Iowa high school football rewind: North Linn wins another one for Cletus

CEDAR RAPIDS — Play for Cletus.

When North Linn football coach Jared Collum was asked to explain how his Lynx have been able to overcome losing their best player, win two playoff games and reach the quarterfinals for just the second time in school history, he said it was simple.

“I guess my thing is when you can convince a group of high school kids to go play for their buddy and not themselves, they’re really dangerous,” Collum said.

Sophomore Mason Bechen passed for 218 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 92 yards and another score as North Linn beat Mason City Newman, 28-14, Friday night in a Class A Round-of-16 game at Troy Mills.

Bechen has been a running back all season, North Linn’s leading rusher, but was asked to play quarterback here in the continued absence of Tate Haughenbury. Cletus (his nickname and how virtually everyone in the community refers to him) was diagnosed with mononucleosis just after the regular season, and has been unavailable.

Tate Van Etten led North Linn to a 45-0 first-round playoff win over Wapello. Bechen got the call for this game.

“It was all going to be designed runs plus a couple of wrinkles,” Collum said. “Basically we were going to have two running backs in the backfield. That was the plan. But Newman was stacking the box (defensively) and giving us these man looks against our two wides (wide receivers), that I knew they couldn’t guard them.

“So we went one-on-one, and we roasted them the whole first half in the pass game.”

All of Bechen’s passing yards came in the first two quarters, as North Linn built a 28-7 halftime lead. He completed 8 of 12 passes, with Cael Bridgewater catching six of those for 148 yards and a touchdown.

Ben Wheatley also had a 15-yard TD reception.

“Bechen is an athlete, and he throws a good ball and has a strong arm,” Collum said. “And he can get the ball out quicker than Jake. We threw a lot of hitches, knew one of their cornerbacks was weak, so we got him isolated and just threw hitch, hitch, hitch.”

North Linn (9-1) now faces top-ranked, defending Class A state champ West Hancock (10-0) this coming Friday night at Britt. Collum honestly doesn’t know who will be his starting quarterback.

Haughenbury has accumulated 1,750 yards and 23 touchdowns rushing and passing in eight games this season. His play has gotten the attention of Iowa and Iowa State, both of whom had him attend games on their dime this fall.

The other time North Linn advanced to the playoff quarterfinals was 1993, when it lost to West Branch in 1A.

“I told them last night at practice ‘Win or lose, guys, to get to this point without Tate Haughenbury is a testament to your heart,’” Collum said. “That’s all it is.”

City High falls in OT

Iowa City High had its season end in about as rough a way as possible Friday night.

Johnston scored a touchdown and kicked the extra point to open overtime, then recovered a fumble in the end zone on City High’s possession to come away with a 38-31 win in a Class 5A thriller at Johnston.

The Little Hawks (6-4) trailed by as many as 17 points before rallying. Quarterback Drew Larson threw for 237 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 137.

Larson took off on a QB draw on fourth-and-goal from the 3 in overtime, but fumbled as he got to the 1. Quarterback Will Nuss threw five touchdown passes for Johnston (7-3).

MFL MarMac is explosive

Sophomore quarterback Zach Driscoll threw for 217 yards and two touchdowns in eighth-ranked MFL MarMac’s 28-6 win over No. 10 Dike-New Hartford in a Class 1A Round-of-16 game at Monona. But that’s not the entire story.

Driscoll’s yardage came on just four completions, including an 85-yard TD to Wyatt Powell and a 76-yard TD to Karter Decker. Powell rushed for 177 yards in the game, including a touchdown.

MFL MarMac (9-1) plays its quarterfinal at No. 3 West Branch (10-0).

Crestwood ends Waukon’s Dome streak

Waukon had its string of semifinal appearances come to an end with a 20-18 loss to Crestwood in Class 2A. The Indians (6-4) had made it to the semis five consecutive seasons.

Crestwood had 300 yards rushing in the game. The Cadets also beat Waukon in the regular season.

Road warriors

The longest road trip in the Round-of-16 also turned out to a winning road trip.

Tyler Mantel rushed for three touchdowns as Western Christian beat Aplington-Parkersburg, 49-27, in a Class 1A game at Parkersburg.

It’s 232 miles from Hull to Parkersburg, roughly four hours.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com