IOWA CITY — It was a sport Iowa Metropolis West merely needed to have.
Sitting at No. 15 within the Class 5A RPI rankings (the highest 16 qualify for postseason play), the Trojans wanted a house victory Friday to spice up their playoff place earlier than going through two ranked opponents (No. 5 Nice Valley and No. 10 Cedar Rapids Prairie) to shut the common season.
West did what it wanted to do — after which some.
The Trojans (4-3) defeated Cedar Rapids Washington (1-6) in a 58-8 rout at Trojan Subject.
“There’s a lot parity within the state proper now,” Iowa Metropolis West Coach Garret Hartwig mentioned. “Any 5A workforce you play has good gamers, good coaches, so that you all the time get pleasure from one win at a time.
“We all know who we face subsequent week — they’re going to be good. It’s going to be an enormous problem. We simply need to put the work in and proceed to construct off of what we’ve completed the final couple weeks.”
Eight gamers contributed to a minimum of one landing for West.
Ashton Honore rushed for 2 and Izaiah Loveless caught two. Jack Wallace and Erik Caperon each threw for one, whereas Marquise Rose, Jacob Gilliam, Aaron Honore and Butali Butali all had speeding scores.
Butali had a formidable sport, main the Trojans in speeding yards with 214 on 17 carries.
“I didn’t count on to come back out right here and simply do all this, but it surely feels fairly good,” Butali mentioned. “I feel it was simply the grit and grind. I used to be simply making an attempt to get by and get all of the yards I can.”
Ashton Honore and Rose weren’t far behind Butali, working for 96 and 85 yards, respectively.
“It begins with our O-line,” Hartwig mentioned. “They’re a senior-laden group they usually’ve been by some ups and downs this 12 months, however they proceed to work.”
Evan Anderson obtained the Trojans on the board early, hitting a 24-yard discipline purpose with 7:39 left within the first quarter.
On West’s subsequent possession, Ashton Honore broke a number of tackles on his manner in for a 23-yard TD, capping a 10-play, 68-yard drive.
One play after Colin Whitters recovered a muffed snap at Washington’s 25, Wallace flipped the ball to Caperon who tossed it to a wide-open Loveless ultimately zone, giving West a 16-0 lead.
Loveless struck once more shortly after, hauling in a 49-yard TD go from Wallace.
“Jack is absolutely good — he has an actual grasp of what we’re doing,” Hartwig mentioned. “Establishing the run sport makes the go sport so much simpler, so we’re in a position to take our photographs after they’re accessible.”
Rose added a 12-yard rating to provide West a 30-0 lead with 4:59 remaining within the second.
The Warriors saved preventing as Grady McGuire led the offense down the sphere and located Montarious Beard for a 9-yard rating, capping a 5-play, 61-yard drive.
West led 30-8 at intermission.
Ashton Honore added his second rating of the sport on the Trojans’ opening second-half drive. Butali then punched in a 2-yard TD to cap his spectacular day.
Jacob Gilliam and Aaron Honore each added late scores.
West rushed for 469 yards and held the Warriors to a adverse speeding whole.
The Trojans will journey to No. 5 Nice Valley subsequent week.
“We actually have the potential to convey it up offensively,” Butali mentioned. “I feel that our workforce can preserve mentioning the trouble and for these subsequent two video games we are able to present our actual offensive expertise. We will present PV and Prairie what we’re all about.”