Hill, Harrington, defense lift top-ranked Cedar Falls past Xavier

CEDAR RAPIDS - Barkley Hill, Barkley Hill, James Harrington, Barkley Hill, James Harrington.

Shawn Hagarty?

What makes Cedar Falls the top-ranked football team in Class 4A apparently isn't just the dynamic back-receiver combination of the H&H boys. Last night anyway, it was an equal-opportunity defensive backfield that helped the Tigers hold back Cedar Rapids Xavier, 27-7, at Saints Field.

“The defense won the game. Bottom line,” Hill said. “They did a great job, the secondary. They were unbelievable tonight.”

Hill and Harrington more than did their parts, with Iowa State commit Hill rushing 31 times for 217 yards and two touchdowns and Harrington (a D-I recruit in three sports) contributing a 62-yard TD catch. But CF's defensive effort was huge, too, one that included five interceptions, two by Hagarty.

“We knew that they would probably come out and throw a lot,” Hagarty said. “We've been practicing all week for that.”

“I was real happy with that,” Cedar Falls Co-Coach Pat Mitchell said of his pass defense. “A couple of weeks ago, we had trouble with it. We've made some adjustments in practice. They had us all over the field, but I thought we defended that well.”

It was Hagarty's second pick that seemed to permanently swing the game CF's way. In a 6-0 game, he stepped in front of a Reggie Schulte sideline pass on the opening possession of the second half and returned it inside the Saints' 5.

A block-in-the-back penalty on the return brought the ball back to the Xavier 18, but six straight Hill runs accounted for a touchdown that gave Cedar Falls (5-0) a 13-0 lead. After an ensuing Xavier punt, quarterback Ike Boettger connected with Harrington on a perfect sideline fly pattern that put the Tigers up 20-0.

Ballgame. A Ben Challgren 6-yard TD run made it 27-0 after three quarters.

“(Hagarty) seemed to kind of flip the momentum of the game,” Mitchell said. “That gave us a spark, we went from there.”

“Yeah, that was good,” Hagarty. “We got real motivation from that.”

Cedar Falls had 250 hard-earned yards on the ground, outgaining Xavier by a 340-184 margin overall. Xavier (3-2) averted the shutout on a Schulte 1-yard sneak.

The Saints have lost the last two weeks to the top two rated teams in 4A (CF and Iowa City High). Coach Duane Schulte was asked if he had an opinion on who was better.

“Not really,” he said. “They're both great teams who are very well coached.”

You can catch replays of this game on KCRG 9.2 on the following dates and times:

9/24 @ 9:00am

9/26 @ 2:40am

9/29 @ 7:00pm

10/2 @10:00am

10/5 @2:40am

10/12 @2:40am

Here is the game boxscore:

TEAM STATISTICS

Cedar Falls

CR Xavier

First downs

15

11

Rushes-yards

47 - 250

34 - 100

Passing yards

90

84

Comp-Att-Int

6 - 14 - 0

7 - 21 - 5

Total yards

90

84

Fumbles-lost

2 - 2

0 - 0

Punts-average

6 - 36.8

6 - 33.5

Penalties-yards

6 - 35

6 - 36

Rushing:

 Cedar Falls –

Barkley Hill 31-217 ,

Jacob Seehase 4-15 ,

Brennan Block 2-15 ,

Ben Challgren 3-8 ,

James Harrington 2-8 ,

Team 2-0 ,

Ike Boettger 2-0

 CR Xavier –

Carter Valentine 25-107 ,

Logan Jones 1-6 ,

Matt Hansen 1-1 ,

Reggie Schulte 7-0

Passing:

 Cedar Falls –

Ike Boettger 6-14-0-90

 CR Xavier –

Reggie Schulte 7-21-5-84

Receiving:

 Cedar Falls –

James Harrington 3-75 ,

Brennan Gallu 1-9 ,

Barkley Hill 2-6

 CR Xavier –

Jordan Weber 2-56 ,

Corbin Woods 2-14 ,

Kevin Hosch 1-10 ,

Matt Hansen 1-6 ,

Carter Valentine 1-0

Cedar Falls

6

21

–

27

CR Xavier

7

–

7

CF-Barkley Hill 4 run (conversion failed)

CF-Hill 2 run (Jacob Fagersten kick)

CF-James Harrington 62 pass from Ike Boettger (Fagersten kick)

CF-Ben Challgren 6 run (Fagersten kick)

[gallery columns="2"]

CRX-Reggie Schulte 1 run (Chad Gilmer kick)