COLUMBUS JCT. — The North Cedar Knight football team is on a roll in 2019, securing their third straight win, a 33-8 road victory at Colum- bus Junction last Friday night. The Knights improved to 3-1 in four non-district games and will hit the road again this week going to Cascade for their Class 1A District 4 opener. The Knights are one of three district 4 teams with a 3-1 record or better. West Branch is 4-0 and Dyersville-Beck- man is also 3-1 after non-district play.
“Our group of guys has done a great job of focusing on what is in front of us. The best thing is that they are invested in the right reasons. They put the e ort in and if we keep getting that, we are going to be ne in these nal ve games,” said North Cedar football coach Adam Hadenfeldt.
“Our next challenge will be that we haven’t been here (3-1) for a few years. How are we going to handle success? We (coaches) would rather be on this end though, then 1-3 going into district play,” said Hadenfeldt.
North Cedar used big plays to put Columbus Junction away last Friday. Three of the ve North Cedar touchdowns were scoring plays over 30 yards. North Cedar had 390 yards of total offense in the game while holding Columbus Junction to under 150 yards.
The Knights scored touchdowns on their rst two possessions of the game. On the opening drive, North Cedar marched 70 yards in six plays to score the game’s rst points. Ethan Sahr had a 29-yard run to pick up the Knights rst, rst down. Two plays later, Sahr connected with Kael Unruh for a 33-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.
The Knights defense got o to a good start as well forcing a punt after Columbus Junction faced a 3rd and 16 situation. North Cedar took control of the football game on their second drive of the game. The Knights marched down the eld again, this time for 60 yards in four plays. Two big plays set up the score. A 28-yard pass from Sahr to Gage Walshire and a wacky running play that saw Brody Hawtrey fumble and senior lineman Brennen Kreel scoop up the football and run to the 7-yard line after a 22-yard gain, setting up the next score. Tyler Thurston crossed the goal line from seven yards out, scoring his rst touch- down this season, to give the Knights a 13-0 lead.
Columbus Junction would answer the second Knight score with their only score of the football game. To do so, they needed to use some trickery. Columbus Junction used a fake punt pass that UK Bawi threw for 55 yards to Jamie Villegas. Four plays later, Bawi scored on a 1-yard run. A Tucker Bright 2-point run set the score at 13-8, late in the rst quarter. That would be as close as the Knights came to have a close game.
North Cedar would score 20 unanswered points with a touchdown in each of the nal three quarters to secure the win. An Ethan Sahr 1-yard run, his rst rushing score of the year, in the second quarter helped North Cedar go to halftime up 20-8. Sahr and Kael Unruh would connect for scoring passes in each of the third and fourth quarters. The Sahr to Unruh connection went for 67 yards in the third quarter and 40 yards in the fourth quarter. Sahr had his best game this season, throwing for 247 yards on 11 completions with three touch- down passes. For the season he is close to 800 yards passing (793) and had seven touchdown passes. For his career, he went over 2,000 career passing yards in recent weeks. Brody Hawtrey went over 350 yards for the season, upping his team lead with 372 yards by rushing for 56 yards on nine carries. Unruh caught four passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns. He has 377 yards and ve touchdowns on the season and like Sahr, the duo is in the top-10 at their position in Class 1A.
Defensively, Brennen Kreel had nine tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks. Thurston had 8 tackles by James Garner and Caden Wendt each had six. Wendt also had two sacks in the game.
North Cedar will play at Cascade (1-3) Friday. The Cougars have had a hard time passing the football with only 361 yards in four games with three passing touchdowns against seven interceptions. Colby Holmes leads Cascade rushers with 283 yards and two touchdowns. The Knights are back home on Friday, October 4 when they host West Branch for homecoming.
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