Highland's defense to face stiff test this week

Highland?s defense has shut out its last three opponents, but the Huskies face a real test this week when rival Lone Tree comes to town. The Lions (2-2, 2-0 Class A District 5) have a dynamic offense that is averaging 38.5 points per game in district play.

?Our defense has played very, very well the last three weeks,? Highland head coach Tony Johnson said. ?We are definitely eager to play Lone Tree. Obviously they present a huge challenge for us, but we?re going to be ready to go.?

The Lions are led by senior quarterback Gabe Lorack, who has completed 58 percent of his passes this season for 302 yards and three touchdowns and is also the team?s leading rusher with 167 yards and two scores. He has some explosive weapons at his disposal in wide receiver Bryan Forbes, tailback Lucas Sieverding and fullback Levi Satterfield.

?They have a talented backfield,? Johnson said. ?Their whole offense starts with their quarterback, Gabe Lorack. He?s a very talented individual. You just have to play very fundamentally sound football against a team like that.?

The Huskies (3-1, 2-0 District 5) have also been explosive offensively this season, and are averaging 43 points per game. Senior running backs Trey Brenneman and Derrick Stewart are both averaging over 13 yards per carry this year, and senior Talon McFarland has made 11 catches for 208 yards and four touchdowns.

?Each week it could be a different player stepping up,? Johnson said. ?That?s the great part about our team.?

Columbus at Louisa-Muscatine

The top two running teams in Class 2A?s District 5 clash this week when Columbus travels to rival Louisa-Muscatine.

Columbus senior Esteban Gutierrez, who has rushed for 659 yards and seven touchdowns through four games, is the leading rusher in the district. And the Wildcats (1-3, 1-1 District 5), who average 262 yards per game on the ground, lead the district in rushing yards.

But the Falcons (1-3, 0-2 District 5), led by running backs Brandon Tomer and Blake Kemp, average 210.5 yards per game on the ground. And that could be a problem for Columbus, which gave up 220 rushing yards in a 56-22 loss at West Liberty last week.

?We?re going to have to control their offense,? Columbus head coach Jeff Martin said. ?They have a unique offense. They run some double tight, double wing thing that brings a lot of people to the point of attack. We haven?t done a very good job in the past few years of controlling that, so we?ll have to tackle well.?

Martin said his team is excited to take on the rival Falcons. Columbus lost to Louisa-Muscatine 70-54 last year in Columbus Junction.

?Sometimes you have to kind of keep a lid on them,? he said. ?There?s not a lot of love lost there. It?s always been that way. I remember when I played it was that way. It?s always a pretty good game.?

Mid-Prairie at Tipton

After finishing with a 1-8 record last season, Tipton is off to a 4-0 start this year. But this week?s game against 3-1 Mid-Prairie will show what the Tigers are really made of.

?They look pretty good on film,? Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh said of the Tigers. ?We don?t know much about them. We haven?t played them in a while. But they?ve got some good players and play hard, so we?re taking them for real, for sure.?

Quarterback Alex Wiley spearheads Tipton?s offense, and has completed 62 percent of his passes for 478 yards and eight touchdowns this season while throwing just one interception. Wiley has also rushed for two touchdowns. Running backs Chandler Harden and Taylor Axberg also have run for two scores apiece.

?Their offensive line fires off the ball really well,? Cavanagh said. ?We just have to play disciplined defense.?

Mid-Prairie has won its last three games since the emergence of junior Eesaa Baylor at tailback. Baylor is averaging over 100 rushing yards per game, and has scored seven touchdowns this season. The threat of a running game has taken the pressure off of junior quarterback Reid Miller, who completed 12 of his 14 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown in last week?s 37-8 win over Louisa-Muscatine.

WACO at Danville

For the first time this season, WACO will face a team that likes to throw the ball a lot when the Warriors travel to Danville this week.

The Bears (2-2, 1-1 Class A District 5) have passed for 848 yards this season while rushing for just 380 yards.

?They throw it about 30 times a game,? WACO head coach Chad Edeker said. ?From our statistical breakdown, they?re about 60 percent pass and about 40 percent run. So it will be a different look than we?ve seen this year.?

Danville quarterback Alek Blain has completed 58 of his 114 passes this season for 845 yards. He?s thrown seven touchdowns and 11 interceptions, although five of those picks came in last week?s 82-0 loss at Lisbon. Blain is also the Bears? leading rusher, as he?s run for 239 yards and a touchdown this season.

?He?s obviously the kid we have to focus on,? Edeker said of Blain. ?We have to make sure we keep him under control. And he does a really good job of spreading the ball around. He has eight kids he throws the ball to. So there?s not just one guy we can key on.?

Meanwhile, the Warriors (3-1, 1-1 District 5) will likely keep the ball on the ground, putting it in the hands of senior tailback Tyler Ayers, who has rushed for 545 yards and four touchdowns this season.

?We need to be physical,? Edeker said. ?They?re not a very big team. We?re going to be bigger, so we need to use that to our advantage.?

Sigourney-Keota at No. 4 Pella Christian

Last week, Sigourney-Keota?s defense gave up 44 points in a high-scoring Homecoming win over Wapello. And with the Savage Cobras traveling to No. 4 Pella Christian this week, which averages 40.5 points per game, that could look like a major problem.

But Sigourney-Keota head coach Jared Jensen said his defense showed improvement in last week?s victory.

?We played better even though we gave up 44 points,? he said. ?We saw improvement. In the first half, they spread us out and ran the ball. Their back had nearly 100 yards. But in the second half, we made some adjustments and gave up just 15 yards on the ground. But we still have a long way to go. We can?t be giving up that many points, especially this week.?

The Eagles (4-0) like to keep the ball on the ground and give the ball to running backs Caleb Morgan and Michael Mason, who are both averaging over seven yards per carry this season. Morgan has rushed for 570 yards and six touchdowns through four games, and Mason has added 380 yards and five scores.

?We?re finally getting to play a team that wants to run, and hopefully we can have a defensive stand this week,? Jensen said. ?They run about the same offense we do, so we?ve got to give their offense as much trouble as other teams give ours. Stopping them is going to be tough, just like any team trying to stop us.?

The Savage Cobras (2-2) provided plenty of offense last week, gaining 501 yards, 442 of which came on the ground. Junior Luke Lyle threw for two touchdowns and also rushed for 175 yards and another score. And junior Kolton Greiner ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns on just 18 carries.