Metro Sports Report

No.1 Saints slay No.5 Assumption

DAVENPORT - The top-ranked Xavier Saints collected their first victory as a Class 3A football team Thursday night by pounding No.5 Davenport Assumption, 30-6, in a non-district game at the Brady Street Stadium in Davenport.

Jay Kortemeyer carried the ball 27 times for 184 yards as the Saints (1-1) rolled up 300 yards on the ground. The Xavier defense limited Assumption (0-2) to four first downs and just 107 yards of total offense.

Xavier quarterback Bryce Schulte scored on three short runs of 4, 1 and 4 yards. Dallas Klein kicked three field goals of 22, 24 and 21 yards and also was 3-for-3 on PATs.

Sean Murphy ran six times for 55 yards and Nic Ekland carried the ball six times for 52 yards for Xavier. The Saints ran the ball 60 times and threw it only seven times in the ballgame. Schulte hit 4 of 6 passes for 53 yards and no interceptions.

Xavier hosts No.3 Solon next Friday night.

Kernels nip Bees, knot series 1-1

BURLINGTON - The Cedar Rapids Kernels lived to play another day in the Midwest League playoffs by edging the Burlington Bees, 2-1,Thursday night before 526 fans at Community Field in Burlington.

The best-of-3 series is tied, 1-1, with the decisive third game scheduled for Burlington Friday night.

Logan Wade socked a solo home run in the eighth inning to snap a 1-1 tie and give Cedar Rapids the decisive run.

Burlington put runners on first and third with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Cedar Rapids relief ace Jake Reed got a strikeout and 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

Burlington ace Sean Newcomb was the starting pitcher with top-prospect pedigree as the Los Angeles Angels’ No.1 pick in this year’s draft, but it was Kernels lefty Mat Batts who won the duel and kept his team alive in the postseason.

4 Metro football games on tap

High school football fans will have four games to choose from tonight in the Metro area in Week 2 of the regular season.

Jefferson hosts Prairie at Kingston Stadium, Linn-Mar hosts Pleasant Valley, Marion entertains Washington (Iowa) at Thomas Park Field and Cedar Valley Christian hosts Clarksville at the LaSalle Middle School field.

PRAIRIE (0-1) at JEFFERSON (0-1)

Kingston Stadium, 7:15 p.m. 
KGYM 1600 AM/107.5 FM

Jesse Furrow passed for 187 yards and ran for 51 yards in his debut as the new Jefferson quarterback last week in a 43-26 loss to No.3 Washington.

Furrow, a transfer from Indiana, hit 9 of 23 passes with one interception. Manny Olutunde scored on a 98-yard kickoff return for Jefferson and caught a 50-yard pass. Tavian Rashed ran for two TDs for the J-Hawks.

Mason Furnish caught three passes for 75 yards for Jefferson. Mason Short had one grab for 62 yards.

Trey Beckman completed 17 of 30 passes for 186 yards and two interceptions for Prairie last week in a 35-9 loss to Linn-Mar.

Atwater switches to defense for Coe

Linn-Mar graduate Mark Atwater, the backup quarterback the past two years at Coe, has switched to being part of the defensive team as a linebacker this season.

Atwater suffered from a concussion his freshman year and tore the PCL ligament in his knee as a sophomore. He is back in good health, but said he made the switch to defense partially because of his injury problems.

“I wanted to play as much as I could,” he said.

Atwater's first chance to play defense for the Kohawks will come Saturday in their season opener at Wheaton College.

Atwater, a  physical education major, loves football and wants to make it his career after his playing days are done. “(I want to) get in the coaching world and basically see how high I can get and hopefully be a D1 coach some day,” he said.