Reivers' Six Takeaways Bury Badgers in The Bluffs

Council Bluffs, IA

Defense isn't just a passing fad in Council Bluffs.  This year's edition of the 'Darkside' quieted sixth-ranked Snow College in the opening half and flat-out dominated the nation's second-ranked scoring offense in the second on Saturday in Council Bluffs.

IWCC (6-0), used a quartet of field goals from Sam Wilber and a punctuating pick-six from sophomore linebacker Rashion Hodge to top Snow (4-2), 26-0, at Titan Stadium on a beautiful fall afternoon.

Head Coach Scott Strohmeier's team led 6-0 after one half of play on Wilber's first pair of kicks from 20 and 44 yards out and narrowly missed a last-second, hail-mary touchdown pass as the opening 30 minutes came to a close.

"We were going to line up for a field goal attempt because we had the wind," said Strohmeier after the game, "but then we took a sack, so we decided to take a shot.  Of course, the thought was in my head that if this goes bad, they're taking the lead into halftime."

The pass from Aiden Niedens was nearly dead-on as LJ Fitzpatrick had the ball tick off of his fingertips, just outside of the reach of a pair of Badger defenders.

"We knew we had missed a couple of opportunities in the first half but felt good about having points on the board with the way our defense had performed to that point," added the 14th-year head coach.

Leading by just one score, the Reivers kicked off to the Badgers to start the second half, with Snow Head Coach Zak Ereksen electing to change signal callers.  Backup quarterback Kamen Best led Snow down the field to the IWCC 24, with the Badgers grabbing a trio of first downs behind a completion by Best and a pair of Reiver 15-yard penalties, but the Reivers flexed their muscle, forcing three straight incompletions and stifling Best on 4th down for a turnover on downs.

The Reivers didn't fare much better on their opening series of the second half, forced to punt after a three-and-out.  However, Ty Nissen's kick was muffed near midfield by the normally sure-handed Taylor Larsen and linebacker Derek Von Arb pounced on the Reivers' second takeaway of the game.

Seven plays later, Wilber finished off a seven-play drive, banging home his third triple of the game, from 37-yards out, to extend the lead to two scores at 9-0.

An electric return by the Badgers' Deuce Roberson followed and gave the visitors momentum, but on the drive's first play, the Reivers squashed any residual feel-good feelings when JoJo Johnson intercepted his third pass of the season, a flea-flicker attempt by Best, to return the football to Aiden Niedens and the IW offense.  

Niedens cashed in with the game's first touchdown eight plays later, rolling untouched to the left side of the endzone to extend the lead to 16-0 Reivers.

IWCC, plus one in takeaways coming into the game, grabbed their third of the third quarter and fourth of the day against Snow's third quarterback of the day.  Tommy McGrath replaced Best on the next drive of the game and five plays into the drive, Matt Kordas intercepted his first pass of the season near the Snow sideline.

The Reivers ground 2:14 off of the clock on the following drive, but couldn't capitalize again on the scoreboard.  Wilber's attempt from 38-yards out hooked left as Snow remained down just two scores with 17 minutes remaining in regulation, plenty of time for the Badgers to rally based on their recent history in Council Bluffs.

Just 53 seconds later though, it was 'The Darkside's' time again.  Strong safety AJ Taylor grabbed the 4th interception of the day for the home team, his first of the season, rising up on the Snow sideline and toe-tapping in for the fourth takeaway of the quarter and fifth overall in the game for the Reivers.

The Badgers limited IWCC on the drive, but the Reivers finally pushed the lead to three scores when Wilber drilled his fourth field goal of the day, this time good from 38-yards away, for a 19-0 lead.

Snow would reinsert starting quarterback Daisean Cash in the 4th quarter, but it was the same story for the Badgers' offense.  The Badgers would be forced to punt on their first possession of the quarter and on the second, Cash threw his second pick of the day.  The pass on 4th and three was returned 51-yards by Hodge for the first defensive score of the season for 'The Darkside' and closed the scoring on the day.  Hodge hurdled a man and broke several tackles on the way to his second career Reiver TD and the Reivers' first interception return since Hodge scored in the final regular season game of 2021.

The Reivers held the nation's second-ranked rushing offense to just 49 rushing yards on the afternoon, 175 below their season average per game. 

The Badgers, which had been averaging 43.8 points per game, were shut out for the first time since 1984.  It was the third time this season IWCC held an opponent scoreless, as the Reivers advanced their lead in the all-time series to 5-2 over Snow and 3-1 in games played at Titan Stadium.

The five interceptions were the second most in school history, with the six turnovers falling into the same place.  The program record of seven interceptions came during the 2013 season against North Dakota School of Science, while that number of turnovers has been equaled once before, coming in the 2016 match-up with Ft. Scott (four interceptions, three fumble recoveries).  The Reivers have had five or more takeaways in a game 26 times in a game, including five takeaways in each of the last three match-ups with Snow.

IWCC improved their all-time record in Top 10 match-ups to 21-10, and 13-5 when the Reivers entered the game as the higher of the two teams.  All seven match-ups between Snow and IWCC have featured both teams inside the NJCAA rankings with Saturday's match-up the 4th where both entered the contest ranked inside the Top 10.  All four of those decisions have been won by IWCC.  The Reivers also moved to 20-1 all-time when playing as the number three team in the NJCAA poll.

The Reivers head into a much-needed bye week with four games remaining on the schedule.  Butler, ranked tenth in last week's poll, won their game over the weekend to improve to 4-2 on the year and will host last week's number seven team, Iowa Central (4-2), this week before heading to Council Bluffs on October 22nd for a 1:00 pm game.

The Grizzlies and Reivers have met eight times since 2012 with IWCC taking all five games in the state of Iowa.  Butler is the only team to hold IWCC without a touchdown in program history with the Reivers winning the 2013 Graphic Edge Bowl, 6-0, on a pair of field goals by Danny Hamilton.  The Grizzlies are also responsible for the most lopsided loss in program history, a 40-7 defeat of the Reivers in El Dorado during the 2015 season.

Barley's Bar & Grill will host a free tailgate party on the 22nd, as they do before every Reiver home game, beginning at approximately 11:30 at Reiver Tailgate Village.

All the action can be heard, free of charge, on the Reiver Sports Network.  The game, with Jake Ryan, Russ Nelsen, and Josh Odson on the call, can also be found on Iowa Western's 100,000-watt FM radio station, 89.7 The River.  The RSN Countdown to Kickoff begins at 12:30 on the radio side with the video stream starting just before kickoff.

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