WATERLOO - Cedar Rapids Xavier bounced back.

Waterloo West deflated, and in a hurry.

In other words, the Saints and Wahawks veered in very different directions Friday night at Waterloo Memorial Stadium.

Xavier regrouped after last week's loss to Cedar Rapids Washington and defeated the Wahawks, 40-14.

The Saints (6-1) gave the Wahawks (3-4) very little breathing room. They scored 16 points in a two-minute span late in the first quarter and never let West back in  the game. Facing an aggressive defense and bothered by mistakes ranging from high center snaps to interceptions, the Wahawks had a negative 17 yards and one  first down by the end of the opening half.

Xavier could exhale after putting the 26-10 loss to Washington in the rearview mirror.

"We challenged our kids to see what they were made of and see how they could respond to what happened last week," said Xavier head coach Duane Schulte.  "They had a good week of practice and came up there and did their job."

West, meanwhile, must pump itself back up. To make matters worse, starting quarterback/defensive back Alex Young suffered an injury in the third quarter and left the field on a cart for precautionary reasons.

"He wanted to get up and (medical personnel) wouldn't let him," said West head coach Lonnie Moore of Young.

As for his own team's play, Moore said things went south right from the opening kickoff.

"We made a lot of mistakes at the beginning with bad snaps and things," said the West coach. "Those came back to haunt us a little bit. I think the first two possessions were three-and-out."

Indeed, West's Edvin Kovacevic recovered a Xavier fumble to halt the first Saints threat of the night. After that, though, trouble struck in triphammer fashion late in the first quarter.

First, Xavier marched 72 yards in 14 plays with a mix of run and pass. Brendan Miller, on his way to 142 yards rushing, scored from two yards out at the 3:05 mark of the period, and the Saints went on top for good.

On West's very next play, a bad snap got knocked away from Young, and Andrew Khairallah recovered at the Wahawk 18. Miller tallied on a 4-yard run, and it was 14-0 at the 2:04 mark.

Young, who was sacked four times in the first half alone, went down in his own end zone 57 seconds after Miller scored. And it was 16-0.

From there, Xavier tacked on a Quinton Scholer quarterback sneak to finish a 13-play drive and Ryan Persick kicked a 37-yard field goal to set the halftime score at 26-0.

West, meanwhile, couldn't generate a consistent offense when the game was relatively close.

"They got a good defense, and we didn't execute like we needed to execute to be successful," said Moore. "Then we put ourselves in some bad positions."

Said Schulte, "We just tried to execute and do our jobs, and tonight we did."

West finally got going late when Dunn raced 35 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Dylan Draeger, pressed into service when Young and backup Mitchell Paeper left the game with injuries, ran 16 yards for the final score.

It wasn't enough, and West must now regroup for Dubuque Wahlert.

"We just have to move to the next game," said Moore. "We got to go watch film, figure out some things we've got to get better at. I know this team will. They've done it all season."

XAVIER 40, WATERLOO WEST 14

CRX    WW

First downs        19            8
Rushes-yards   49-254      31-(-7)
Passing yards    140           52
Return yards     50            21
Passes          12-20-1     4-14-1
Punts-avg.      1-44       6-34.3
Fumbles-lost    3-3          3-2
Penalties-yds.  7-70       2-22

Xavier                16  10  14   0 - 40
Waterloo West     0   0    0  14 - 14

CRX - Brendan Miller 2 run (Ryan Persick kick)
CRX -  Miller 4 run (Persick kick)
CRX - Safety, Young tackled in end zone
CRX - Quinton Scholer 1 run (Persick kick)
CRX - FG Persick 37
CRX - Matt Nelson 3 pass from Bryce Schulte (Persick kick)
CRX - Miller 2 run (Persick kick)
WW - Lance Dunn 35 run (Nevzad Osmancevic kick)
WW - Dylan Draeger 16 run (Osmancevic kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing
XAVIER - Miller 24-142, Scholer 7-41, Bryton Hayes 1-6, Jay Kortemeyer 1-0,  Sam Tursi 1-minus 1, Schulte 2-31, Dylan Eller 2-0, Christopher Ball 10-29, Ryan Williams 2-8, Team 1-minus 2.
WEST - Dunn 10-38, Alex Young 10-minus 47, Mitchell Paeper 2-minus 3, Draeger 6-37, Team 3-minus 32.

Passing
XAVIER - Scholer 9-14-0, 80 yards. Tursi 0-1-1, Schulte 3-4-0, 60 yards
WEST - Young 2-7-1, 36 yards. Draeger 2-7-0, 16 yards

Receiving
XAVIER - Wesley Gardner 3-17, Frank Hill 1-2, Hunter Baldus 1-16, Bryce Grimm 2-37, Nic Ekland 1-3, Miller 1-27, Nelson 2-11, Joe Welch 1-27.
WEST - Dunn 1-31, Christian Burt 1-5, Lincoln Conrey 1-8, Trey Burt 1-8.