Warhawks pull off thrilling comeback win

DES MOINES — Frank Schnoes wore his “Let the Peacock Fly” T-shirt for a reason.

He knew his team was going to exceed expectations, just like the originator of the shirt and saying, Frank Garza and his son Luka Garza for the University of Iowa, have done.

Schnoes’ West Fork Warhawks did just that in a 55-53 win over a higher-seeded and state-experienced Remsen St. Mary’s team on Monday, March 9 at Wells Fargo Arena.

“Now, I’ll see if my wife can wash it for the next game,” Schnoes said of the T-shirt. “It was the exact game that I expected. I thought watching them on tape that we were evenly-matched. I think we shot the three-ball better than they did tonight. They are noted for that.”

However, it was Brayden Vold’s inside hook shot with time winding down that won it, setting off an early celebration since 0.6 seconds were put back on the clock, but the Hawks fumbled with the ensuing inbounds pass and the horn sounded to set off another West Fork reaction.

“It was set up for Kayden,” Vold said of the original play. “We were both supposed to roll off that and I was the roller who got the ball. (It was) the shot we practiced over and over and over again.”

West Fork trailed by as much as 10 with 4:03 left in the third quarter before they played their way back to tie it at 41 heading into the fourth quarter.

This was the kind of game Jakob Washington, who led the Warhawks and a trio in double figures with 12 points, was expecting.

“They were a really good team coming into it, but I also knew that we’ve been overlooked a lot this season, so we had a chip on our shoulder,” Washington said. “We weren’t even supposed to make it to state or past the first round, so we all had chips on our shoulders and we knew if we went in and played hard, the rest would take care of itself.”

A wild sequence in the fourth quarter out of a timeout helped out the Warhawk cause as the West Fork bench furiously tried to wipe up the floor before the ball was put into play.

However, in the spot where they were trying to clean up, St. Mary’s Spencer Schorg slipped and his defender Cail Weaver stripped him of the ball and went in uncontested for a lay-up for a 50-48 lead with 3:29 remaining.

“I don’t know if it was sweat or some water that we were drinking,” Schnoes said. “I feel bad if that was the reason, but yeah, Cail was playing good pressure defense and if he weren’t pressuring him, I don’t think he would have slipped. We had a nice basket. Cail has always been a spark for us and when we put him in there, he hit a three right away.”

Washington added, “I’m not sure (what happened), we got lucky. That was awesome, thank God.”

From there, the two teams traded the lead until St. Mary’s split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 53 with 11.7 seconds to go.

That set up Vold’s shot and an early celebration.

“We just wanted to seal the deal, making sure nothing crazy that could happen,” Vold said. “Make sure we walked out of here with a win.”

Ames said his first experience on the Wells Fargo Arena was one he’ll never forget. He finished with 10 points, four assists and three rebounds.

“It was amazing,” Ames said. “I’ve dreamt of it ever since 2011 when they won the state championship, I believe I was in…second or third grade watching that. I just saw that, and ever since then, it’s been a dream of mine and it was everything I could ever imagine.

“I was trying to focus, leading off the whole week trying to make it so I wouldn’t get nervous because playing on this big of a stage, it comes down to who gets the nerves out first. And their whole team has experience here and none of us do. I figured if I focused on not having any nerves at all, then we’d be able to come out quick.”

And, as luck would have it for the Warhawks, they face Algona Garrigan in the Class 1A semifinal, a team they’ve faced for several years in the regular season, but coincidentally not this year.

Washington, who is a first-year varsity player, didn’t face the Golden Bears in previous meetings, all West Fork wins.

“I knew me and Brett (Weaver) for the most part, have never played them in a game, but we know that we are a very fast and physical team and…if we can run like we can, we can get ahead of them, get fast breaks,” Washington said. “We’ve just got to talk on defense and get fast breaks like we can. I’m pretty confident. This is a big confidence-booster.”

Ames, who has faced Garrigan in last year’s meeting, a 75-57 win at home, knows what to expect from the Golden Bears.

“If we can run the floor and beat them down the floor every single time, they are just big, so if we can defend their big guys, stop them from beating us down low, we can beat them down the floor,” Ames said. “Just go at them, don’t shy away from shot-blockers. They’ll block some, but they’ll foul on others, we can get them into foul trouble.”

Schnoes added, “They have a lot of guys back from each of the last two years and we have got some new ones in there. We don’t match up with them well size-wise, but I think their guards…they’ve got the Joyce kid who’s really a nice guard for them, but I like our guards to put pressure on their guys and I think if we are going to beat them we are going to have to figure out how to pressure the ball, keep them from just pounding the ball inside.

“Looking forward to Wednesday.”

West Fork 55

Remsen St. Mary’s 53

West Fork (24-2) — Ian Latham 3-5 2-4 10, Brett Weaver 2-4 0-0 4, Kayden Ames 4-8 2-3 10, Jakob Washington 4-6 2-4 7, Brayden Vold 2-4 1-2 5, Noah Maske 0-0 0-0 0, Ren Heimer 1-1 0-0 2, Cail Weaver 3-5 0-0 8, Joe Ingham 2-2 0-1 2. Totals 21-35 7-14 55.

Remsen St. Mary’s (22-4) — Spencer Schorg 9-16 0-2 19, Blaine Harpenau 1-4 0-2 3, Brayden Ricke 2-6 3-3 8, Skyler Waldschmitt 6-10 0-0 12, Brady Homan 1-1 0-0 2, Carter Schorg 2-2 0-0 4, Austin Jensen 1-2 3-6 6. Totals 22-41 6-13 53.

Three-point goals — WF 6-14 (Washington 2-2, Latham 2-4, C. Weaver 2-4, B. Weaver 0-1, Ames 0-3); RSM 3-16 (Harpenau 1-3, Ricke 1-3, S Schorg 1-7, Waldschmitt 0-3); Rebounds — WF 20, 3 off., 17 def. (Washington 7, Ames 3, Vold 3, Latham 2, Ingham 2, B. Weaver, Heimer, Team); RSM 21, 6 off., 15 def. (C. Schorg 6, Ricke 4, Homan 4, S. Schorg 2, Harpenau 2, Team 2, Waldschmitt); Assists — WF 13 (Ames 4, Latham 3, B. Weaver 2, Washington, Vold, Heimer, Ingham); RSM 8 (Ricke 3, S. Schorg 2, Harpenau, Waldschmitt, Jensen). Steals — WF 2 (Latham, C. Weaver); RSM 7 (S. Schorg 4, Harpenau, Waldschmitt, C. Schorg). Total fouls — WF 13, RSM 13. Fouled out — None.