Sports Editor
STANWOOD — The West Branch Bears won their seventh straight football game and second straight road game in Cedar County, winning a lopsided 49-7 victory at North Cedar last Friday. The Bears remain one game ahead of Bellevue and Maquoketa Valley in district play at 5-0. Those two teams, both 4-1 in district 3, play in week 9 with the winner likely getting the second playoff spot out of district 3. North Cedar fell to 1-6 overall and 1-4 in district 3. The Knights play at Maquoketa Valley this week before hosting Tipton in week 9.
The state ranked Bears scored on six straight possessions after North Cedar forced them to punt on their first possession.
West Branch scored on their second and third possessions of the game. Touchdown runs by Jacob Graves for 38 yards and Beau Cornwell for 37 yards on a busted play, gave West Branch a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.
West Branch’s third touchdown came in impressive fashion. Three plays and 92 yards in less than three minutes of game clock. A Brett Schiele 27-yard run, a big play pass from Cornwell to Ben Thompson and the capper of the drive, Graves’ second touchdown run of the game, this one from 25 yards out to put the score at 21-0.
North Cedar scored their only points with 7:37 left in the second quarter. There, Shane Weber broke through the West Branch defense and bolted 78 yards for a touchdown. The Weber score put the score at 21-7. The Knights had moved the football into Bear territory twice more, each ending in turnovers.
West Branch scored again with 3:41 left before halftime when Beau Cornwell connected with Ben Thompson on a 10-yard scoring pass to give West Branch a 28-7 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, North Cedar fumbled and the Bears recovered at the 19. West Branch wasted little time scoring. A big pass from Cornwell to Brady Lukavsky for 12 yards set the Bears up at the 7-yard line with first and goal. Two plays later, Cornwell scored on a quarterback sneak from the 1.
North Cedar couldn’t get anything going on their next possession, going three and out. The Bears chewed up the rest of the half, scoring one final first half touchdown, a Cornwell sneak to set the halftime score at 42-7.
West Branch had 510 yards of total offense in the football game with 279 yards passing and 231 yards rushing. The Bears scored six touchdowns on the ground in the game.
West Branch junior quarterback Beau Cornwell had a big game, passing for 279 yards, rushing for 35 and accounting for four touchdowns. Cornwell completed 21 of 27 pass attempts and had a touchdown and zero interceptions. He rushed for three touchdowns. Cornwell’s 21 completions gave him 121 on the season, breaking the school record of 115 set by Cooper Koenig in 2015. Cornwell has passed for 1,627 yards and has a shot at passing for over 2,000 yards if he continues to his his averages of 232 yards in the air per game. He leads 1A in yards, touchdown passes - 16 and completions - 121.
Jacob Graves got the start in the backfield, inserted due to an injury to starting running back Tanner Lukavsky. Graves exceeded expectations rushing for 179 yards on 23 carries with a 7.8-yard average per carry in the game. He scored two rushing touchdowns.
Receiver Ben Thompson had another solid game, catching seven passes for 111 yards and a touchdown. That score was his 10th of the season breaking the school record set in 2005 at 9 by Ricky Riley. The Bears spread around the wealth through the air with six different players catching a pass and four catching at least three passes. Brett Schiele caught five passes for 75 yards and Graves caught four passes for 36 yards. Thompson leads class 1A in three receiving categories. Most yards - 601, receptions - 36 and touchdown passes - 10.
Defensively, John Hatfield led West Branch in tackles with 8 and Cameron Howsare had 6 and Dalyn Pedersen 5.
North Cedar will play at Maquoketa Valley against a Wildcat team clinging to playoff hopes. The Wildcats need to win out to be guaranteed a postseason bid. Maquoketa Valley had a senior quarterback in Tyson Tucker and two good running backs in Garrett Hogan and Mitch Smith.
Quarter Scores:
1 2 3 4 Final
West Branch 14 28 7 0 49
North Cedar 0 7 0 0 7
Scoring Summary:
1st Qtr (4:56) - WB - Jacob Graves 38-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
1st Qtr (1:45) - WB - Beau Cornwell 37-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
2nd Qtr (7:55) - WB Jacob Graves 25-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
2nd Qtr (7:37) - NC - Shane Weber 78-yard run (Brody Hawtrey kick good)
2nd Qtr (3:41) - WB - Ben Thompson 10-yard pass from Beau Cornwell (Beau Cornwell kick good)
2nd Qtr (2:41) - WB - Beau Cornwell 1-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
2nd Qtr (0:35) - WB - Beau Cornwell 1-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
3rd Qtr (1:43) - WB - Levi Kleinmeyer 1-yard run (Beau Cornwell kick good)
Individual Statistics:
Rushing: West Branch - Jacob Graves 23-179, Morgan Hartz 6-12, Beau Cornwell 5-35, Levi Kleinmeyer 3-11, Kelby Burger 2-4.
Passing: West Branch - Beau Cornwell 21-for-27 279 yards 1 TD, 0 INT’s.
Receiving: West Branch - Ben Thompson 7-111, Brett Schiele 5-75, Jacob Graves 4-36, Dakota Kaalberg 3-28, Peter Espensen 1-17, Brady Lukavsky 1-12.
Defensive Statistics:
Tackles (S-A-T): West Branch - John Hatfield 4-4 8, Cameron Howsare 4-2 6, Dalyn Petersen 4-1 5, Dakota Kaalberg 1-2 3, Jeff Bowie 2-1 3, Jacob Graves 1-2 3, Billy Friis 2-0 2, Evan O’Neil 1-1 2, Ben Thompson 1-1 2, Jacob Barnhart 1-1 2, Andrew Black 2-0 2, Matt Paulsen 0-1 1.
Tackles For Loss: West Branch - John Hatfield 2-0 2.
Interceptions: West Branch Brett Schiele 1.
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