Late score and 4th-down stand powers West Delaware to 27-20 win over Class 3A No. 5 Dubuque Wahlert

MANCHESTER – West Delaware was backed up to its goal line twice in the final minutes.

The first resulted in its longest, and quickest, offensive drive of the night. The second ended in a victory-securing defensive stand, thwarting four straight Dubuque Wahlert plays inside for the 7.

Austin Schnieders rushed for three touchdowns, including the decisive 67-yard scoring jaunt with 3:16 to play, and the Hawks knocked off No. 5 Dubuque Wahlert, 27-20, in a Class 3A non-district high school football game Friday night at Bob Brown Field.

“We showed we can beat any team with our physicality,” Schnieders said. “We just don’t give up. We’re a bunch of dogs on this team.”

Schnieders appeared to put West Delaware comfortably ahead, 21-12, after his second 2-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter. Wahlert answered with a 67-yard, 13-play drive that burned 6:56 off the clock.

Ben Francis rushed in untouched off the left end for a 3-yard score and J.P. Elbert completed a conversion pass to pull the Golden Eagles within 21-20 and 4:51 remaining.

The ensuing kickoff was mishandled and downed at the Hawks’ 5.

Instead of a long, physical, grind-it-out drive, the Hawks exploded for a three-play scoring drive that opened with a 24-yard Macoy Roling blast up the middle and Schnieders final TD run.

“We just wanted to punch them in the mouth and we came up with something big,” Schnieders said. “I’m grateful for it.

“I just saw my blockers doing their thing. I just took off and saw a bunch of green grass in front of me.”

The door was left ajar for Wahlert when the extra point was missed, making it 27-20 with 3:16 to go.

The Golden Eagles connected on 5 of 6 passes that set up 1 st-and-goal from the Hawks 7. West Delaware’s defense fended off four straight pass attempts, allowing a 2-yard gain on second down and forced incompletions on the other three. All that was left was for the Hawks to kneel out the final 1:23.

“Gutsy,” West Delaware Coach Ryan King said about the win. “We knew it was going to come down to a play at the end. History shows it would come down to a play. Our guys were gassed. They sucked it up and made a play when they needed. Credit to our kids.”

West Delaware rushed for 314 yards, including 157 from Schnieders and 115 from Macoy Roling. Schnieders passed for 89 yards and a 24-yard TD to Tate Mormann. Schnieders scored on 2-yard runs in the first for a 7-0 lead. His 2-yard run on the first play of the fourth put West Delaware up, 21-12.

“No matter where we were our offense reset,” Roling said. “We reset and all played as a team. It was exactly what we had to do.

“We knew we could run the ball inside. We just had to get something going.”

Anderson Herbst returned a kickoff 95 yards for Wahlert’s first touchdown. Elbert hit Josh Oelke for a 57-yard bomb in the second. The Golden Eagles (2-2) missed both extra points, leading to a 14-12 West Delaware halftime lead.

Elbert passed for 205 yards but the Hawks limited the Wahlert rush attack to 42 yards.

The Hawks improve to 4-0, snapping a three-game losing skid to the Golden Eagles (2-2). Their last three meetings have been determined by a total of 11 points.

“It feels awesome,” West Delaware’s Jack Cantwell said. “We prepared for this. We watched last year’s game about three or four times. We had this circled on our calendar. We knew we had a bunch of leaders out here. We knew we were going to get it done.”

West Delaware plays at Iowa Falls-Alden next week. Wahlert hosts Center Point-Urbana.

WEST DELAWARE 27

DUBUQUE WAHLERT 20

AT MANCHESTER

DW WD

First Downs 12 20

Rushes-yards 20-42 48-314

Passing yards 205 89

Comp-att-int 17-27-0 7-17-1

Total yards 247 403

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-0

Punts-avg. 4-28.5 2-32.0

Penalties-yards 5-27 6-50

Dubuque Wahlert 6 6 0 8 -- 20

West Delaware 7 7 0 13 -- 27

WD – Austin Schnieders 2 run (Wyatt Johnson kick)

DW – Anderson Herbst 95 kickoff return (kick failed)

WD – Tate Mormann 24 pass from Schnieders (Johnson kick)

DW – Josh Oelke 57 pass from J.P. Elbert (kick failed)

WD – Schnieders 2 run (Johnson kick)

DW – Ben Francis 3 run (Elbert pass to Brody Schumacher)

WD – Schnieders 67 run (kick failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Dubuque Wahlert: Elbert 7-36, Herbst 4-7, Francis 6-1, Brody Creighton 1-(minus 2), Schumacher 2-(minus 3). West Delaware: Schnieders 19-157, Macoy Roling 17-115, Jack Cantwell 8-24, Paul Beswick 1-12, Johnson 1-7, Team 2-(minus 1).

PASSING – Dubuque Wahlert: Elbert 17-27-0-205. West Delaware: Schienders 7-17-1-89.

RECEIVING – Dubuque Wahlert: Oelke 3-75, Herbst 7-57, Schumacher 3-34, Francis 3-25, Nick Smith 1-14. Delaware: Mormann 2-43, Cantwell 2-27, Dylan Popp 2-21, Roling 1-(minus 2).

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com