The Xavier Saints continued their undefeated season by downing Waterloo West, 49-14, in a homecoming victory Friday night in a Mississippi Valley Conference football game.

Reggie Schulte threw three touchdown passes and Nick Steingreaber ran for 107 yards and three touchdowns, one on a kickoff return, to lead Xavier.

The fourth-ranked Saints (7-0, 4-0) got off to a shaky start, however, before buckling down.

The Xavier defense stopped West’s initial drive on a three-and-out, but the Saints promptly fumbled the ball away on their own 33-yard line on their first offensive play from scrimmage.

West turned the turnover into points on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Alex Young to Michael Price. Skyler Capelle made the extra point and less than four minutes into the game the Saints trailed, 7-0.

Steingreaber returned the ensuing kickoff 68 yards for a Saints touchdown and Ryan Persick added the extra point to tie, 7-7, and the Saints were on their way.

Three second-quarter touchdowns put the game away. A 2-yard touchdown pass from Schulte to tight end Matt Nelson, a 3-yard touchdown run by Steingreaber and a 20-yard touchdown pass from Schulte to Corbin Woods made it a 28-7 halftime lead.

The Xavier offensive line of Seth Fahnle, Paul Cavin, Ben Helms, Tristen Scallon, Cole Turner and Nelson executed to perfection.

Steingreaber finished with 107 yards on 10 carries and scored three touchdowns. Brendan Miller had 91 yards on 12 carries.

“The line made huge holes for us on every play, all night long,” said Steingreaber. “Coach (Duane Schulte) tells us to be ready and tonight when I went in, I was ready.”

Schulte completed 12 of 20 passes for 147 yards and three touchdowns as the offense had its way with the Waterloo defense. Woods caught seven of those passes for 111 yards.

“We can always get better, but we executed well tonight,” said Schulte. “We fought through a little adversity early, but we bounced right back.”

Waterloo’s Dequayvious Martin struck on an 88-yard touchdown run in the second half, but West (2-5, 2-2) had only 195 yards of total offense.

Xavier had 241 yards rushing and 147 yards passing for 388 total yards.

“I was a little surprised by our margin of victory tonight,” said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte. “This Waterloo team is a very good team and they have played a lot of good schools in some very close games, but we seemed to execute well and take care of business."

The Saints travel to Cedar Falls next Friday and take on the undefeated Tigers in the UNI-Dome.

“It never gets any easier in this conference,” Coach Schulte lamented.

XAVIER 49, WATERLOO WEST 14

WW        CRX

First Downs         4         17
Rushing                24-140    30-241
Passing yards       55          147
Fumbles/Lost        1/0       1/1

Waterloo West     7     0      7    0 - 14
Xavier                  7     21    21   0 - 49

WW - Price 24 pass from Young (Capelle kick)
X - Steingreaber 68 kickoff return (Persick kick)
X - Nelson 2 pass from Schulte (Persick kick)
X - Steingreaber 3 run (Persick kick)
X - Woods 20 pass from Schulte (Persick kick)
X - Steingreaber 29 run (Persick kick)
WW - Martin 88 run (Capelle kick)
X - Woods 20 pass from Schulte (Persick kick)
X - Krouse 3 run (Persick kick)

RUSHING
Waterloo West: Martin 11-134, Young 7-11, Williams 2-4, Draeger 2-11, Dunn 2-2.
Xavier: Miller 12-91, Steingreaber 10-107, Schulte 2-8, Gardner 2-27, Krouse 2-4, Hammerberg 2-4.

PASSING
Waterloo West: Young 4-9, 39 yards; Draeger 2-2, 16 yards.
Xavier: Schulte 12-20, 147 yards.

RECEIVING
Waterloo West: Showalter 2-9, Price 1-24, Martin 1-3, Dunn 1-3, Jones 1-13
Xavier: Woods 7-111, Grimm 3-23, Mullen 1-4, Nelson 1-2