Wildcats looking for another win

Columbus finally got the monkey off its back last Friday night, defeating West Burlington-Notre Dame 24-0 to snap its 20-game losing streak. Wildcat head coach Jeff Martin said it was a relief.

?They exploded with emotion after the game, and the whole school spilled onto the field,? he said. ?It was really huge for our young men to not have to deal with that anymore. It had been difficult for our kids do deal with that for the last two years.?

This week the Wildcats (1-2) look to make it two in a row against a West Liberty squad that also got its first win of the season last Friday when it defeated Louisa-Muscatine 35-14. Comets senior quarterback Tyler Newsom had a big game in that victory, throwing for 114 yards and two touchdowns and adding 64 yards and a score on the ground.

Martin says the recipe for success is the same as last week.

?We have to do the same things,? he said. ?We have to control the football, limit turnovers and try to control the option, which we haven?t seen yet. We have to try to control their quarterback, who?s a pretty good football player.?

Louisa-Muscatine at Mid-Prairie

After losing its season-opener at Washington 30-0, Mid-Prairie has now won two straight games. Credit the Golden Hawks? turnaround to the emergence of a running game, led by junior tailback Eesaa Baylor.

The Golden Hawks rushed for just two yards in Washington, but Baylor has rushed for 236 yards and four touchdowns over the last two games.

?[His emergence] and the offensive line?s improvement have helped immensely so we?re not back throwing the ball 30 times a game,? Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh said. ?We?re not known for that. We?re more balanced now.?

Like the Golden Hawks, Louisa-Muscatine (1-2) also likes to run the football. The Falcons have three rushers who have totaled over 140 yards so far this season, and they?ve thrown the ball just 22 times.

?They run the ball a lot, and we haven?t faced that much,? Cavanagh said. ?They?re foot-to-foot and double tight, and they?re going to pound the football. They?re pretty big, and we?re not huge, so that could be a problem.?

Wapello at Sigourney-Keota

After back-to-back frustrating losses, Sigourney-Keota hopes to get back on track and defeat Wapello on Homecoming.

?We were almost in self destruct mode after the Pekin loss [on Aug. 31],? Savage Cobra head coach Jared Jensen said. ?There were fingers starting to get pointed at each other. With all that going on, it was like we were playing more than just Wilton.?

The Savage Cobras (1-2) can?t afford to struggle with internal issues this week. They?ll have their hands full with the Indians (2-1) and senior tailback Eric Garcia, who has rushed for 12.5 yards per carry so far this season.

?We?ve got to stop No. 4,? Jensen said of Garcia. ?We want to make somebody else beat us, and we feel like we?ve got a pretty good defensive plan in place. We feel like we match up pretty well defensively. We?ve got some speed to match their speed.?

Van Buren at WACO

Just because winless Van Buren has yet to score a point this season, WACO head coach Chad Edeker isn?t about to overlook this week?s Homecoming opponent.

?We can?t take anything for granted,? he said. ?Just because they haven?t scored, they might break out and score 40 points this week. We just have to work on their tendencies and try to stop them as best we can.?

Edeker is mostly concerned with shoring up his own team?s problems this week. A fumble late in the third quarter cost the Warriors (2-1) a chance to tie the game with Lone Tree, and the Lions went on to win 21-14.

?We have to stop turning the ball over,? Edeker said. ?Fumbling cost us dearly last week, so we?ve worked on some ball handling drills this week.?

Winfield-Mt. Union at Highland

Highland head coach Tony Johnson couldn?t be more proud of his defense right now. The Huskies (2-1) have shut out their last two opponents, defeating hapless New London 68-0 last week.

?I?m really happy with the defense the last two weeks,? he said. ?We pitched shutouts the last two weeks, and hopefully that?s something we can continue.?

It could continue. The Huskies? Homecoming opponent, winless Winfield-Mt. Union, was shut out in its first two games before scoring 28 points in a three-point loss at Danville last week.

?They run a mid-line veer option,? Johnson said of the Wolves. ?They?re going to try to run the ball on us and try to open it up for passing. So we?ve got to be on our toes defensively and try to stop that.?