Maquoketa Valley actually gives up some points but downs Class No. 9 North Linn

TROY MILLS — The temerity of these guys to actually give up a touchdown. Two of them, no less.

The temerity to give up any points, period.

Someone finally scored on Maquoketa Valley’s football team Friday night. It’d been five weeks and 21 quarters since that happened.

Complete the math there, and that’s five consecutive games plus the first quarter of this one where the Wildcats gave up nothing. Not a single point.

But that was just part of the news in this Class A showdown. The biggest part was MV’s offense cranking out five touchdowns and 35 points to upset ninth-ranked North Linn, 35-16.

“Just a gritty win,” said first-year head coach Andrew Christensen, who came to Maquoketa Valley after being head coach at Nashua-Plainfield. “I think from the first play, we came out and did a lot of things to impose our will. Honestly it was kind of a tricky week for us. We had some sickness, had a couple of guys dinged up who didn’t practice this week. But we got out here and just took care of business.”

“Of course it’s a team effort,” added MV sophomore receiver-defensive back Eli Dougherty. “I don’t know how to say this (specifically), but everybody is doing their jobs. That’s how everybody gets their stats. It’s a team victory. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Dougherty said enough on the field with two interceptions that helped his team score a pair of touchdowns. Then he had one TD of his own on a beautiful play in which he ran a stop-and-go pattern left side and hauled in a beautifully thrown deep ball over the North Linn secondary for a 28-16 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“They were biting on the hitch, so I just stopped, went, and it was an amazing ball by Brady Wall. It was a beautiful ball,” Dougherty said. “We’ve got good players, we’ve got good talent. It’s just a team effort. The talent is there, we’ve just got to live up to our potential. We’re still climbing that mountain. We’ve got to get there (to the top).”

Maquoketa Valley is 6-1 overall, its lone loss in the season opener to Cascade, 10-9. The Wildcats are 6-0 in District 4.

North Linn (6-1) lost for the first time overall and, obviously, in District 4 play.

“Turnovers, mental mistakes, penalties. You make mistakes like that against a team like Maquoketa Valley, they’re too good,” said North Linn Coach Jared Collum. “We’re still a good football team. Hopefully we’ll get a 2 (district) seed. We’ve got to take care of our business against Bellevue, and then we’re the 2 seed instead of the 1.”

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Photos: Maquoketa Valley at North Linn high school football

Maquoketa Valley took a 12-0 lead after the first quarter on touchdown runs of 10 and 5 yards by sophomore running back Rogan Heidt. Both extra-point kicks failed.

That’s the way things stayed until very late in the first half, when North Linn finally got a break and a spark. A poor punt snap gave the Lynx the football at the MV 16, and North Linn quarterback Will Sommerfelt took care of that yardage with two completions, including a 5-yard TD to Cael Bensch.

Sommerfelt hit Cole Griffith for a 2-point conversion pass that made it a 12-8 game at halftime.

But Maquoketa Valley’s Kash Hunt picked off a Sommerfelt pass on North Linn’s opening offensive possession of the second half, which turned into a 6-yard TD run for Dylan Knipper. North Linn responded with a scoring drive of its own, with Sommerfelt and Benesh hooking up again for an 18-yard touchdown pass play and an ensuing 2-point conversion to make it 20-16.

Wall to Daugherty and the 2-point conversion made it a two-score spread of 28-16. Dougherty’s second interception on the ensuing Lynx series set up Heidt’s second TD run of the night, this one from 4 yards.

Heidt had 125 yards rushing on 20 carries for Maquoketa Valley. North Linn actually outgained the Wildcats by a 284-221 margin.

Maquoketa Valley 35, North Linn 16

(At Troy Mills

Maquoketa Valley 12 0 8 15-35

North Linn 0 8 8 0-16

Team Statistics

First Downs - Maquoketa Valley 11, North Linn 15. Rushes-Yards - Maquoketa Valley 37-146, North Linn 38-173. Completions-Attempts-Interceptions-Yards - Maquoketa Valley 6-12-0-75, North Linn 13-26-3-111. Total Yards - Maquoketa Valley 221, North Linn 284. Punts-Average - Maquoketa Valley 4-28.8, North Linn 2-31.5. Penalties-Yards - Maquoketa Valley 3-15, North Linn 7-49. Fumbles-Lost - Maquoketa Valley 1-0, North Linn 1-1.

Individual Statistics

Rushing - MV: Rogan Heidt 20-125, Dylan Knipper 8-25, Brady Wall 7-14, Team 2-(minus) 18, NL: Will Sommerfelt 12-66, Drew Ries 16-62, Cole Griffith 10-45. Passing - MV: Brady Wall 6-12-0-75, North Linn: Will Sommerfelt 12-25-3-108, Cole Griffith 1-1-0-3. Receiving - MV: Eli Dougherty 1-57, Anderson Holtz 2-9, Rogan Heidt 1-6, Lukas Chestnut 2-3.

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