COURTESY OF THE NONPAREIL
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -
NJCAA Divison-I No. 6 Iowa Western football held No. 7 Iowa Central to a season-low 14 points after forcing three fumbles in a 37-14 victory at home on Saturday. The victory gave Iowa Western the newly rebranded trophy "The Cup" which was previously named "The Kinney Cup." "It's good to get it back," head coach Scott Strohmeier said. "It was a long time with no season in the fall that we had to wait this long to get it. I'm proud of our guys. They came out ready to go and made some plays." The Reivers defeated the Tritons 34-20 earlier this year on the road on April 3.
"It feels great to come on our home field and get a win," freshman linebacker Ellis said. "We've been working really hard for it, practicing really hard, working hard in the weight room, conditioning." Freshman receiver Kaden Wetjen sparked Iowa Western on the Reivers' third possession when he returned a punt 51 yards to the Iowa Central 39-yard line. It took Iowa Western just four plays for freshman quarterback Nate Glantz to find freshman wide receiver Donovan Moorer in the endzone for an 18-yard pass to break the scoreless tie.
The Reivers forced a three-and-out and capitalized when Glantz connected on a 51-yard bomb to redshirt freshman wide receiver James Gilbert to give Iowa Western a 13-0 lead with just under three minutes left in the first quarter after the point after attempt was blocked. Just when it looked like Iowa Western was going to run away with the game, Iowa Central worked the ball down the field and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to just six points.
Iowa Western's defense stepped up in a huge way two plays later when Ellis forced a fumble and Iowa Western recovered at the 33-yard line. Glantz threw his third touchdown of the game when he found freshman wide receiver Jermaine Dawson for a 33-yard connection to give his team a 20-7 lead with just over seven minutes left in the third quarter.
The end of the game was all Iowa Western.
Freshman kicker Josh Jasek successfully kicked a 32-yard field goal with just over a minute left in the third, redshirt sophomore running back Milton Sargbah broke free for a 15-yard touchdown rush midway through the fourth and freshman running back Ezeki Leggins put the cherry on top with a two-yard run to give the Reivers a 37-7.
Iowa Central did manage to score one last time with mostly reserve players in the game on a 10-yard from with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
Ellis said a lot of work took place off the field as well. "Just studying the playbook, studying their plays," he said about what caused the Reivers to be so effective on defense. "Meetings, putting our film hours in and just working together as a team."
Gilbert led Iowa Western in receiving catching four passes for 79 yards. Sophomore wide receiver Michael Love recorded a team-high nine receptions. Freshman defensive lineman Jordan Van Den Berg tallied a team-high nine tackles, sophomore linebacker Kenny Wilkins, Jr. sacked the quarterback once and intercepted a pass and redshirt freshman defensive back Trey Franklin also picked off the Tritons once.
"Turnovers take the wind out of someone," Strohmeier said. "Your confidence level is dropped. Your play calling is a little different. I think we did a good job of capitalizing on those." The Reivers improve to 4-1 with the victory. Iowa Western will be in action next at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.
"It's a big momentum change for us," Ellis said. "We're going to keep things rolling since we have after the first loss and just keep eating as a team."
Iowa Central (3-2) 0 7 0 7 -- 14
Iowa Western (4-1) 13 0 10 14 -- 37
