1 week Ago By BY TOM GREGORY For the Telegraph Herald
DYERSVILLE, Iowa — There was no shortage of storylines. A regular-season finale between rivals, which, for the second straight year, carried all sorts of playoff implications. Cascade needed a win, along with a West Branch loss in order to punch its ticket to the playoffs.
Dyersvlle Beckman had already secured its spot in the postseason, but the Iowa Class 1A No. 10-ranked Trailblazers remained alive for a District 5 title and a home game in next week’s opening round. Beckman’s potent stable of runners made it abundantly clear early and often that only one team would need to be scoreboard watching.
Beckman ran for 385 yards on offense and rarely let Cascade up for air defensively en route to an emphatic 30-0 win on Friday. Isaac Burlage ran for 100 yards. Mack Wolfe added 99, while Tanner Ostwinkle had 96 and quarterback Dylan Recker had 84 for Beckman, which moves on with a 6-2 overall record and district-title sharing record of 4-1.
“This is a testament to our kids, our community, our parents and everybody that’s involved in the program,” Beckman coach Cole Mather said. “And we’ve got some tremendous coaches. “We had a vision of where we wanted to be, and it’s good that we’re on the right path.
” Cascade closed its first season under Matt Haddy at 3-5, 1-4. “(Beckman’s) good and they’re playing really well right now,” Haddy said. “We did some good things out there, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot there, too.
When you have a really slim margin for error, it’s kind of tough to do that.” It wasn’t the start Cascade wanted, but a perfect opening 90 seconds for the home faithful. The next few minutes were even better for Beckman.
Cascade couldn’t convert its opening third down and an errant snap on the fourth-down punt led to a safety. The ensuing free kick gave Beckman great field position and the Blazers took advantage. They needed just five plays to go 44 yards and take a 9-0 lead.
The drive was all runs, including the 24-yard gallop by quarterback Recker into the end zone. Cascade fumbled on consecutive plays, recovering the first, but not coming up as fortunate on the second, one which Beckman’s Cole Hirsch hopped on at the Beckman 32 to thwart the Cougars’ promising drive. Beckman returned the favor, though, turning the ball back to Cascade after driving deep into Cougars’ territory.
Beckman’s first pass attempt of the game was picked off by Cascade’s Jackson Green just shy of the end zone. Cascade survived another wild snap into the end zone, but couldn’t sustain a drive, and Beckman took over once again on Cascade’s end of the field. Ostwinkle did the heavy lifting on the seven-play, 44-yard drive.
He had runs of 19 and 15 yards and a bulldozing 2-yarder for a TD and a 15-0 Beckman lead at the 8:09-mark of the second quarter. Cascade moved the ball well in spurts with quarterback Mick Hoffman’s passing and Green’s running, but Beckman’s defense smothered Hoffman often when it mattered. Beckman’s Julien Kramer and Joe Engler came up with timely sacks to spoil another promising Cascade drive.
The teams exchanged turnovers to close out the opening half. Beckman’s second red-zone turnover cost the Blazers on a drive that looked like it could be a potential dagger. Beckman marched 60 yards before Cascade’s Nathan Schockemoehl recovered a Beckman fumble inside the 10-yard line.
Cascade couldn’t capitalize. Beckman sacked Hoffman again courtesy of Jude Kramer, and then Carter White intercepted a Hoffman offering with just over 1 minute remaining before halftime. Beckman couldn’t convert a fourth-down deep in Cascade territory on the first possession of the second half.
But the field position win forced a Cascade punt, which Brian Roeder blocked out of the end zone to give Beckman its second safety of the game and a 17-0 lead. Recker and Ostwinkle each got their second touchdown runs of the night. Recker scored on a 26-yarder late in the third and Ostwinkle added a 35-yard burst with 4 minutes left in the game, then put the exclamation point on the win with a sack of Hoffman in the final seconds to secure the shutout.
“It’s tough in a rivalry game like this,” Mather said. “We didn’t play our best. The second half was better than the first.
We had some positives moving forward. And we’ve got some things that we can fix heading (to the playoffs).”.
