1 week Ago By BY TIM O’NEILL [email protected]
This one was personal. It also had a little more on the line. Tate Schope ran for two early touchdowns, Michael Borman caught a TD pass and ran for another, and Tom Scherr scored twice on special teams as Iowa Class 3A No.
1-ranked Dubuque Wahlert clinched the District 3 championship with a 63-6 demolition of DeWitt Central on Friday at the Rock Bowl. Wahlert was in contention for a playoff berth last season until a 28-17 loss to DeWitt in Week 8 threw those plans of course. That loss eventually kept the Eagles out of the postseason and prevented them from making consecutive trips to the UNI-Dome after reaching the Class 2A state semifinals in 2022.
“We came into it knowing we left (last year) in tears, our playoff dreams were over,” Scherr said. “It was definitely a little personal walking onto the field at the beginning (tonight). Getting this win is big.
” The Golden Eagles improved to 8-0 overall and 4-0 in district play. They can wrap up their first undefeated regular season in recent memory next week at Maquoketa. Wahlert hasn’t won more than nine games in a season since at least 2007 and probably longer.
“Honestly, I don’t know and I refuse to go look,” Marshall said with a laugh when asked about the historical significance. The Eagles wasted little time putting the Sabers (1-7, 0-4) away on Friday. Schope capped a seven-play, 90-yard drive with a 29-yard touchdown run to the give Wahlert a 7-0 lead on its first possession.
The Eagles then partially blocked a punt and Scherr caught it in the air at the DeWitt 39-yard line and returned it for a 14-0 lead with 3:47 left in the first quarter. Bormann forced a fumble and Brody Schumacher recovered it at the Sabers’ 13 to put the Eagles in prime position to score again, but they fumbled a lateral on the next snap to give the ball back. The Sabers capitalized and drove 92 yards, trimming Wahlert’s lead to eight on Hudson Krukow’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Max Burgmeier.
Matthew Bodnar blocked the extra-point attempt. Scherr returned the ensuing kickoff 42 yards to the DeWitt 43, and Schope scored his second touchdown of the night from 1 yard out six plays later. Bormann broke off a 47-yard TD run for a 28-6 lead with 3:55 left in the first half, then scampered 51 yards on a short pass from Drew Reilly to push the lead to 35-6 less than 2 minutes later.
“Last year, that was the worst game we ever played,” Schope said. “It felt good to go out and just destroy them.” Bormann finished with 79 rushing yards on six carries and didn’t touch the ball after halftime.
Schope added 61 rushing yards on six attempts as the Eagles ran for 235 yards as a team. “We knew coming into this that it was going to be a big fight and we had to beat these guys,” Bormann said. Scherr initiated the running clock, returning the second-half kickoff 88 yards for his second special teams touchdown of the night.
Schope came down with an interception on the next play and JP Elbert threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Anderson Herbst to extend the lead to 43, Will Welbes scored on a 6-yard run with 5:27 left in the third and Elbert threw a 14-yard TD pass to Merrick Wahlert with 6:21 to play. “It’s the complete opposite end of the spectrum from last year to this yearm,” Wahlert coach Jamie Marshall said. “District championship, clinched a spot in the playoffs, complete opposite feeling from last year at this time.
”.
