Tavian Patrick glanced behind him a couple of times on his 73-yard touchdown scamper in the first quarter Friday night to see if anyone was gaining on him.

Nobody ever did.

Patrick scooted for 212 yards on only 12 carries as top-ranked Washington defeated Muscatine, 42-21, in the Class 4A district opener at Kingston Stadium.

Patrick, a 5-foot-8, 160-pound junior with dancing feet, also broke loose on a 76-yard run in the third quarter before being hemmed in at the 9-yard line, leading to another Washington touchdown.

Patrick owns 11.5 speed in the 100-meter dash, but he wasn't sure if anyone from Muscatine was going to catch him on his 73-yard touchdown that began the scoring.

"I was running out of gas," he said. "I just wanted to get in the end zone."

The Warriors (5-0) got into the end zone six times, in a variety of ways.

Johnny Dobbs scored on a 3-yard run for a 14-7 lead in the second quarter, then smash-mouth linebacker Connor Vincent ripped the ball away from a Muscatine ballcarrier and tallied on an 18-yard fumble return as Washington grabbed a 21-7 edge at intermission.

Landen Akers wrestled a pass away from a Muscatine defender for a 19-yard touchdown from Reid Snitker, then Snitker found Anthony Rodriguez-Bleakley for a 10-yard TD in the fourth stanza.

Caleb Smothers finished the scoring for Washington when he broke loose for a 29-yard touchdown run in the fourth period.

Patrick has rushed for 589 yards on just 48 carries this season for a robust average of 12.3 yards every time he carries the ball. Washington Coach Paul James said Patrick does not have true "breakaway" speed, but he's fast enough.

"He's got the quick feet and he can juke them at the line and he can bust into the open, and lots of times he can break it away," said James. "He does a nice job of reading his holes, and of course the linemen up front creating them."

The Warriors have an offensive line that features 275-pound Julian Good-Jones, 275-pound Royal Silver and 315-pound Aries Davis, along with 215-pound center Max Podgorski and 218-pound Tyler Erb, among others.

"The O-Line told me they were going to make holes," said Patrick after his 212-yard performance. "I hit the holes and I guess that's what happens.

"They make big holes and you just have to get through them. Wait for them, sometimes."

Washington rolled up 357 yards on the ground and averaged nearly nine yards per try. James wanted to pass more often, but the passing was not clicking at the start as Snitker missed his first six throws.

"We had trouble hooking up and we said, 'You know what? We're just going to play a little smash-mouth,'" said James. "They knew it and we were still pretty effective with it."

The Warriors also played a little smash-mouth on defense, with Vincent leading the way at linebacker. The Warriors had two superb goal-line stands and held Muscatine (3-2, 0-1) to just 30 yards on the ground.

Snitker lost three fumbles and completed only 3 of 12 passes for 41 yards, but two of the completions went for touchdowns.

Muscatine quarterback Matt Weiskamp passed for 215 yards, but he completed only 13 of 32 passes and had three interceptions. Several of his best throws were dropped by open receivers.

Snitker, Patrick and Alex Herzog intercepted passes for the Warriors. Patrick nearly had two more interceptions, but one of them was ruled out-of-bounds and the other was negated by a pass interference penalty.

Patrick is a two-way player for Washington, just like many other Warriors.

"I like offense, but I like winning," he said after playing on both sides of the ball. "Whatever helps the team win, I like doing."

Washington moved into the No. 1 spot in Class 4A this week and survived to enjoy it.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game because we have a target on our backs," said Patrick. "We played as hard as we could. The O-Line was making holes. We ran through them and made plays.

"I feel good, sore, everything," he said. "I'm super-happy that we won. Five-and-0 now. On to the next week."

Washington hosts Ottumwa next Friday night at Kingston.

Patrick said the Warriors are not focused on where they stand in the polls. The Register has them No. 1 and other media outlets have them No. 2 in the state.

"We're not really worried about that," he said. "We're just playing week-by-week, play-by-play to see what we can do."

 

Washington 42, Muscatine 21

 

Musky        CRW

First downs 11   12

Rushes-yards 41-30        41-357

Passing yards        215 41

Comp-Att-Int 13-33-3      3-14-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-3

Punts-avg. 4-41.5       5-38.2

Penalties-yards      6-45 9-73

 

Muscatine 0   7   7   7 - 21

Washington      7  14   7  14 - 42

 

Scoring plays

 

CRW - Tavian Patrick 73 run (Gunnar Lenzen kick)

MUS - Matt Weiskamp 7 run (Tyler Yates kick)

CRW - Johnny Dobbs 3 run (Lenzen kick)

CRW - Connor Vincent 18 fumble return (Lenzen kick)

CRW - Landen Akers 19 pass from Reid Snitker (Lenzen kick)

MUS - Garrett Roberson 1 pass from Weiskamp (Yates kick)

CRW - Anthony Rodriguez-Bleakley 10 pass from Snitker (Lenzen kick)

MUS - Davonte Ellis 3 run (Yates kick)

CRW - Caleb Smothers 29 run (Lenzen kick)

 

Individual Statistics

 

Rushing

Muscatine - Ellis 14-30, Weiskamp 16-23, Johnson 7-minus 12, Schroeder 1-minus 7, Beatty 1-4, Team 2-minus 8.

Washington - Patrick 12-212, Dobbs 12-48, Vincent 2-22, Smothers 6-55, Akers 1-29, Nimmers 1-5, Snitker 4-minus 11, Team 3-minus 3.

 

Passing

Muscatine - Weiskamp 13-32-3, 215 yards;, Sloan 0-1-0, 0 yards.

Washington - Snitker 3-12-0, 41 yards; Vogel 0-2-0, 0 yards.

 

Receiving

Muscatine - Beatty 6-105, Smith 2-61, Roberson 2-11, Reed 2-32, Johnson 1-6.

Washington - Akers 2-31, Rodriguez-Bleakley 1-10.

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