WELLMAN
With 4:59 left in Friday’s game, Mid-Prairie quarterback Brooks Weber’s state-leading 30th touchdown pass of the season gave the seventh-ranked Golden Hawks a chance in their 2A playoff game against Roland-Story.
Fiston Carlson removed it 15 seconds later.
On a night that matched up the top two passers in Iowa 2A, Carlson, a senior running back, stole the show for Roland-Story.
Carlson rushed for 392 yards and three touchdowns, the biggest night for a running back this year in 2A, and the Norsemen pounded the Golden Hawks on the ground for a 42-14 victory that sent Roland-Story to a quarterfinal-round game this Friday at third-ranked Van Meter (9-1).
The Norsemen piled up 470 rushing yards and scored the first 27 points of the game. Quarterback Colin Willis passed for just 85 yards and one TD, but on this night Roland-Story’s running game dominated the Golden Hawks offensively while its defense shut down Mid-Prairie’s run game.
“They’re a good football team,” Golden Hawks head coach Daren Lambert said. “They made plays.”
Weber passed for 269 yards and a TD in his final football appearance as a Golden Hawk, but after going ahead 27-0 in the second quarter the Norsemen chased Weber into two interceptions, three sacks and seven other plays where passing attempts turned into scrambling runs out of pressure.
The Golden Hawks’ one TD pass came with less than 5 minutes left in the game with Mid-Prairie trying to escape a 28-point deficit.
Weber’s 30th TD pass tied a single-season record that he had set last year. His 2,583 passing yards rank No. 1 in all of Iowa regardless of class and set a Mid-Prairie single-season record.
“He’s a leader and he does the things that a leader does,” Lambert said.
The loss ended a season in which the Golden Hawks’ only other loss was to second-ranked Alburnett. They finished 8-2, closing out a three-year stretch in which they won three district championships, and had a win-loss record of 24-8 with two state quarterfinal appearances.
Since losing to Dike-New Hartford on Oct. 2, Roland-Story (8-2) has won four straight games, averaging more than 40 points a game behind Willis, whose 2,266 passing yards rank No. 2 in 2A, and Carlson, whose 1,225 rushing yards rank No. 10.
Nearly a third of those yards for Carlson came Friday night, and 71 of them came on that sprint for a touchdown in the fourth quarter when Carlson darted to the right side of the Golden Hawk defense and sped down the sidelines for his third score of the night.
A 3-yard TD run by sophomore Oliver Miller, and an extra point kick by Kale Miller, with 59 seconds left in the second quarter trimmed Roland-Story’s lead to 27-7. However, Roland-Story scored twice in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.
Miller, a state qualifier in track who missed most of the season due to a knee injury, had a career-high 8 pass catches for 85 yards and returned four kickoffs for 82 yards. In two playoff games, he caught 11 passes for 91 yards, and he scored a touchdown on a kickoff return in the regular-season finale against West Burlington/Notre Dame.
Nolan Jergens, a senior receiver, ended his career with 6 pass catches for 116 yards and a TD, and seniors Carson Humphrey and Kale Miller each had a pair of catches.
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