On a night when his mentor Tom Kopatich and the 1982 state champion LaSalle football team were being honored, Xavier Coach Duane Schulte had a flashback Friday to another great team 14 years later.

The 1996 Lancers, who were 9-0 and made it to the state quarterfinals, were led by small and shifty scatback Jess Miller.

His equally speedy nephew Brendan, on his first run from scrimmage in his first varsity start on the first Saints possession Friday night, scampered 64 yards untouched for a touchdown.

“He reminds me a lot of his uncle,” said Schulte. “He’s the same kind of runner. He’s a good little back.”

Brendan Miller, who claims to be 5-foot-7 with cleats on, had a breakout game as the replacement for star Cal Stovie, who has been lost for the season with a torn ACL on the same week he was named the Des Moines Register’s player of the week among all Iowa high schools.

Both through the line and around the corners, Miller rushed 18 times for 236 yards in little more than a half to lead Class 4A sixth-ranked Xavier (4-0) to a 53-14 rout of Dubuque Wahlert at home.

Quarterback and team leader Reggie Schulte, the coach’s son, also had a fine night, completing 10 of 14 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.

Just two minutes after Miller’s early game heroics, on the Saints’ second play from scrimmage Schulte hit receiver Corbin Woods for an 85-yard TD bomb.

Two plays, two scores, Xavier ahead 15-0 less than four minutes into the game. By that time, the Golden Eagles had been stopped twice on downs and punted twice.

“I wouldn’t say that made us complacent,” said Coach Schulte, “but I would say it gave us a false sense of security.”

In what would turn out to be a false sense of competitiveness, Wahlert came right back with a score of its own after Woods fumbled away a fair catch on his own 32-yard line. Wahlert workhorse Jacob Decker ran into the end zone on the next play.

“The game wasn’t as easy as it looked,” according to Coach Schulte. “Give Wahlert credit. They came ready to play, and they played hard the whole way.”

Indeed, in what resembled a shootout early on, the visitors followed up a second Schulte touchdown pass to Bryce Grimm with another score as the first quarter ended.

Facing fourth and 12 at the Saints’ 27, quarterback John Burgmeier connected with Kyle Steines to make it a respectable 22-14 contest. From there on, however, it was all Xavier.

The Saints scored three times in quick order in the second stanza, first on a short run by fullback Logan Jones and then on passes from Schulte to Jones and again to Woods.

“We had a great game plan,” said the winning quarterback, who added luster to his tops-in-the-state 77 percent completion rate. “It didn’t hurt to have that great start. And our defense did a good job of stopping the run all night.”

Wahlert gained just 80 yards on the ground for the night and the same through the air.

The Golden Eagles (1-3) were mostly ineffective on offense after the first quarter, finishing the game with 10 punts. The Saints, on the other hand, punted just once.

Miller, who sat with the rest of the starters at the 7-minute mark in the third quarter after a 23-yard Ryan Persick field goal upped the score to 46-14, was humble following his dazzling debut.

“Reggie called a great game,” he said. “And the line opened up huge holes for me. All I had to do was go through them and run as hard as I can.”

Xavier hosts 42nd Street rival Kennedy (0-4) next Friday night.

XAVIER 53, WAHLERT 14

DW        CRX
First downs     8         25
Rushing         33-80     38-333
Passing         7-18-0    12-17-0
Passing yards   80        245
Punts           10-33.0   1-32.0
Fumbles/Lost    0/0       2/1
Penalties       6-41      8-90

Wahlert    14  0  0  0 – 14
Xavier     22  21 3  7 – 53

Scoring plays

Xavier – 64 run by Brendan Miller (2-point run by Daniel Vega)
Xavier – 85 pass from Reggie Schulte to Corbin Woods (kick by Ryan Persick)
Wahlert – 32 run by Jacob Decker (kick by Nicholas Nemmers)
Xavier – 10 pass from Schulte to Bryce Grimm (kick by Persick)
Wahlert – 27 pass by John Burgmeier to Kyle Steines (kick by Nemmers)
Xavier – 4 run by Logan Jones (kick by Persick)
Xavier – 12 pass from Schulte to Jones (kick by Persick)
Xavier – 26 pass from Schulte to Woods (kick by Persick)
Xavier – 23 field goal by Persick
Xavier – 7 run by James Krouse (kick by Persick)

Individual Leaders

Rushing
Wahlert: Decker 17-69.
Xavier: Miller 18-236, Wes Gardner 8-64.

Passing
Wahlert: Burgmeier 7-17-80.
Xavier: Schulte 10-14-240.

Receiving
Wahlert: Steines 4-48.
Xavier: Woods 6-171, Jones 2-24, Matt Nelson 2-35.