Metro Sports Report

Football prevues - Oct. 4

The sixth week of the prep football season features a pair of intra-city battles as Xavier hosts Washington and Kennedy squares off with Jefferson at Kingston Stadium.

Xavier has allowed only seven points all season. The Saints have shut out their last four opponents and the only score recorded against them came late in the fourth quarter of a 35-7 rout of Dubuque Hempstead in the season opener.

Washington worked a miracle in its last game, scoring two touchdowns in the final 61 seconds to beat Waterloo West, 28-27.

A victory against Xavier probably would qualify as another miracle and put the Warriors in line for sainthood.

In the Saints' 'hood? Not likely.

Warriors riding surge of amazing win

Cedar Rapids Washington quarterback Reid Snitker has watched the replays of last Friday's 28-27 victory over Waterloo West several times now.

It's an instant classic.

He throws a touchdown pass with 61 seconds left. The on-sides kick is successful. He throws another TD pass to the same guy with 15.5 seconds left.

Just like that, a hopeless 27-15 deficit becomes an incredible 28-27 victory.

Saints escape upset bid by Warriors

Even after dropping its second straight five-set match in a week, it was hard Tuesday night for Washington Coach Amy Faulkner to feel like it was a loss.

For one thing, her scrappy Warrior girls played highly ranked Xavier (No.7 in Class 4A) pretty much even-up right to the end on the Saints' home court.

“I can finally breathe now,” acknowledged Xavier Coach Krista Johnson afterward.

“It was back and forth, a roller coaster, up and down for both sides. Both teams played really hard. Neither team wanted to quit.

Petersen takes charge at Kirkwood

Bryan Petersen is technically the "interim" head coach of the Kirkwood men's basketball team, but there's no doubt who was in charge Tuesday when the Eagles began preseason drills at Johnson Hall.

Doug Wagemester stepped aside as the head coach after last season and Petersen, one of his assistants, was quickly named to lead the team this season.  Wagemester, the school's athletic director, will decide at some point whether he wants to coach the team again next year or not.

In the meantime, Petersen is running the club on his own, although Wagemester's office is just a few steps away if he wants any advice.

Petersen, 26, played for Wagemester at Kirkwood and was a starting point guard at Iowa State. He knows the system and was fully in charge Tuesday.