Zach Barish and Tom Pudil are helping the Xavier Saints play some sweet music this season.

Barish and Pudil are members of the Xavier football team that is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A with a 6-0 record after dismantling Independence, 45-0, Friday night in a district game at Saints Field.

They're also members of the delightful Xavier marching band that performs at halftime during home games, trading their shoulder pads and helmets for musical instruments while their teammates head to the locker room for a break.

On some days they have band practice before school, football practice after school and more band practice after football.

"Some days you get up about 5 and get home about 10," said Pudil, a 230-pound lineman who plays the trumpet. "You just have to make time. You've got to do it all to support your team, both the band group and the football team.

"Sometimes you lose sleep, but you have to do it for the group."

Barish and Pudil helped the Saints roll by Independence, but their weekend performances are hardly finished. They'll both perform in the Five Seasons Invitational marching band contest at Kingston Stadium Saturday afternoon, then they'll put on their dress clothes and play at the homecoming dance Saturday night.

"It's fun," said Barish, a 250-pound lineman who plays baratone sax. "We get to compete on Friday and then on Saturday. It's a non-stop competition."

There wasn't much competition in the homecoming football game for the Saints against Independence, which has lost all six of its games this season and has scored only eight points all year.

Maliki Wilson rushed for 156 yards and two long touchdowns of 20 and 62 yards, giving the star tailback 1,115 yards this season and his second straight 1,000-yard campaign. Wilson has galloped for 2,388 yards in his career, putting him just 111 yards away from snapping Xavier's career mark of 2,498 set by Brendan Miller in 2012 and 2013.

Bryce Schulte hit 11 of 14 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns, finding his brother Quinn Schulte for a 12-yard score and connecting with Erik Rodriguez for a 33-yard touchdown.

Bryce Schulte continued to climb the all-time passing charts for Metro football players. He's tied for second in Metro history with 45 touchdown passes, he's sixth in Metro history with 228 completions and he's seventh with 3,457 passing yards. He's chasing his older brother, Reggie, for the school records in all three categories.

Schulte also ran for a pair of touchdowns Friday night and Shane Scott kicked a 34-yard field goal.

Not to be out-done, the Xavier defense put its name into the school record book in two places.

The Saints held Independence to 37 yards of total offense for the best defensive effort in school history, eclipsing the old mark of limiting Cedar Rapids Prairie to 42 yards in 2009. And the Saints held the Mustangs to minus-17 yards on the ground, tying the school mark originally set during the 2000 season against Waterloo East.

Independence, riddled by injuries to key players, collected only one first down in the ballgame. That came on a 37-yard pass play in the second half after Xavier Coach Duane Schulte had cleared his bench. If not for that pass completion, the Mustangs would have finished with zero yards in total offense.

The game figured to be a mismatch and it was. That made watching Barish and Pudil a lot more entertaining during the halftime show by the marching band.

"We've had many guys over the years here in fine arts and football," said Coach Schulte. "And I've stolen a line from Mr. Keating (the Xavier principal): If you're going to do both, then do both. Don't be lukewarm in one and kind of doing the other. That doesn't work.

"If you're going to be in both, then do both, and that's what those guys have done. They've hit the weights in the summer, they go to all the conditioning, they do everything that's expected of them in the football realm. And they're both good students. So hat's off to them for being able to juggle their schedule."

Xavier has a 4-0 record in District 3 and has outscored its district opponents 165-27. The Saints expect a tough test next Friday night at Waverly-Shell Rock, which has a 3-1 record in the district.

Barish and Pudil won't take their musical instruments to Waverly, because it will be all football next Friday night.

"People ask me sometimes what I would pick," said Pudil. "I don't think I could pick. I love them both for different reasons. It's just the atmosphere of being with people."

XAVIER 45, INDEPENDENCE 0

INDEE          XAVIER

First Downs    1              17
Rushing        14-minus 17    42-212
Passing        54             197
Comp/Att/Int   3-15-1         14-18-0
Penalties      3-25           5-40
Punts          7-23.3         2-36.5
Fumbles/Lost   2/1            1/0

Independence     0   0   0   0 -  0
Xavier          21   6  15   3 - 45

Individual Stats

Rushing

Independence: Hosch: 3-1, Wood 8-minus 7, Crawford 3-minus 11.
Xavier: Wilson 14-156, Rodriguez 6-26, Lang 8-14, J.Scott 2-11, Tobin 2-5, Charipar 2-5, Q.Schulte 2-minus 1, B.Schulte 6-minus 4.

Passing

Independence: Wood 1-2-0, 37 yards; Crawford 1-9-0, 9 yards; Hosch 1-4-1, 8 yards.
Xavier: B.Schulte 11-14-0, 173 yards; J.Scott 3-4-0, 24 yards.

Receiving

Independence: Shannon 1-37, House 1-9, Wood 1-8.
Xavier: Q.Schulte 5-67, Butkowski 4-65, Dempewolf 2-7, Rodriguez 1-33, Corrigan 1-16, Burns 1-8.