Back-on-track Xavier drills West, 42-0

CEDAR RAPIDS -- It wasn't so much red-faced anger as it was cool-blue focus.Cedar Rapids Xavier took out the frustrations of a two-game losing streak and destroyed Iowa City West, 42-0, in a Mississippi Valley Conference football game Friday night at Saints Field."All week in practice, we knew we had to get back up to speed," said quarterback Andy Didio. "We had to be faster."Our seniors and our captains responded and kept the intensity up all week long."And all game long. The Saints (4-2) scored on their first four possessions and racked up 478 yards of total offense while limiting West (3-3) to 123.Xavier compiled 329 ground yards on 54 carries, without a single 100-game rusher. And Didio completed all five of his throws for 149 yards and a pair of touchdowns.In a nutshell, the Trojans were catching Xavier at a terrible time. The Saints had lost back-to-back road games to top-five teams -- a heartbreaker to Iowa City High, a lopsided affair to Cedar Falls."We told our guys they had to get better," said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte. "We didn't play well against Cedar Falls. We just had to get better."The Saints racked up 286 yards and 14 first downs in the first half on the way to a 28-0 lead. The Saints ran exclusively and efficiently early, going to the ground on their first 17 offensive plays.West couldn't stop it."It's always good when you can move the ball," Didio said. "The line came out ready to go. (Center) Peter (Ickes) ... he was really ready to go."Ickes was joined on the line by starters Alex Boyer, Alex Jasper, Jackson DeSousa and Adam Ross, along with tight end Ryan Mains. They paved the way for an attack that averaged 8.1 yards in its 59 plays from scrimmage.Pat Chizek capped the Saints' first drive with a 3-yard run. The Saints went 70 yards in 12 plays -- all on the ground.The Saints journeyed 58 yards in six plays on its next march. Didio's first pass of the game was a 23-yard TD to Alex Ries that made it 14-0.Didio added a 5-yard TD run on the third drive, then hit Carter Valentine for a 55-yarder on the fourth.A 1-yard run by Chizek put the game into continuous-clock mode. The second team drove 90 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown, with Matt Hansen capping it on a 17-yard run.Meanwhile, the defense allowed West inside Saints territory only once, and that ended with an interception in the third quarter.It was homecoming at Xavier, but there appeared to be little to no distraction. Just cool-blue focus."We forgot about all the other stuff. The game is most important," said linebacker Tyler Wright.[gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="ID"]