Council Bluffs, IA

The final statistics say Iowa Western dominated the day versus Highland in Game Four of the 2023 season.  Glance at the scoreboard and you may think otherwise.

The undefeated Reivers (4-0) scored 21 unanswered points and limited a passing attack that was led by the Scotties' Tysan Robbins, the nation's number one passer coming in to play on Saturday.

IW's 'Darkside' defense held Robbins to just 115 yards on 14-25 passing and kept HCC from mounting any sustained offensive drives, surrendering their first touchdown after a special teams miscue gave Highland a short field and Adonis Coyle hit a 39-yard field goal after Mendez Jean Baptiste stole a 44-yard completion from the hands of Matt Kordas - a drive that netted only 39 yards for the Scotties.

The Reivers pounded out a 16-play, 60-yard drive for their first score, a one-yard run by Hunter Watson.  On the drive, the Reivers converted three fourth-down attempts, including Watson's touchdown.

The score took the zero off the scoreboard and sent the Reivers into halftime trailing 10-7.

"Hunter's playing well, we've got to be able to protect him though," said Strohmeier at halftime, "the line has got to give him some more time and open some holes for our backs, but the defense is playing well, I feel like they've missed a few opportunities to really turn the game the other way, but we'll be fine."

Watson and the Reivers' offense wasted little time getting 'fine' in the third, scoring on an 11-play, 81-yard drive to take the lead on their first drive of the second half and following it with a four-play, 22-yard drive after Joshua Pierre-Louis returned a punt near the Highland redzone after Highland punted from the back of their own endzone.

Bryant Williams scored on a seven-yard sweep and Shawn Gary, Jr. blasted up the middle for a five-yard score on the two drives to put IWCC up two scores.

A pair of fourth-quarter turnovers and a clock burning run game kept the Reivers off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, while a scoring toss from Highland with :13 seconds left in the fourth accounted for the final tally.

On the day, Iowa Western converted five of seven fourth down attempts, including the first rush of Jaylen Pettus' career, a two-yard rush on a fake punt to keep the final drive of the third quarter alive for the Reivers.  Pettus also recovered a fumble by Robbins, the lone Highland turnover of the day.

The passing attack from the Scotties was the only positive yardage on the day as Highland finished on the negative side in the rushing game, three players rushed for a single yard while Benson Prosper was dropped for a six-yard loss on his lone attempt.

Hunter Watson was held without a throwing touchdown for the first time in four games, but added his third rushing TD as he led the way for the Reivers with a game high 66-yards rushing.  Williams was limited on the day by Highland's blitzing defense, but added his third score of the season as well.  He's piled up 313 yards in four games so far this season.

On the defensive side, IWCC came close, but forced only one turnover while spreading the tackles around.  CJ Jones led the team with five tackles and Kemari Copeland picked up the only sack of Robbins, whose quick release limited the Reivers in the HCC backfield.

The victory was the 150th in Coach Strohmeier's career.  "It's taken a lot of dedicated players, coaches and others that's led to that number", Strohmeier said after the game, "I'm just very fortunate that I've had the support from all of them and my family to be able to get to that number.  It says more about the people that we've had around this program and at NIACC, it's humbling for sure."

Strohmeier won 16 games at North Iowa Area before coming to IWCC in 2008 to build the program that played their first game in 2009 and has racked up 134 wins in 15 seasons with seven regular season games remaining.

Next week the Reivers head to Iowa Falls to face ICCAC opponent Ellsworth.  The game will kickoff from Cadet Field at 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. 

All the action can be heard, free of charge, on the Reiver Sports Network.  The game, with Jake Ryan, Russ Nelsen, Josh Odson, and Tony Boone 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 2:00 on the radio side with the video stream starting just before kickoff at 2:30 from Iowa Falls.

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