By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
Basketball: Crusader Pledges Iowa
Sioux City Heelan basketball player Brendan Cougill says he will play his collegiate basketball at the University of Iowa.
The 6-foot-9, 235 pound junior made a verbal commitment to Hawkeye coach Todd Lickliter last weekend. Cougill averaged 16.7 points and 10.5 rebounds for the Crusaders as a sophomore last season, as Heelan reached the Class 3-A state championship game before losing to Waverly-Shell Rock in the finals, 74-51.
A second-team all-stater last season as a sophomore, Cougill told the Sioux City Journal newspaper, "Coach Lickliter told me I was his number one priority for 2009. He told me I needed to improve on some things and when I leave the program I'll be a much better player than when I came."
Football: Friday Night Highlights
Bettendorf remained unbeaten and top-ranked among Iowa's largest schools in a 47-10 win over Muscatine last weekend, despite Muskies' quarterback Jon Phillips setting a school record for passing yardage.
Under constant pressure the entire night, Phillips finished with 195 yards passing on 18 completions (in 25 attempts). For the season, Phillips has thrown for 1,824 yards and has 3,851 for his career. With the win, Bettendorf is the only unbeaten team remaining in the Mississippi Athletic Conference, while Muscatine lost for just the first time this fall.
Class 4-A's second-ranked Cedar Falls Tigers ran their record to 5-0 Friday night with a 28-10 conquest of Marion Linn-Mar at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. It was the Tigers' sixth-straight win over the Lions, who have not earned a victory since 2005.
The Tigers held the Lions to 167 yards total offense, while grinding out 336 yards of their own. Tailback Andrew Tindall led the Cedar Falls rushing attack with 133 yards on 20 carries.
Marshalltown is benefiting from the talents of quarterback Tyler Peschong, who has helped lift the Bobcats to a 4-1 record on the season, and are 1-0 in CIML conference play.
Last week, Peschong threw for 242 of his 275 yards passing in the first half, and ran for four touchdowns himself in Marshalltown's 57-20 CIML victory over Mason City. The win also moved the Bobcats ahead of Mason City in the overall series between the two schools, 21-20-2.
Sioux City Heelan scored 14 points in five seconds of the first quarter Friday night, en route to a 64-7 Class 3-A district win at Spirit Lake. Brandon Wegher ran a kickoff back for a 95-yard touchdown, then Zach Meyer recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and one play later, Wegher scored again, this time from 25 yards out, for a 14-0 Heelan lead.
Wegher finished with 230 yards rushing and four first-half touchdowns in the victory. It was the third time this year that the Heelan running back had rushed for over 200 yards. The result against the winless Indians was also the most number of points scored by a Heelan football team since a 68-0 thrashing of Carroll Kuemper in 1973.
Cedar Falls NU High did it with defense in Thursday night's 26-7 win over Green Mountain-Garwin at the UNI-Dome.
The Little Panthers hoped to hold elusive running back Wade Raymond of GM-G under 100 yards for the game, because he had already churned out more than 700 yards rushing in his first four games.
NU did that and more, clamping down on Raymond to the tune of only 18 yards on as many carries. It was the third-straight win for NU High (3-1), while GM-G dropped to 2-2. Senior tailback Joseph McKenna carried the ball 36 times for 164 yards.
Fort Dodge St. Edmond reached the 70-point mark for the first time in school history in the Gaels' 70-6 SEHS homecoming dismantling of Woodward-Granger. The onslaught included 10 rushing touchdowns and 427 yards of offense. The previous high-water mark for St. Edmond was 59 points, reached in 1983 and 1996.
Drake Ferch carried 35 times for 290 yards as West Marshall handled AGWSR 42-14. Ferch had touchdown runs of 18, 80, and 13 yards in the victory, which moved West Marshall to 2-3 on the season.
Football: Unbeatens Meet in CIML Clash
This Friday's clash between unbeatens West Des Moines Valley and Waukee could go a long way toward determining who might have the inside track in the Central Iowa Metropolitan League's Iowa Conference.
The game at Waukee matches two top-10 teams in Class 4-A, who are both 5-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Valley last week won its 22nd straight conference game with a 24-0 shutout of Ames, while Waukee notched a 23-0 blanking of Fort Dodge last week. It will also be the first time ever that Valley has played at Waukee.