Playoff qualifiers: Sigourney-Keota, WACO earn top seeds

The 2021 Iowa High School football playoffs begin next week with Classes 8-Player through 2A taking the field, as 32 teams in each battle for their spot at the UNI-Dome in November.

On Friday, area small school teams wrapped up the regular season. No. 5 (1A) Sigourney-Keota completed an undefeated season. Highland and New London snuck into the playoffs in their final games, and both Columbus and Winfield-Mount Union narrowly missed out.

Cobras whale Warriors, stay unbeaten

SIGOURNEY — Sigourney-Keota had already wrapped up the Class 1A District 6 championship, but the Cobras put a bow on the 2021 regular season with a 49-0 win over Van Buren County.

Sigourney-Keota scored 35 points in the first quarter of the blowout victory.

The Cobras ran for five touchdowns in the win. Cade Molyneaux led the team with 121 yards and two touchdowns.

Colten Clarahan ran for 69 yards and a score. Cole Clarahan ran for 61 and a touchdown, and Levi Crawford scored once.

Sigourney Keota (8-0) will host Durant (2-6) in the Class 1A first round. It is a rematch of the season opener, where the Cobras won 23-20.

Van Buren County ended the season 2-6 and out of the playoffs.

WACO to host Edgewood-Colesburg

WAYLAND — No. 7 (8-Player) WACO already locked up a District 6 championship and an undefeated season. The Warriors had a bye this week, but they did get to learn their first round opponent when pairings were released on Saturday.

Edgewood-Colebsburg (5-3) will be coming into Wayland on Friday for the opening round. The Vikings earned that spot with a 54-20 win over Midland in the final regular season contest.

Mid-Prairie earns home game

BLOOMFIELD — It was a shootout at Davis County High School as Mid-Prairie took on the Mustangs for second place in Class 2A District 6. The Golden Hawks won 49-32.

Mid-Prairie dominated the first half of play and took a 35-8 lead into the break.

Davis County outscored Mid-Prairie 24-14 in the second half, but it was too little too late and the Golden Hawks walked out of Bloomfield with a big victory.

Tyler Helmuth burned the Mustangs on the ground, going for 145 yards and three scores in the Golden Hawk win. Will Cavanaugh threw one touchdown pass, a 17-yard strike to Cain Brown.

Mid-Prairie ended the regular season at 5-3. They’ll host Northeast (4-4) in the first round.

New London gets in on final day

NEW LONDON — The Tigers needed a win and little help to get into the Class 8-Player playoffs and everything came up New London on the final night of the season.

The Tigers ran all over Hartwick-Victor-Ladora, beating the Warriors 32-6.

New London scored all five touchdowns on the ground. Boden Pickle ran for 100 yards and three touchdowns, and Joel Lacy scampered for 88 yards and a pair of scores.

A Winfield-Mount Union loss pushed the Tigers into third place in Class 8-Player District 6, which earned them an automatic qualifying spot.

New London (4-3) will take on No. 2 Montezuma (9-0) in a playoff road game on Friday.

Winfield-Mount Union falls short

NORTH ENGLISH — New London’s gain was WMU’s loss. The Wolves fell out of the top three in the district with a 54-18 loss to English Valleys.

The Wolves scored just three times in a season-ending loss. WMU scored on a pair of rushing touchdowns from Cam Buffington and Lane Genkinger. Buffington also hit Noah Sparrow on a short touchdown through the air.

WMU was in third place in Class 8-Player District 6 at the start of the night. The Wolves (4-3) finished fourth in the district and didn’t have a good enough point differential to slip into the postseason.

Highland pushes to postseason

RIVERSIDE — It was win and get in for the Highland Huskies, and win they did.

Highland ran away from Pekin 49-14 in the last regular season game. The Huskies scored a season high in points to knock off the Panthers.

The victory pushed the Huskies to 3-5 overall, and a 3-3 record in Class A District 5, just enough to get in the playoffs.

Highland will be on the road in the first round on Friday. The Huskies will take on Lynnville-Sully (7-1).

Columbus left out

ALBURNETT — Columbus gave it all they could in a must-win game at Alburnett. The Wildcats nearly pulled off a second-half comeback, but fell short, losing 13-9.

The Pirates scored once each in the first and second quarters to take a 13-0 lead into halftime.

Columbus cut the deficit to 13-6 on a touchdown run by Kaden Amigon in the third quarter. He finished the game with 171 rushing yards and a score.

Senior kicker Yahir Ayala put three points up on the board for the Wildcats in the fourth quarter. Columbus, however, couldn’t push in the final score to pull out a win.

Columbus went 3-5 on the year. A 2-4 district record kept the Wildcats out of a transfer spot.

Cardinal stays in with loss

PLEASANTVILLE — Cardinal didn’t need to win on Friday to lock up third place in Class 1A District 6. The Comets just needed to lose by a small enough number to stay ahead in the tiebreaker.

Pleasantville nipped Cardinal 29-28 to force a three-way tie for third place.

The Comets trailed 21-14 at halftime. Cardinal scored once in the third quarter and shut the Trojans out in the second half, but the Comets couldn’t put up anymore points.

The Comets finished tied for third with both Pleasantville and Central Decatur. Cardinal took third place via the point differential tiebreaker, and Pleasantville finished fourth.

Cardinal (5-3) will hit the road to take n West Branch (6-2) in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs.