Weber connected with Dalton Dibert on a 37-yard touchdown pass with just over a minute left as Kee won on the road.

Weber complted 25 of 39 passes for 259 yards and four TDs. Dibert had 15 catches for 157 yards and two TDs.

Tyson Cota had nine catches for 102 yards and two TDs for Kee.

Marcus Herold rushed for 206 yards and two TDs for Turkey Valley.

— Darin Svenson, correspondent

No. 3 Solon 24, Davenport Assumption 17 (3A)

Sean Stahle rushed for 126 yards on 21 carries and the first two scores of the game as the Spartans rolled at home.

Solon junior quarterback Blake Timmons ran for 73 yards on 26 attempts while throwing for 101 yards on 6 of 15 passing.

— Quad City Times

No. 5 Waverly-Shell Rock 42, Cedar Rapids Washington 14

Watts McBride gave the Warriors hope with an 80-yard sprint to the end zone in the first quarter, but the Go-Hawks (9-1) overcame and went on to score a plethora of points.

McBride finished with 119 yards on 12 carries.

Grant Halverson passed for two TDs and McCrae Haggerty rushed for three scores for WSR.

— Waterloo Courier

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