Red Oak falls against West Central Valley
RED OAK — Three first half touchdowns made all the difference as the West Central Valley Wildcats handed the Red Oak Tigers their first district loss of the 2014 season Friday night, 26-6, at Russ Benda Field.
West Central Valley scored 20 of its 26 points in the first 14 minutes of the game.
“When you give up three big plays in the first half and get yourself down, it’s always tough to comeback, especially after an emotional win the week following against rivals. It takes a lot out of you,” Red Oak football coach Barry Bower said. “It was a long week, I know we had some kids out of school because they were sick and we’re fighting that aspect of it.”
The first score came with 6:07 left when Alex Coover ran in a touchdown from 56-yards on the second play of the second drive. West Central Valley missed the PAT, but led 6-0.
Red Oak (2-2 overall, 1-1 district) struggled to move the ball back up field as it was soon back in the Wildcats possession.
Chris Irlmeier scored the next touchdown with 1:40 to go in the quarter on a one-yard run, breaking multiple tackles on his way into the end zone. Red Oak trailed West Central Valley 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Irlmeier got to the one yard line on a previous play, busting off a big run outside the red zone.
“We just got to make sure that we don’t over-penetrate and that was one of the things we were doing,” Bower said. “They were just cutting right off of it and once you do that, hit miss, here and there, and then you’re in the open field.”
The Tigers got some offense going on their next drive, with runs by Brock Isaacson. The drive halted in Wildcat territory though as they were stopped short on 4th and 5.
This set up the second touchdown run for Coover, who ran into the endzone from 63-yards out. West Central Valley made the PAT and led 20-0, which would be the score at halftime.
Coover had a big game for West Central Valley as he rushed for 205 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns. Bower said he was reminded of Treynor’s Dane Livengood, who had ran well against the Tigers last season.
“We didn’t do a very good job to tackling him,” Bower said. “Kudos goes to him for breaking so many of those tackles.”
Red Oak entered halftime trailing 20-0.
West Central Valley scored its final touchdown of the game in the third quarter, thanks to an Irlmeier 55-yard run. Irlmeier finished the game with 105 yards on six carries.
Red Oak was held scoreless until the fourth quarter when quarterback Carlos Guerra completed a 22-yard touchdown pass to Eli Guerra with 8:52 left. The Tigers missed the PAT.
Carlos Guerra was 5-for-19 in the game with 65 yards passing. Eli Guerra caught two of those passes for 34 yards.
Conner Jansky also had two catches for 16 yards. Murphy Porter had one catch for 15 yards.
The Red Oak running game was kept in check by West Central Valley as Isaacson was held to 112 yards on 33 carries.
Isaacson dropped to second in Class 2A in rushing yards as he has 800 for the season. Carter Isley of Albia leads with 836 yards.
Porter had 21 yards on four carries, while Hayden VanMeter finished with 20 yards on three carries.
Defensively, Dean Smith was the leading tackler for Red Oak as he recorded eight. VanMeter and Colin Bruce each had 6.5 tackles.
The focus this week for Red Oak will be on Kuemper Catholic, a team that is also 2-2 for the season.
The Knights lost to South Central Calhoun Friday night, 20-7.
“You can’t guess on who’s going to beat anybody,” Bower said. “You got to be prepared every single week and you got to go in and be ready to play and go from there.”
In addition to their loss to South Central Calhoun, Kuemper Catholic also lost its week one opener against town-rival Carroll.
Kuemper’s wins came against Greene County (16-14) and West Central Valley (62-0).
Red Oak and Kuemper Catholic have played each other 13 times since 1995. The Tigers have never defeated Kuemper Catholic in those 13 meetings.
In the last six meetings, Kuemper Catholic has held Red Oak to 15 combined points.
The closest Red Oak has gotten in recent years was 2005 when Red Oak lost 24-20.
The game will be played at Carroll Athletic Stadium Friday at 7 p.m.