Metro Sports Report

Cascade tops Marion in final seconds

Cascade quarterback John Larkin found Trace Hoffman with a 16-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left in the game Friday night to give the Cougars a 29-26 victory over Marion at Thomas Park.

Marion grabbed a 26-23 lead in the fourth quarter on a 7-yard run by Gage Kray, but Cascade rebounded and handed the Indians their 11th straight loss dating back to last season.

Tony Perkins returned to the sidelines for Marion (0-3) after serving a one-game suspension last week. He still needs one victory to tie Les Hipple for the most in school history at 105.

Kory Walsh carried the ball 21 times for 210 yards for Marion and scored twice on runs of 5 and 55 yards, but it wasn't quite enough.

Cedar Valley blanked by Central City

The Cedar Valley Christian football team had trouble moving the ball on offense Friday night and lost to Central City, 42-0, in an 8-Player game at the LaSalle Middle School field.

Cedar Valley (1-2) trailed 30-0 at halftime.

Apollo Betsworth made 17 tackles for the Huskies and Travis Geels made 16 stops.

Betsworth carried the ball eight times for 31 yards and caught four passes for 24 yards.

Cedar Valley quarterbacks Cole Telecky and Geels combined to hit 8 of 25 passes for 61 yards and two interceptions.

Kernels oust Bandits, eye Peoria next

DAVENPORT - It’s a cliché, but sometimes it really is the little things that win ballgames at playoff time.

That was the case again Thursday night as the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Quad Cities River Bandits could not finish their game in regulation, needing 11 innings before the Kernels finally topped the Bandits, 3-1, before a crowd of 1,555 at Modern Woodman Park.

Chris Paul delivered a two-run single in the 11th inning for the Kernels and finished the game with three hits and all three of his team's RBIs.

With the win, the Kernels claimed the first-round playoff series two games to none and advance to face Peoria in the Midwest League’s Western Division Championship series.

The Kernels will open the best-of-3 series at 6 p.m. Saturday at Peoria, The second game will be played at at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, with Game 3 (if necessary) at 6:35 p.m. Monday in Cedar Rapids.

VanDraska leads Prairie to title

Tysen VanDraska was sorely disappointed when he finished seventh at the Class 4A state cross country meet last fall.

"I kind of choked a little bit," he claimed Thursday.

He does not plan to let it happen again.

VanDraska captured top honors and led Cedar Rapids Prairie to the team championship Thursday at the annual Cedar Rapids Invitational at Noelridge Park.

VanDraska won the 5K outing in 16 minutes, 7.68 seconds, edging Brandon Cooley of Bettendorf by 1.5 seconds in a tight race throughout. Prairie ran away with the team championship with 31 points with Jake Moore finishing fourth, Chris Oehlert sixth and Cam Steffens seventh.

VanDraska may have been a little harsh on himself by claiming he "choked a little bit" at the state meet, but he's always set high standards for himself as a distance runner.