Perfect half.

Perfect regular season.

Xavier scored all six of its first-half possessions to build a 42-0 lead and buried Linn-Mar, 42-6, Friday night in a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division football game at Saints Field. The game was the regular season finale for both teams.

It is the second perfect regular season for Xavier (9-0, 6-0) in school history. The Saints also earned their second outright division title. The last time Xavier had an undefeated season and outright division title was in 2006. Those Saints won the Class 4A state championship.

"It's definitely a goal we had at the beginning of the season," Xavier senior quarterback Reggie Schulte said of the unbeaten campaign.

"I think it was a big team goal, especially in the summer," senior linebacker Craig Murtha said. "That's the goal every year for every school that plays football. We were just trying to do our job every day and get better."

"I'm happy for our kids. It's hard to go 9-0 in the MVC," said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte, who also coached a 9-0 team at LaSalle in 1996. "For them to do it is a tremendous reward for all the hard work they've put in. This is a hard-working group. They've been fun to coach."

And they are talented. They continued to rewrite the school record book Friday night.

"This is a different kind of offense," Coach Schulte said. "They're not the biggest and they're not the fastest, but they've been good kids to coach and they try to do what we ask them to do.

"We always tell our guys we'll talk about you when you're done. We did the same thing in 2006.

"This group, I'm not going to really say anything about them because they're not done yet."

The Saints begin their trek toward a second state title Wednesday when they host Iowa City High (4-5) in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs at 7 p.m. City High ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak, including a 40-14 home loss to Kennedy Friday night. Xavier did not play City High during the regular season.

Linn-Mar (3-6, 2-4) finished in a three-way tie for the final two playoff berths. The Lions were eliminated from the postseason on the basis of a tiebreaker.

Xavier rolled up 307 total yards in the first half and held Linn-Mar to 16. Reggie Schulte completed 8-of-9 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. He sneaked one yard for another score.

"The receivers do a great job of making me look good," said Schulte, who came into the game with a state best 74.9 completion percentage and now has thrown 28 touchdown passes.

Schulte's favorite target was Corbin Woods, who caught five passes for 124 yards and a touchdown.

"The game plan never changes," said Woods, who has 12 touchdown receptions. "We always try to get up first and never look back. I think our line did a phenomenal job tonight, getting Reggie lots of time to throw the ball."

The Saints led 21-0 after one quarter and 42-0 at halftime.

"I don't know if I could say it was our best half, but it was certainly one of our better ones," Woods said. "I think everyone came out and gave it their all right off the bat."

The Xavier onslaught began on the Saints' first play from scrimmage. Schulte dropped pack and spotted a wide open Nick Steingreaber all alone about 30 yards downfield.

"We thought we could maybe hit that play, but I didn't know we were going to call it on the first play," Reggie Schulte said. "When I saw how wide-open Nick was, it was kind of like having that wide-open 5-foot jumpshot in basketball. You just throw it and make sure he catches it and Nick did a great job."

Steingreaber hauled it in and ran untouched for the 57-yard touchdown play and a 6-0 lead just 2 1/2 minutes into the game.

The Saints had the ball back a little over a minute later when Linn-Mar quarterback Zach Martins coughed up the greasy pigskin and Xavier's Francisco Garcia was credited with the recovery at the Lions' 24-yard line.

Four plays later, junior Brendan Miller crashed in from three yards out. The two-point PAT pass from Schulte to Matt Nelson gave the Saints a 14-0 lead with 7:35 left in the first quarter.

The rout was on.

Miller zipped 37 yards, shrugging off three Linn-Mar tacklers en route, for a touchdown and 21-0 lead with 3:10 left in the first quarter. That capped a two-play, 46-yard drive.

Schulte sneaked one yard for a touchdown early in the second quarter, then threw a 59-yard scoring pass to Woods midway through the quarter for a 35-0 lead.

Wes Gardner capped Xavier's scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:39 left in the half that gave Xavier a 42-0 lead and set a running clock in motion for the second half.

Martins caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ramsey with 3:12 left in the game to account for Linn-Mar's touchdown.

Linn-Mar played without senior quarterback Rhys Davis, who had thrown all but three passes for the Lions during their first eight games. Linn-Mar officials said Davis was withheld because of a coach's decision. Coach Bob Forsyth was not available for comment after the game.

Martins and Ramsey split time at quarterback in place of Davis. Martins ran for 54 yards. Ramsey completed 4-of-6 passes for 70 yards.

Linn-Mar leading rusher Ross Lembeck did not play in the second half.

XAVIER 42, LINN-MAR 6

First downs -- LM 10; CRX 12   
Rushes-yards -- LM 35-105; CRX 27-139     
Passing yards -- LM 70; CRX 223     
Comp-att-int -- LM 4-7-0; CRX 8-9-0    
Punts-avg. -- LM 5-26.2; CRX 2-36.5    
Fumbles-Lost -- LM 3-1; CRX 0-0    
Penalties-yards -- LM 2-15; CRX 2-15

Linn-Mar       0      0       0      6  --      6
Xavier         21    21       0      0  --    42

CRX - Nick Steingreaber 57 pass from Reggie Schulte (kick failed)
CRX - Brendan Miller 3 run (Matt Nelson pass from Schulte)
CRX - Miller 37 run (Ryan Persick kick)
CRX - Schulte 1 run (Persick kick)
CRX - Corbin Woods 59 pass from Schulte (Persick kick)
CRX - Wes Gardner 5 run (Persick kick)
LM - Zach Martins 9 pass from Matt Ramsey (kick failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing
LM - Zach Martins 11-54, Nick Trabucco 10-28, Ross Lembeck 9-23, Dakota Digmann 1-2, Matt Ramsey 4-(-2)
CRX - Brendan Miller 8-63, Luke Hammerberg 9-61, Wes Gardner 4-11, Corbin Woods 1-9, James Krouse 2-2, Reggie Schulte 1-1, Kevin Feeney 1-(-6), Team 1-(-2)

Passing
LM - Ramsey 4-6-0-70, Martins 0-1-0-0
CRX - Schulte 8-9-0-223

Receiving
LM - Martins 2-46, Digmann 1-26, Lembeck 1-(-2)
CRX - Woods 5-124, Nick Steingreaber 1-57, Bryce Grimm 1-21, Hunter Baldus 1-21

Sophs -- Xavier 20, Linn-Mar 7