Cougars rout Meskwaki in first round

ACKLEY – Playing without its prolific quarterback, Meskwaki seemed helpless at the hands of AGWSR in the first round of the 8-Player playoffs on Friday, Oct. 16.

Jaden Penning rushed for four touchdowns – three in the first quarter alone – and added another 63-yard touchdown catch from Bo Gerbracht which was also in the first 12 minutes as the Cougars steamrolled their way to a 74-14 win over the Warriors.

Prior to last week, Meskwaki relied on quarterback Taurice Grant for virtually all of its offense, but he was sidelined the week before in the Warriors’ 56-6 loss to BGM.

And AGWSR had a field day.

“You take their No. 1 offensive threat away and then they’ve got the shuffle players around and that affected them offensively, to say the least, but you’ve still got to identify and tackle, which we did for the most part the entire game,” AGWSR coach James Koop said. “We were putting the helmet on the ball, wrapping up and recovering and pursuing the ball like we’re supposed to.”

Four straight carries by Penning resulted in a quick Cougars’ TD and they were off to the races after that.

“Jaden ran the ball hard and he’d tell you that’s because there were holes in the line to run through,” Koop said. “Cale didn’t get a ton of yards but the way they were set up defensively, it was going to be a tailback’s night to shine. Also, like we’ve done in the past, we don’t throw the ball a ton, but when we do, we’re pretty efficient.”

Meskwaki was unable to move the ball in four straight series in the first quarter, the first two resulting in a turnover on downs and a punt and then it got worse: AGWSR recovered a pair of fumbles, one a Ben Reinke recovery that gave the Cougars first-and-goal from the seven and then Cale Culver had a scoop and score from 15 yards out resulting in a 40-0 advantage after the first quarter.

Penning finished with 148 yards on 13 carries.

Culver later recovered another fumble for a touchdown and freshmen Kaden Abbas and Ryley Bohner added fumble recoveries. Penning also had the Cougars’ lone interception, taking it back for 30 yards to set up another score.

The reward for the rout is a tough test for coach Koop’s team as they travel to top-ranked Don Bosco (6-0) this Friday night at Gilbertville.

“I told the kids Friday night that Don Bosco is another top-10 team, and we’ve faced three of them already,” Koop said. “We know what to expect going into the ball game – they’re not unbeatable, but they’re maybe a team we can beat one out of 10 times, so we just need to prepare to make Friday night that one time. We need to have a good week of practice and let the chips fall where they may.”

Meskwaki  0       6       8       0        -     14

AGWSR   40       6     14     14        -     74

TEAM STATISTICS

                                         Mesk     AGWSR

First downs                           NA             NA

Rushes-yards                       NA       31-265

Passing                                NA              63

Comp-att-int                         NA          1-1-0

Punts-avg.                            NA             0-0

Fumbles-lost                         NA             0-0

Penalties-yards                     NA             NA

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – AGWSR, Jaden Penning 13-148-4, Kaden Abbas 6-35-1, Cale Culver 3-33-1, 4-20-0, Zach Johnson 2-19-0, Noah Cilkeman 2-9-0, Gabe Nederhoff 1-1-1. PASSING – AGWSR, Gerbracht 1-1-63-1-0. RECEIVING – AGWSR, Penning 1-63-1. TACKLES – Chase Harms 4-6.5-0, Zach Johnson 2-6-0, Penning 5-11-1.5, Culver 2-6-1, Penning 4-5-0, Jayden Bowles 2-4.5-0, Bradly Roder 1-3.5-0. SACKS – AGWSR, None. FUMBLE RECOVERIES – AGWSR, Culver 2-37-2, Ryley Bohner 1-6-0, Abbas 1-0-0, Ben Reinke 1-0-0. INTERCEPTIONS – AGWSR, Penning 1-30-0.