Regina rolls Clayton Ridge, 35-3, in senior's last home game

IOWA CITY – Iowa City Regina's win streak started the same game the Regals seniors stepped on the field as freshmen.

The same group received a perfect send off, walking off the Regina turf for the final time without experiencing a loss.

Top-ranked Regina broke open the game with 21 points in the second half to beat 10th-ranked Clayton Ridge, 35-3, in an Iowa High School Athletic Association Class 1A second-round playoff game Monday night at Regina. The Regals (11-0) face No. 4 Maquoketa Valley (11-0) at Delhi in a state quarterfinal rematch from a year ago.

The Regals sent the seniors out in style, winning a 53rd straight game and moving with two wins of Waterloo East's record win streak and three from the Trojans' state record 56 straight games without a loss.

'We wish we had one more home game, but it is the way it is,' Regina Coach Marv Cook said. 'It was a great gutsy effort by our whole group.'

Regina seemed to survive the first half behind a shifty, hard-nosed defense and a scrambling quarterback that gave the Regals fits at times. The Regals led 14-3 at the break with a Jake Brinkman 25-yard TD run on the game's opening drive and Drew Cook catching a 21-yard pass from Nate Stenger.

The Regals didn't take control until late in the third after a first half was filled with missed opportunities.

'A ball goes off a fingertip, we get hit with one of our guys on a screen and quite make the completion and some of the longer passes we were taking shots with were outside the reach,' Cook said. 'It's a game of inches. We said if we can close the gap on those and clean those up, which we did in the second half, then we'd play better.'

The Regals didn't get to breathe easy until the final minute of the third when Riley Dixon rushed for the first of two second-half touchdowns. He scored on a 12-yard run up the middle for a 21-3 lead with 44 seconds left in the third.

The Eagles had stifled the Regals passing attack for the most part in the first half, holding them to two completions for 21 yards. Drew Cook seemed to get in a rhythm in the second half with some short routes, going 10 of 13 for 146 yards.

'We got off to a slow start,' said Drew Cook, whio rushed for 62 yards. 'At halftime, the coaches got a good game plan going and we were able to accomplish it.'

The big blow came on a 72-yard bomb to Conner Brown down the far sideline. Cook, who overthrew targets earlier, dropped it in the arms of Brown, who made two defenders miss and coasted in to score.

Brown became Cook's favorite target, catching five passes for 115 yards.

'It was a great pass by Drew,' Brown said. 'I got lucky.'

Dixon added a 28-yard TD run with 5:38 to play. Dixon finished with 112 yards on the ground.

'This was a tough matchup,' Marv Cook said. 'They were quick and athletic.'

The defense played sound, holding Kohle Helle, 1A's leading passer, to 126 yards through the air. The mobile quarterback kept the defense on its toes until they were able to contain him.

He contributed 48 of 52 yards in Clayton Ridge's lone scoring drive, hitting Dylan Preston, who had 96 yards of total offense, for a 19- pass on 4th and 4 from the Regina 49 and a 23-yard run inside the 10. The run led to Colten Rastetter's 20-yard field goal, pulling within 7-3 late in the first.

'Defensively we played sound,' Cook said. 'Once we came under control on the quarterback, that really was the difference.'

The Eagles finished 9-2 and made more improvement under second-year head coach Nick Breuer. They were district runner-up going from 2-7 two years ago to 7-3 last year.

'I thought we had the athletes and the players to stack up with them. Regina played well,' Breuer said. 'A little short of our goal but we had a great group of seniors.'

IC Regina 35, Clay. Ridge 3

AT AT REGINA

TEAM STATISTICS

Clay. Ridge

IC Regina

First downs

9

20

Rushes-yards

29 - 72

38 - 229

Passing yards

126

167

Comp-Att-Int

12 - 22 - 1

12 - 23 - 0

Total yards

198

398

Fumbles-lost

3 - 0

0 - 0

Punts-average

7 - 41.0

5 - 26.6

Penalties-yards

7 - 50

3 - 30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:  Clay. Ridge – Dylan Preston 11-37 , Kohle Helle 14-28 , Trey Roehlk 2-6 , Jonathan Klaes 1-2 , Team 1--1  IC Regina – Riley Dixon 19-112 , Drew Cook 10-62 , Jake Brinkman 2-29 , Michael Adam 2-21 , Micahel Cooper 2-8 , Eric Bracken 1-6 , Nick Phillips 1--7 , Team 1--2

Passing:  Clay. Ridge – Helle 12-21-1-126 , Preston 0-1-0-0  IC Regina – Cook 11-22-0-146 , Nate Stenger 1-1-0-21

Receiving:  Clay. Ridge – Preston 5-59 , Roehlk 3-43 , Colten Rastettter 2-18 , Colten Connelly 2-6  IC Regina – Conner Brown 5-115 , Bryan Amelon 2-18 , Cook 1-21 , Cale Lehman 1-7 , Adam 2-6 , Dixon 1-0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Clay. Ridge

3

–

3

IC Regina

7

7

7

14

–

35

SCORING SUMMARY

ICR - Brinkman 25 run (Jacob Adam kick)

CR - FG Colten Rastetter 20

ICR - Cook 21 pass from Stenger (J. Adam kick)

ICR - Dixon 12 run (J. Adam kick)

ICR - Brown 72 pass from Cook (J. Adam kick)

ICR - Dixon 28 run (J. Adam kick)