Tigers surge in second half

MARENGO — Iowa Valley’s Nolan Kriegel did not have the first half he would have hoped for in Friday night’s 8-player first-round playoff against Southeast Warren.

The Tigers’ sophomore threw two first-half interceptions but responded strongly in the second half, leading a surge that propelled the Tigers to a 64-48 victory.

The Tigers advance to the next round of 16.

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The Warhawks led 40-30 at halftime, but the Tigers’ defense only allowed one score in the second half.

“We just had to keep our heads up and keep battling,” Kriegel said. “At halftime we had a talk and said this could be our last game, and we didn’t want it to end like that.”

The Warhawks’ air-raid offense proved to be challenging in the first half with the speed they had on the outside from Brogan Ewing.

Quarterback Cam Seuferer connected with Ewing for the first score of the night from 46 yards, the play after Seuferer intercepted a Tigers’ pass.

The Tigers responded with a passing touchdown of their own as Kriegel connected with Caleb Haack for 41 yards. The successful conversion gave the Tigers the 8-6 lead.

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The next possession, the Tigers forced their first of five turnovers, intercepting a deflected pass.

The Warhawks got a defensive stop, and Seuferer connected with Ewing again from 26 yards out.

The teams traded blows with rushing touchdowns as Seuferer scored from five yards out and Chance Hoyt broke free for a 58-yard score for the Tigers.

Layne Peska returned an interception for touchdown off a screen pass to give the Tigers the 22-18 lead.

The Warhawks added three more touchdowns in the second quarter, two in the last two minutes.

Seuferer connected on a 32-yard flea-flicker to Trey Fisher and a long 55-yard touchdown to Ewing.

A Brenden Wheeler interception helped set up one more Warhawks score to give them the two-possession half-time lead.

“We weren’t very physical in the first half, and they took it to us,“ Iowa Valley head coach Casey Krull said. ”We came around though and had some guys with gutsy performances and guys step up that haven’t played a lot all year.“

The Tigers certainly stepped things up defensively in the second half, quickly flipping the momentum back to their side.

“We knew what we needed to do,” Krull said. “They made every single play out there in the first half, and we started making plays in the second half and that was kind of the turning point.”

Along with the Tigers’ resilience, a heavy dose of the run game dominated the second half. The Warhawks struggled to stop it, and the Tigers were able to move the chains continually.

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Kriegel had two rushing touchdowns in the third to give the Tigers the lead heading into the fourth while the defense forced a punt, a fumble and an interception by Hoyt.

“When we’re disciplined defensively we tend to do a good job,” Krull said.

Kriegel added five-, 14- and 16-yard scores in the fourth as the Tigers’ defense continued to stop the SE Warren offense.

One of those stops was a Peska interception, his second of the night, which he returned 79 yards and a touchdown. A block-in-the-back nullified the run.

The Warhawks added a score late on a deep, 58-yard pass to Jamison Ewing to make the score 64-48.

After a failed onside-kick attempt, the Tigers were able to run out the clock for the victory.

The Tigers advance to the round of 16 as they did last season.

“We just got to keep getting better,” Kriegel said. “We know we’re a good team, so we just have to execute and keep going.”

The Tigers (8-1) will travel to Gladbrook-Reinbeck (8-1) Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

The Rebels won their first-round game over Lansing Kee 62-30 and pose a balanced offensive attack with Drew Eilers at the helm. Their defense has also held five opponents this season to under 10 points.

Iowa Valley 64, Southeast Warren 48

(AT MARENGO)

SEW IV

First downs 12 15

Rushes-yards 16-58 48-386

Passing yards 479 76

Comp-att-int 25-47-4 3-11-3

Total yards 537 462

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Punts-average 4-22.8 0-0

Penalties-yards 5-45 2-20

Southeast Warren 12 28 0 8 — 48

Iowa Valley 8 22 14 20 — 64

SEW — Brogan Ewing 46 pass from Cam Seuferer (conversion failed)

IV — Caleb Haack 41 pass from Nolan Kriegel (Kriegel pass to Haack)

SEW — Brogan Ewing 26 pass from Seuferer (conversion failed)

SEW — Seuferer 5 run (conversion failed)

IV — Chance Hoyt 58 run (conversion failed)

IV — Layne Peska 47 interception return (Kriegel run)

SEW — Trey Fisher 32 pass from Seuferer (Seuferer pass to Brogan Ewing)

IV — Kriegel 10 run (Kriegel run)

SEW — Brogan Ewing 55 pass from Seuferer (conversion failed)

SEW — Seuferer 4 run (Seuferer pass to Jamison Ewing)

IV — Kriegel 17 run (Kriegel run)

IV — Kriegel 7 run (conversion failed)

IV — Kriegel 5 run (conversion failed)

IV — Kriegel 14 run (conversion failed)

IV — Kriegel 16 run (Kriegel run)

SEW — Jamison Ewing 58 pass from Seuferer (Seuferer pass to Jamison Ewing)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Southeast Warren: Cam Seuferer 7-38, Brogan Ewing 1-9, Trey Fisher 7-7, Brenden Wheeler 1-4; Iowa Valley: Nolan Kriegel 38-245, Chance Hoyt 5-127, Dane Smith 3-16, Ian Smith 2-(-2)

Passing — Southeast Warren: Seuferer 25-47-479-5; Iowa Valley: Kriegel 3-10-76-1, Layne Peska 0-1

Receiving — Southeast Warren: Brogan Ewing 13-287, Jamison Ewing 4-101, Trey Fisher 5-52, Lucas Dirxx 3-39; Iowa Valley: Caleb Haack 1-41, Dane Smith 1-20, Owen Bral 1-15