Metro Sports Report

Defense lifts Saints by Waverly

Out-of-sync on offense for most of the night, unbeaten Xavier had to depend on its defense to escape with a 14-7 opening-round playoff win over Waverly-Shell Rock on Wednesday night at Saints Field.

It wasn’t pretty. The Class 3A fourth-ranked Saints racked up 13 penalties, 11 of them for false starts.

“We had so many penalties, it just took away our rhythm,” moaned Xavier coach Duane Schulte. “Penalties just killed us.”

The defense saved them, though.

The always-rugged Go-Hawks managed just 54 yards (all on the ground) in the first half, and their only first down came on their very first possession. They punted five straight times and then were intercepted by Bryce Charipar, a game-saver for the Saints all night.

Lovell wins regional diving title

Jayden Lovell of Cedar Rapids Kennedy won the regional diving title Thursday night at the Linn-Mar Aquatic Center.

Lovell finished with 390.60 points. Brookyn Corey of Linn-Mar placed second at 361.05 and Katie Culver of Linn-Mar was third at 360.15.

Lovell automatically qualified for the state diving meet on Friday, Nov. 6 at the Marshalltown YMCA.

The six regional champions from across the state, along with the next 24 divers with the best regional scores, will gather for the state meet.

Corey, Culver, Skylar Meyers of Jefferson and Amara Taylor Washington all qualified for the state meet.

No. 17 Kirkwood volleyball team rolls

MARSHALLTOWN - The 17th-ranked Kirkwood volleyball team cruised to a 25-8, 25-9, 25-16 victory over Marshalltown on Thursday night in Marshalltown.

Morgan Grimm collected 10 kills for Kirkwood and Erin Wenzel had seven. Halle Lueck finished with 24 assists. Madsy Richards had nine digs. Wenzel and Erica Armstrong blocked four shots.

Kirkwood raised its record to 25-14.

Kirkwood has drawn the No. 2 seed for the Region XI-B tournament and will host No. 7 Southwestern at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals.

Prairie falls short at IC West

IOWA CITY – In the opening moments, it was clear that the Prairie Hawks were facing an uphill battle in their Class 4A first-round playoff football game against Iowa City West Wednesday at Trojan Field.

Jalen Rima returned the opening kickoff 65 yards to the 34-yard line to put the Hawks in excellent field position to start the game. But a bad snap led to a sack of Prairie quarterback Tyler Nunemaker and gave the Trojans the ball.

West answered with a 67-yard touchdown pass from Alex Henderson to Dallas Majors to instantly take the lead. The Trojans went on to win 35-20 and end Prairie’s season.

“We all got super-pumped about that,” Prairie running back Trevor Northrup said of Rima’s return. “We all expect him to do something like that and when he does, it always gets us going. They came out just as hot, though. It was tough.”