IOWA CITY – Xavier senior kicker Dallas Klein seemed an unlikely hero with his team trailing Iowa City Regina by 28 points at halftime.

That’s what happened, though, as the undefeated Saints launched a stunning comeback in the second half to defeat Regina, 38-35, Friday before a packed house at Regina.

Klein made a 35-yard field goal as time expired to hand Regina just its second defeat in the last 78 games.

“The guys have a lot of heart, so we always knew that we were still in it,” Klein said. “We just wanted to come out here and get back in it play by play and see if we could chip away at it.”

Senior Blake Whitten helped set up the game-winning field goal by intercepting a pass thrown by Regina quarterback Nathan Stenger deep in Xavier territory and returning it to the Xavier 42-yard line.

The Saints gained 13 yards on first down on a pass from quarterback Bryce Schulte to receiver Nick Stark. Senior Sean Murphy put Xavier in field-goal range with a 27-yard run to the Regina 18.

Klein then split the uprights to complete the improbable comeback.

“The coaches just challenged us to play Xavier football and just go out there and play as well as we can and see what happens,” Klein said.

To say that Regina controlled the first half would be an understatement. The top-ranked team in Class 1A rushed for 300 yards in the first half, while holding Xavier to just 118 total yards.

Regina (7-1) scored four consecutive touchdowns, including three by senior running back Nick Phillips during a stretch from late in the first quarter to late in the second quarter. The shifty Phillips rushed for 211 yards, but only 13 of his yards came in the second half when the Saints started playing what coach Duane Schulte described as Xavier football.

“They didn’t play like Xavier football players in the first half,” Schulte said of his team, which improved to 7-0. “And that’s all we told them at halftime: Do your job and play like Xavier football players.

“We’ve got six former players on our staff and those guys know what it’s like to be a Xavier football player. These young guys are incredible to have around us. And they did a great job of coaching this week and coaching tonight.”

Xavier took the opening kick of the third quarter and drove 69 yards on 12 plays for a touchdown, which came on a 1-yard plunge by Bryce Schulte. Maliki Wilson carried eight times on the drive, gaining 49 of his 165 rushing yards.

“Every possession was critical,” coach Schulte said. “You had to make things up. It was kind of like a basketball game where you’re down by 20 or 25 (points). You just tell your team to pick away, shorten it up, you’re not going to make it all up in one swoop.”

Regina was forced punt on its next two possessions, and after the second punt the Saints took over at their own 32 with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the third quarter. It took Xavier only seven plays to score its second touchdown of the third quarter, which came on a 17-yard run by Wilson with 1:11 left in the stanza. Klein converted the PAT, cutting Regina’s lead to 35-21.

The Saints put together another long scoring drive in the fourth quarter that was capped by Bryce Schulte’s 16-yard touchdown run with 5:15 left to play.

Regina was forced to punt again from its own territory after sputtering on offense. Murphy returned the punt to the Regina 33. It took the Saints only three plays to score this time as Schulte tallied on a 17-yard run with 3:20 remaining. He also had a 15-yard run on second down.

Klein converted his fifth consecutive PAT, evening the score at 35-35.

Regina drove into Xavier territory, but the drive ended when Whitten intercepted Stenger’s pass and returned it to near midfield. Whitten also scored Xavier’s only touchdown in the first half on a 31-yard pass from Schulte with 6:56 left in the first quarter.

The Saints finished with 337 rushing yards after gaining just 79 in the first half.

“Xavier is a great football team,” Regina coach Marv Cook said. “Our kids gave it everything they have and played their hearts out. I made some mistakes in the second half with play calling and we had a couple opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of them.

“But hats off to Xavier. They finished it out and closed it out. It’s just football.”

Murphy called it the greatest comeback in his career.

“We didn’t come out ready to play at all,” he said. “Give credit to Regina, they had a great game plan and they’re unbelievably well-coached. They came out to play and we didn’t.

“In the second half, we wanted it. We just came out and got the job done in the end. It was incredible.”

Regina defeated Xavier 21-7 last season in the first-ever meeting between the two Catholic powers.

XAVIER 38, IOWA CITY REGINA 35

.                           CRX           ICR

First downs               24              17

Rushes-yards      55-337         49-350

Passing yards            62             104

Comp-Att-Int       5-14-2          4-17-1

Fumbles-lost            1-0              0-0

Punts-avg.          2-35.0          3-32.3

Penalties-yards       3-45             7-65

Xavier     7   0 14 17 - 38

Regina  14 21   0   0 - 35

Scoring plays

ICR - Nathan Stenger 23 run (Emilio Tovar kick)

CRX - Blake Whitten 31 pass from Bryce Schulte (Dallas Klein kick)

ICR - Stenger 1 run (Tovar kick)

ICR - Nick Phillips 25 run (Tovar kick)

ICR - Phillips 44 run (Tovar kick)

ICR - Phillips 8 run (Tovar kick)

CRX - Schulte 1 run (Klein kick)

CRX - Maliki Wilson 17 run (Klein kick)

CRX - Schulte 16 run (Klein kick)

CRX - Wilson 17 run (Klein kick)

CRX - Klein 35 FG

Individual statistics

Rushing

Xavier - Wilson 35-165, Murphy 3-67, Schulte 10-61, Rodriguez 7-44.

Regina - Phillips 22-211, Stenger 16-85, Hunter 10-52, Suchomel 1-2.

Passing

Xavier - Schulte 5-14-2, 62.

Regina - Stenger 4-17-1, 104.

Receiving

Xavier - Stark 3-41, Whitten 1-31, Wilson 1-minus 1.

Regina - Suchomel 2-49, Jensen 1-40, Lincoln 1-9.