The Go-Hawks of Waverly-Shell Rock found out right away Monday night that they had nowhere to go against Xavier’s stout defense.

They were held to one first down and forced into quick punts the first four times they had the ball in a second round Class 3A playoff game on the Saints’ rain-soaked field.

Xavier, meanwhile, had a missed field goal and three touchdowns to show for its first four possessions.

With a 21-0 cushion barely into the second quarter, the Saints (8-3) soared 33-20 and advanced to the quarterfinals Friday night at home against West Delaware.

“We knew they had a good running game,” said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte. “So the first thing you want to do is stop the run. And we did that, for the most part, by playing some sound fundamental football.”

For the game, the G-Hawks managed just 78 yards rushing on 32 carries.

“We were just flying to the ball and making gang tackles,” said Saints linebacker Thomas Ickes.

With no room to run, Class 3A fourth-ranked Waverly–Shell Rock (8-3) pretty much abandoned its ground game and went to the air the rest of the way. That suited Schulte just fine.

“We wanted to get them to start throwing the ball, even though their quarterback (Jake Velky) is a great athlete," said Schulte. “He made a couple of big plays. But by then we had a big lead.”

The 10th-ranked Saints relied on the tried-and-true formula of using their rugged offensive line to open huge holes for their running backs. And once the runners saw daylight they made the most of it.

Senior tailback Jay Kortemeyer racked up 109 yards on 21 carries before getting dinged early in the third quarter and sitting out the rest of the game. His trusty understudy, junior Sean Murphy, logged 16 second-half rushes for 112 yards.

“Obviously,” said Schulte, “we want to establish the run game and just keep getting first downs.”

While they gained 272 yards on the ground, the Saints also piled up an uncharacteristic 154 yards in passes with sophomore quarterback Bryce Schulte connecting on seven of nine throws.

Two of them went for touchdowns to fullback Nic Ekland, but he also tossed bombs of 52 and 45 yards to junior scatback Nick Stark.

“I think Bryce had a pretty good game," said his coach and father. "But we’ll have to look at the film. As Ronald Reagan used to say, ‘Trust but verify.’"

With his team in a deep 21-0 hole before they even knew what hit them, strong-armed lefty quarterback Velky did all he could to make a game of it.

He passed the Go-Hawks 80 yards down the field for their first score and continued to fling the ball all over the gridiron. Twice he backpaddled and scrambled at least 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage before unloading long across-the-field tosses that led to touchdowns.

He passed for 218 yards with 19 completions out of 39 attempts and a pair of touchdowns.

“He looked like Fran Tarkenton out there,” said Coach Schulte, alluding to a former NFL star.

Unfortunately for the Go-Hawks, Velky’s heroics were too little too late.

XAVIER 33, WAVERLY -- SHELL ROCK  20

WSR XAV

First downs            19 14
Rushes-yards 32-78 45-272
Passing yards 218 154
Comp-att-int 19-39-1 7-9-0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Punts-avg. 5-30 3-34
Penalties-yards 3-30 5-40

Waverly – Shell Rock 0 7 7 6 – 20
Xavier 14 10 9 0 -- 33

Scoring plays

XAV – Jay Kortemeyer 5 run (Dallas Klein kick)
XAV – Nic Ekland 8 pass from Bryce Schulte (Klein kick)
XAV – Ekland 21 pass from Schulte (Klein kick)
WSR – Joey McNally 7 pass from Jake Velky (Alex Denton kick)
XAV – Klein 30 field goal
XAV – Sean Murphy 15 run (Kick failed)
WSR – Drew Ragsdale 1 run (Denton kick)
WSR – Ryan Sprain 21 pass from Velky (Pass failed)

Individual statistics

Rushing

Waverly – Shell Rock  – Ryan Sprain 11-28.
Xavier  –  Jay Kortemeyer 21-109, Sean Murphy 16-112.

Passing

Waverly – Shell Rock  – Jake Velky 19-39-218-1.
Xavier – Bryce Schulte 7-9-154-0.

Receiving

Waverly – Shell Rock  – Peter Bates 5-63, Alex Robson 7-78.
Xavier  – Nick Stark 2-97, Nic Ekland 2-29, Noah Clasen 1-28.