Big 2nd half allows Washington to get past Muscatine

MUSCATINE - This was a hostile environment against a fired-up and undefeated opponent. Their first game on grass and with their head coach and defensive coordinator uncharacteristically on the sideline instead of the pressbox because of logistics.

Well, at least most of the game.

Throw a halftime deficit in there, too. The Cedar Rapids Washington Warriors overcame a lot of stuff Friday night to beat Muscatine, 35-21, in a Class 4A, District 6 opener.

Call this the old cliche-ish gutcheck.

'I thought our kids rose to the occasion that second half,” said Washington Coach Paul James. 'They took their punches, and it was like ‘OK, what are you going to do? How are you going to respond?' They showed us.”

Fifth-ranked Washington (4-1) put up 21 unanswered points in the second half to stave off the upset. Quarterback T.J. Vogel had touchdown passes of 42 yards to Isaiah Nimmers and 20 yards to Trey Leonard, the latter putting the Warriors up for good, 28-21, early in the fourth quarter.

A Johnny Dobbs 6-yard TD run made it a two-score game. Washington's defense took care of the rest.

'We knew from the start that they would have a lot of confidence because they were 4-0,” Nimmers said. 'We knew they were going to come out fired up. We had to match their intensity ... We knew that as long as we did that, we'd be fine. We started out slow, but we played like we should play in the second half.”

There are two pressboxes here, with the home team's much higher up on its side of the field. James and defensive coordinator Mo Blue always call plays from the pressbox but couldn't because of the low angle.

Blue remained on the sideline the entire game, while James unbelievably climbed atop the Washington bleachers for the second half and called plays literally from the crowd.

He wasn't happy about it, other than the results.

'That made a world of difference,” he said. 'It's like I told the Muscatine guy, that pressbox sucks. There's no other way. Man, this is 4A, this isn't 1A football. Get a pressbox ... That is absolute asinine.”

Leonard replaced starter Alex Herzog at right cornerback for Washington, as Herzog is suspended for three games due to breaking a school rule. He was targeted most of the game and called for a couple of pass-interference penalties.

He got another in the second half that was questionable, but generally held his own, with his TD catch making the penalties a lot easier to take.

'That first half wasn't the best performance I wanted to have,” Leonard said. 'I knew going into halftime that I had to perform my best. Make sure I'm smart, and know what I'm doing. I think that second half showed what I can actually do.”

Tavian Patrick had 144 yards rushing on 18 carries for Wash, with Vogel completing 8 of 18 passes for 161 yards. Muscatine took a 21-14 halftime lead thanks to a bad Washington punt snap and some trickery: offensive lineman Brennan Salmieri scored on a short run, and another Muskies TD was set up thanks to a double pass throw long downfield by another offensive lineman, Jacob Mussehl.

Washington held the Muskies (4-1) to 50 yards in the second half.

'Really nothing,” Leonard said, when asked what defensive adjustments the Warriors made in the second half. 'We went into the locker room and said we had to stop giving up flags. Just quit giving them stuff.”

Washington got out quickly in this one. The Warriors stopped Muscatine on the opening possession of the game and scored on its first possession, Patrick breaking loose and darting 35 yards for a touchdown four minutes in.

But Muscatine immediately countered, thanks primarily to the elusive ways of running back Alphonso Soko. He accounted for 38 yards on four carries to begin the Muskies drive and later took a screen pass another 10.

On 3rd-and-goal from the 1, Muscatine lined up with a full-house backfield that included two offensive linemen, with one of those guys (Salmieri) crashing over from the 1. The extra point tied things at 7-7.

That's the way it stayed until a huge Washington mistake essentially gave Muscatine the go-ahead touchdown. A punt snap went over Ross Kennedy's head and inside the 10-yard-line, where he picked it up and tried to get away a desperation boot.

But he was pulled down from behind as he attempted the kick, Muscatine recovering at the 8. To make matters worse, Kennedy was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for complaining too loudly for a horse-collar tackle.

Soko took a pitch right a yard for the TD with 3:55 left in the half.

Washington, however, responded. On the second play of the ensuing possession, Vogel lofted a deep pass over the middle that both Nimmers and Drew Dostal went for, with the ball deflecting into the air and to Dostal, who ran it in 65 yards for the tying touchdown.

But a trick play helped give Muscatine the lead right before halftime. On 1st-and-10 from its own 40, QB Luke Richers threw a back pass to tackle Mussehl, of all people, who threw a fluttering double pass downfield to a wide-open Drew Grenshaw for 36 yards.

On 3rd-and-10 at the Wash 12, Wichers threw to the left part of the end zone to Isaiah Smith, who adjusted on a ball thrown inside and hauled it in for six. The extra point made it 21-14.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com