By Tony Boone, Senior Writer - Daily Nonpareil

Iowa Western showed enough promise Saturday at C.B. Stadium to give its fans plenty to be optimistic about in its inaugural football season. Yet, the Reivers made enough mistakes to cost themselves any chance to win their first-ever contest.

No. 20 Iowa Central had three long touchdown runs and turned a late first-half turnover into another score to top IWCC 42-28 in front of a first-game crowd estimated at 4,000. With the win, the Tritons claimed the Kinney Cup, a traveling trophy that will be awarded annually to the victor in the series.

“We made too many mistakes that we haven’t made throughout (camp),” Iowa Western coach Scott Strohmeier said. “We had a couple of costly turnovers and gave up too many big plays on defense. I guess you’ve got to improve from week one to week two. We’ve got some work to do.”

The Reivers were holding strong until two turnovers in the final six minutes of the second quarter turned the game around. With his team trailing 14-7, IWCC quarterback David Blackwell fumbled on a third-and-one play at the Triton 13, costing the Reivers a chance to tie before the break.

He was later intercepted inside Iowa Central territory with less than a minute to go in the half. Iowa Central returned the ball to the Reiver 24 to set up a touchdown pass two plays later to make it a 21-7 game.

Things got worse for IWCC a short time later. Wilmot Wellington scored on a 90-yard run on the first play from scrimmage after the intermission to put the Tritons up by three scores. He also had a 69-yard TD in the opening quarter and finished with 223 rushing yards on 22 carries.

“You take those big plays out of the picture and it’s a different ballgame,” Strohmeier said.
While Wellington’s numbers were impressive, they are a bit skewed. He only had four runs of 10 or more yards, and the Reiver defense actually stopped him for 2 yards or less on 13 occasions.

But IWCC missed tackles at times, and that cost them again on Darrelynn Dunn’s 41-yard TD in the third. The Tritons finished with 287 rushing yards, but 200 of those came on three plays.

“We knew exactly what they were going to do,” Reiver linebacker Chris Shelly said. “It was just poor execution. We fell apart as a defense. When adversity struck, we didn’t know how to handle it.”

In the fourth quarter reserve quarterback Dominique Corder rallied IWCC with two late scores. The freshman scored the first touchdown in Reiver history on a 7-yard run out of the Wildcat formation in the first quarter before running and throwing for TDs in the fourth.

Blackwell racked up 128 rushing yards and tailback Kevis Streeter had 129 as Iowa Western piled up 304 yards on the ground. The Reivers outgained the Tritons 450-390 in the game, but couldn’t overcome their three turnovers, 13 penalties (which include seven offside calls) and numerous missed tackles.

Iowa Central (1-0) 6 15 21 0 – 42

Iowa Western (0-1) 7 0 6 14 – 28

IC: Wilmot Wellington 69 run (kick blocked)

IW: Dominique Corder 6 run (Kieffer Lietsch kick)

IC: Chayse Roth 1 run (Curtis Hubbell pass from Terrance Johnson)

IC: Dustin Walls 20 pass from Johnson (Edwin Arceo kick)

IC: Wellington 90 run (Arceo kick)

IW: Anthony Thompson 27 pass from David Blackwell (kick failed)

IC: Darrelynn Dunn 41 run (Arceo kick)

IC: Johnson 10 run (Arceo kick)

IW: Corder 7 run (Corder run)

IW: Kevis Streeter 37 pass from Corder (Lietsch kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: IW: Blackwell 23-129, Streeter 20-126, Corder 8-71, Goldsmith 3-1. IC, Wellington 22-223, Dunn 12-56, Johnson 6-13, Roth 4-11, Team 3-(-9), Peterson 1-6.

PASSING: IW, Blackwell 9-23-1 100, Corder 2-4-0 48. IC, Johnson 6-9-0 103, Team 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING: IW: Streeter 2-48, Thompson 2-32, Yates 2-25, Thayer 2-25, Sullivan 2-4, Kos 1-14. IC, Dustin Walls 2-25, Hubbell 1-29, Dunn 1-24, Ragsdale 1-17, Roth 1-7.