West Lyon outlasts Iowa City Regina in overtime thriller for Class 1A state football title

CEDAR FALLS – A quick strike and a goal-line stand.

West Lyon produced both when it needed most and chased last year’s championship feeling with another.

Evan Hildring scored on the first play of overtime and the second-ranked Wildcats’ defense held No. 3 Regina out of the endzone for a 34-27 victory in the Class 1A state football title game Thursday at UNI-Dome. The Wildcats (13-0) won their second straight title, capturing the 2A crown last season, and their seventh overall.

“This year is so cool,” West Lyon quarterback Easton DeJong said. “There is history of being good here but to go back-to-back a second time ever, I can’t put it into words.”

Regina (12-1) had an opportunity to force another overtime. After Hildring’s 10-yard TD run up the middle, quarterback Kyle Tracy ran Regina to the 1 with three chances to get in the end zone.

The Wildcats stuffed two straight runs and then a bad snap prevented the last attempt from even materializing, allowing a turnover on downs.

“We stopped them three times before,” Hildring said. “I all the confidence in our defense. All those big guys in the middle. Our linebackers flow really well. I’m really proud of our guys, making a big step up, especially after that first-down play.”

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Regina, which blocked a 36-yard field goal attempt as regulation expired to force overtime, was just inches short on two straight attempts by Tracy, who was not under center. West Lyon held its ground and stuffed those runs when it needed to most.

“It just comes down to execution,” Regina Coach Dustin Elsbury said. “Just executing on those plays. West Lyon is big (and) physical up front. Hats off to them and their program. That’s a great team.”

The game was a back-and-forth affair. Momentum shifts and sways that almost called for Dramamine. Both teams held double-digit leads only to see them replaced by deficits.

“One thing I ask of our guys is to fight until the end and they did that,” Elsbury said. “They stayed and fought until the end.

“That game had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of swings. They left it all out there.”

The Wildcats started to claw back, trailing by 14 with a little more than 11 minutes to go. Their rally came on a kickoff return after a Tracy to Tate Wallace 36-yard scoring strike made 27-13 in the fourth.

West Lyon took the ensuing kickoff, returning it right and throwing it across the field. River Kramer had a wall set up and bolted 97 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-20 with 10:59 remaining.

Regina seemed to be on a clock-melting drive when West Lyon pounced on a fumble at the Wildcats’ 25. They capitalized by driving 75 yards and tied the game at 27-27 with a Jacob Snyders 2-yard TD run with 5:27 to play.

“Bend don’t break for us,” DeJong said. “We’re down but we’re never out of it until the final horn. When we had a chance, we proved it.”

The stretch resembled West Lyon’s start. The Wildcats dominated early, churning out touchdowns on their first two possessions.

West Lyon thrived with the ground-and-pound approach, going 64 yards on nine plays, including seven rushes. Hildring provided two huge runs. The first on fourth-and-2 from the Regina 7. On the next play, Hildring scored, stretching the ball across the goal line from the 2 for a 7-0 lead.

The Wildcats conjured up another nine-play scoring drive their next possession. West Lyon dipped into its bag of tricks on fourth-and-4 from the Regals’ 15. The play started as a reverse but Jaxton DeJong pulled up and hit quarterback Easton DeJong out of the backfield for a 15-yard TD. The extra-point attempt was blocked, making it 13-0 with 10:40 to go in the first half.

Hildring rushed for 112 yards and two scores for the Wildcats. Easton DeJong finished with 140 yards passing with a receiving TD.

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Not much went right for the Regals until Tracy hit Carter Slager for a long TD pass in the second quarter. A third straight stalled drive look inevitable after a sack of Tracy. Facing third-and-13 from the 42, Tracy flung a deep pass down the middle to Slager, who had slipped behind defenders for a 58-yard TD pass.

The remainder of the first half shifted in favor of the Regals. Regina’s defense forced its first punt and parlayed that into a 39-yard Gabriel Hegelheimer field goal. It cut the West Lyon lead to 13-10 with 3:25 left before halftime.

They persevered through the drastic highs and lows of the game.

“We just make sure to keep each other up,” Regina’s Savion Miller said. “Coaches are really good at hyping us up.”

Another three-and-out resulted in a poor punt, giving Regina the ball at the Wildcats 43 with 1:45 to go before half. Three passes from Tracy to Miller out of the backfield and placed Regals in the end zone 65 seconds later, giving them a 17-13 halftime lead.

Regina tacked on a 29-yard Hegelheimer field goal in the third but Wallace’s TD catch was the last score for Regina.

“Sometimes losses bring a lot of great teaching moments,” Elsbury said. “This wasn’t our end goal. That’s not where anybody in our program wanted to end up tonight. Sometimes it doesn’t work out your way.”

Tracy passed for 203 yards and two scores. Miller rushed for 82 yards and had 57 receiving. Wallace had 71 receiving for Regina.

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Wallace and Miller are among the juniors that helped Regina return to its first title game since 2020. They aspire to be back in next year’s title game.

“It definitely motivates us more than anything,” Wallace said. “You just take that into the offseason and workouts. Take your anger out on those. We’ll definitely build off this and come back stronger. Now, we have the experience in the Dome.”.

WEST LYON 34

IOWA CITY REGINA 27 (OT)

AT UNI-DOME, CEDAR FALLS

ICR WL

First downs 14 19

Rushes-yards 32-121 38-145

Passing yards 203 188

Comp-att-int 13-17-0 12-18-0

Punts-avg. 3-34.3 4-32.5

Fumbles-lost 4-1 0-0

Penalties-yards 2-20 5-35

Iowa City Regina 0 17 3 7 0—27

West Lyon 7 6 0 14 7—34

WL—Evan Hildring 2-yard run (Kerkviliet kick)

WL—Easton DeJong 15-yard pass from Jaxton DeJong (kick failed)

ICR—Carter Slager 58-yard pass from Kyle Tracy (Gabriel Hegelheimer kick)

ICR—Hegelheimer 38-yard field goal

ICR—Savion Miller 21-yard pass from Tracy (Hegelheimer kick)

ICR—Hegelheimer 29-yard field goal

ICR—Tate Wallace 36-yard pass from Tracy (Hegelheimer kick)

WL—River Kramer 97-yard kickoff return (Kerkviliet kick)

WL—Jacob Snyders 1-yard run (Kerkviliet kick)

WL—Hildring 1-yard run (Kerkviliet kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Regina: Savion Miller 13-82, Kyle Tracy 18-59, Team 1-(-20); West Lyon: Evan Hildring 26-112, Easton DeJong 8-18, River Krmer 3-14, Jacob Snyders 1-1.

Passing — Regina: Kyle Tracy 13-17-203-0; West Lyon: Easton DeJong 10-16-140-0, River Kramer 1-1-33-0, Jaxton DeJong 1-1-15-0.

Receiving — Regina: Tate Wallace 3-71, Carter Slager 1-58, Savion Miller 7-57, Drew Greve 2-17; West Lyon: Jared Ciesielski 2-60, River Kramer 2-40, Evan Hildring 3-21, Jaxton DeJong 1-18, Mason McCarty 1-17, Ben Meyer 2-17, Easton DeJong 1-15.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com