Iowa high school football rewind: End of regular season is here

This is the final official week of the regular season in Iowa high school football for Class 2A, 1A, A and 8-Player. The playoffs begin Oct. 22 in those classes.

A team that doesn’t qualify for the postseason can play a ninth regular-season game that night against against a fellow team that doesn’t get in.

So who gets in? In 2A, 1A and A, the top four teams in each district for a total of 32 in each class. In 8-Player, it’s the top three teams in each district plus two at-large teams, also a total of 32.

The at-large entrants will be determined via the 17-point tiebreaker rule.

As far as first-round matchups, no one seems to know how the Iowa High School Athletic Association is going to determine those.

“You want me to tell you how they’re working it? I don’t know,” said Turkey Valley Coach Mark Scott, whose team is a district champion in 8-Player. “They say maybe geographically, but I really don’t know.”

“That’s kind of the big question going around,” said Sigourney-Keota Coach Jared Jensen. “Naturally you’d kind of think sister districts, but I haven’t heard that word spoken at all. That kind of leads me to believe they are going to kind of take seeds and match seeds: ones versus fours and twos against threes. Your district could be split and going two different ways.”

Jensen knows his team is in as a district champ in 1A after a 37-9 win Friday night over Central Decatur. The Cobras are a run-heavy, single-wing team offensively but got 201 yards passing and two TDs from Colten Clarahan.

After the first round of playoffs, the IHSAA will set up the remaining 16 teams in four pods of four, with pod winners then playing each other in the semifinals.

In Class 5A, 4A and 3A, there are nine regular-season games scheduled, with playoffs beginning Oct. 29. There will be 16 qualifiers in each of those classes.

In 3A and 4A, district champions and runners-up get in, for a total of 12 teams. The final four spots will be at large and determined via the IHSAA’s RPI formula.

In 5A, all 16 playoff qualifiers will be determined via RPI.

These Trojans are no turkeys

Scott’s Turkey Valley team beat Tripoli on Friday night, 46-12, as it zeroes in on an unbeaten regular season. The Trojans finish with West Central.

It has been a return to normal for TV, which went just 2-5 in 2020. The big win came in Week 2 over 8-Player powerhouse Don Bosco, 48-42.

Scott said that victory has propelled his team the rest of the way.

“Don Bosco had lost the week before, and we’d only played a quarter the week before,” Scott said, referencing a 14-0 season-opening win over Ed-Co that was stopped early because of weather. “So we were fresh, were really coming off of last year when we were really inexperienced. We had some guys get hurt, too.

“Honestly, it took us to about halftime of that game for our kids to realize ‘Hey, we can play at the level of those guys.’ They did, and, since then, we’ve been playing at a pretty high level.”

Bravo for Brase

Owen Brase has become one of the most versatile, if not best, players in the state. Especially in Class 3A.

The Mount Vernon senior put together another stellar all-around game Friday night in his team’s 41-7 win over Maquoketa at home. Just read all that he did.

As a quarterback, he completed 12 of 16 passes for 167 yards. As a wide receiver, he caught two passes for 27 yards.

As a QB/running back, he carried the football eight times for 77 yards and two touchdowns. As a defensive back, he had a team-high 5.5 tackles, four solo.

This is the 11-player game, folks, not 8-player.

The son of Cornell College women’s basketball coach Brent Brase, Owen has been rotating offensively at quarterback the past couple of games with sophomore Joseph Rhomberg. There are times when Brase is the QB for one play, with Rhomberg the QB for the next, with Brase as a wideout or something.

It’s all in an attempt to get him the football as much as possible. He has 1,485 yards passing, rushing and receiving this season with 13 total touchdowns for the 4-3 Mustangs.

These Lynx can play defense

North Linn pitched a shutout Friday night, though that’s nothing new. The Class A sixth-ranked Lynx blanked Hudson, 36-0, giving up just 99 total yards to the Pirates.

That’s North Linn’s fifth shutout in seven games this season. The Lynx haven’t been scored upon in 11 straight quarters, going back to the first quarter of their Sept. 24 game against South WInneshiek (a 20-6 win).

Those are the only points North Linn has allowed in its last 16 quarters. NL has given up just 20 points this season, with Bellevue “exploding” against it for 14 in a 43-14 Lynx win Sept. 10.

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