For most of Iowa's commits -- those in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri -- this week marked the end of their regular season. Several commits helped their teams finish off perfect regular seasons and look poised for a deep run towards a state championship. Another commit helped his team win a game late to earn a playoff berth. Elsewhere, a commit experienced an early injury, putting his status for the playoffs in doubt.
Here's how Iowa's commits did in week 9:
Player of the Week
Terrence Smith hasn't had the most ideal senior season. He missed three weeks in the middle of the season, and West Aurora typically destroys its opponents, so there's not much need to throw the ball late in games.
On Friday, though, Smith had maybe his best game of the season. In the game, he had three receptions for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Smith opened the game with a 46-yard reception. In the second quarter, he made three guys miss in route to a 27-yard touchdown. Then he concluded his night with a 12-yard touchdown reception.
Smith's big night helped West Aurora defeat Streamwood 56-0 and moved the Blackhawks to 9-0.
Iowa's Other Commits
Bishops destroyed Orange Glen 70-0. Herrera was 6-of-9 passing for 168 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first quarter. He was pulled after that because the game was out of reach.
The Jekyll and Hyde season continues for Iowa City West. One week after a huge win over Pleasant Valley, West was shut out in the first half and fell to 4-5 Cedar Rapids Prairie 28-21.
A big reason for the loss was that Woods missed most of the game with an injury. Woods didn't record any stats in the part of the game he did play. We'll see if he's able to make it back for West's playoff game.
Clear Lake got back in the win column with a 56-0 defeat of Charles City. Offensively, Meyer had three receptions for 64 yards and a touchdown. On defense, he had 2.5 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss.
Sycamore finished off a 9-0 regular season with a 52-14 victory over 7-2 Cahokia. Offensively, Gautcher had a big night passing. He connected for touchdown passes of 27 and 49 yards, and finished with 204 passing yards. He also ran for a one-yard touchdown.
On defense, the Spartans stymied a good Cahokia offense. Cahokia came into the game averaging 250 yards per game passing, but had just 204 yards total thanks to Gautcher and the Sycamore defense. Cahokia didn't score until Sycamore had built a 31-0 lead.
Highlights from the game are here.
MacPherson and Loyola won their conference title, easily defeating Mount Carmel 31-7. MacPherson played a big part in the victory, scoring on touchdown runs of 14 and five yards. The 14-yarder is in the tweet above.
Overall, MacPherson rushed 19 times for 86 yards and the two scores and also caught three passes for 75 yards.
Oswego also finished off a perfect 9-0 regular season with a 23-7 victory over rival Oswego East. Cooney and the Oswego defense have been a huge reason for the team's success. In the regular season, they surrendered just four touchdowns and seven points per game. That defense was stout as ever on Friday, surrendering just 134 total yards of offense.
In the final game of the regular season, Nielsen and Waterloo West played a de-facto play-in game against Ottumwa. The winner would make the playoffs. The loser would stay home.
The game lived up to the moment. Waterloo West led 14-7 at halftime, but the game was tied at 21 in the closing moments. Then, with 25 seconds left, West quarterback Brady Dean hit receiver Deztin McMurrin for a 44-yard touchdown pass to seal the victory and the playoff berth.
The Woodlands rolled again, this time with a 52-0 victory over New Caney. Starzyk was perfect on his extra points, but one of two on field goal attempts. He missed from 49-yards, but hit a 24-yarder later.
Edwardsville fell to DeSmet Jesuit in its regular season finale 42-19. DeSmet led 28-7 at halftime, before Edwardsville fought back to make the game 28-19. DeSmet scored twice from there to retake control of the game.
Pleasant Valley rebounded from last week's loss with a 35-21 victory over Linn-Mar. Highlights from the game are here.
Marist moved to 8-1 with a 34-0 victory over Niles Notre Dame. Fitzgibbon helped the Marist defense pitch a shutout.
MICDS beat Mexico (high school) 45-7.
Bell and St. Thomas More fell to The Hun School 38-18.
Sullivan and Carroll were off this week. They return to action next week in the first round of the playoffs.
River Falls finished the year 3-6 and did not make the playoffs.
Johnson's season stats: 40 receptions, 579 yards, 6 touchdowns, 43 tackles, 4.5 sacks
