West Branch Bears win one for Butch, and themselves, in state football quarterfinals

WEST BRANCH — You couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a preventative mask. But there must have been a smile there for Butch Pedersen.

Had to be.

His third-ranked West Branch football team scored 14 points in a span of just under three minutes late in the fourth quarter to overcome No. 8 MFL MarMac, 27-24, in a Class 1A state playoff quarterfinal Friday night at the Little Rose Bowl.

“Hell of a comeback,” Pedersen said from the press box, where he and his wife, Jenny, shared an isolated room.

The legendary 71-year-old head coach is battling myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood cancer. He began chemotherapy early last week, which has prevented him, obviously, from doing what he loves to do and has done for four decades — lead his Bears into battle.

Pedersen has attended practices on a limited basis and made it to last week’s first-round playoff win over Waterloo Columbus. You bet he’ll do every single thing he can to be at next Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal against top-ranked Van Meter at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

This is the first time West Branch has gotten to that round since 2011.

“It’s really sad that Butch has cancer,” said West Branch lineman Logan Wright. “I know we don’t want to win the game for him like they (always) say, but in our hearts, we want to win it for him. He’s a very special person, and he means a lot to this program. We want to do anything we can to make him happy, with what he’s going through right now.”

⧉ Related article: Photos: MFL MarMac vs. West Branch in Iowa high school football playoffs

“He has started his battle, right now we’re fighting a battle. We’re all fighting together,” said West Branch quarterback Tye Hughes. “We’re fighting for him. The courage he has just reflects on us.”

Hughes took a read option keeper 33 yards for the winning touchdown with 3:47 left. His 11-yard run on a similar play brought West Branch (11-0) within 24-19 with 6:30 to go, then the Bears got a safety on the ensuing series when MFL MarMac got pinned inside its 10 and decided to run out of the end zone on fourth down instead of trying to punt in a heavy rain and on a rapidly deteriorating field.

West Branch took over a short free kick at the Bulldogs 40, with Hughes scoring two plays later.

“We’re a team that doesn’t give up,” said Hughes, who had 122 rushing yards on 14 attempts. “We fight to the very end. That’s what our coaches are on us to do all the time. Just play our hardest until the very end.”

West Branch got a TD run from running back Andy Henson on the initial series of the game, but the Bears’ top player suffered some sort of injury and ended up not playing at all in the second half. MFL MarMac took an 8-6 lead late in the first quarter on Carver Blietz-Bentien’s 1-yard plunge and a Wyatt Powell 2-point conversion run.

The Bulldogs took a 16-6 lead into the break after blocking a West Branch punt out of the end zone for a safety of their own in the second quarter, then a Powell 8-yard touchdown run.

Cale Seydel, Henson’s replacement, scored on a 50-yard run to open the second half for West Branch. But sophomore quarterback Zach Driscoll hooked up with Karter Decker on a beautiful 81-yard scoring bomb, a Decker 2-point run giving MFL MarMac a 24-13 lead going to the fourth quarter.

Powell had 116 yards rushing, he and Decker dangerous on a multitude of jet sweeps.

“We told each other we were going to give it our all, and whatever happens, happens,” Wright said. “Everybody picked each other up if something didn’t go right.”

When it started going right for West Branch in the fourth, the momentum switch was obvious, and there seemed like nothing MFL MarMac could do to get it back. The Bulldogs did reach near midfield after Hughes’ winning TD, but a slippery football caused Driscoll to lose control of it and turn it over to West Branch.

MFL MarMac got one shot at it with the ball at its own 20 with 1:22 left, but, again, Driscoll lost control of the wet ball as he tried to pull the ball back down after initially appearing to want to throw.

Both of Driscoll’s fumbles were recovered by West Branch’s Reese Trepanier.

“I just saw the ball and went straight for it,” he said.

West Branch 27, MFL/MarMac 24

AT WEST BRANCH

MFLMM 8 8 8 0-24

West Branch 6 0 7 14-27

TEAM STATISTICS

First Downs - MFLMM 11, West Branch 13. Rushes-Yards - MFLMM 45-159, West Branch 38-278. Passing Yards - MFLMM 1-6-0-81, West Branch 3-7-0-17. Total Yards - MFLMM 250, West Branch 295. Penalties-Yards - MFLMM 8-60, West Branch 5-45. Punts-Average - MFLMM 4-31.5, West Branch 3-20.3 Fumbles-Lost - MFLMM 4-2, West Branch 2-1.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - MFLMM: Wyatt Powell 12-116, Carver Blietz-Bentien 14-57, Carter Decker 5-21, Bryce Radloff 3-4, Quinn McGeough 3-(minus) 1, Zach Driscoll 7-(minus) 22, Team 3-(minus 16). West Branch: Tye Hughes 14-122, Cale Seydel 12-88, Andy Henson 10-75, Kinnick Boelk 2-(minus) 7.

Passing - MFLMM: Zach Driscoll 1-5-0-81, Carver Blietz-Bentien 0-1-0-0. West Branch: Tye Hughe 3-7-0-17.

Receiving - MFLMM: Karter Decker 1-81. West Branch: Kinnick Boelk 2-15, Holden Arnaman 1-2.

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