A rally and a late touchdown send Cedar Rapids Xavier football team to Class 4A finals

CEDAR FALLS - When Newton scored the tying touchdown and extra point midway through the fourth quarter Thursday night in this Class 4A high school football playoff semifinal thriller, you kind of half expected the lights at the UNI-Dome to suddenly go out.

If you know, you know.

Cedar Rapids Xavier played another 4A playoff semifinal here against Council Bluffs Lewis Central in 2021 that went three overtimes before Lewis Central finally won.

The Dome lights were set on a timer back then, and once the clock struck 10 p.m., everything went completely dark. Never mind that the game wasn’t over and was in one of the overtimes.

Oops.

Thankfully, the lights stayed plenty bright the entire game here, and top-ranked Xavier came away with a 31-24 win in an enormously entertaining game. Quarterback Cash Parks had a 1-yard sneak for touchdown with 3:26 left, and his defensive teammates held Newton out of the end zone on its ensuing offensive possession.

The fifth-ranked Cardinals (10-2) got as far as the Xavier 19 in the closing two minutes, but the Saints stuffed an option pitch on the very next play for a 9-yard loss. Two incomplete passes, including one to the end zone on fourth down, and the football went over on downs to CRX and ended the game.

Xavier (13-0) plays Pella (12-1) in next Thursday night’s 4A championship game at 7 p. The Saints will be seeking their fifth title, their first since 2022.

“It seems like every time we’re up here, it’s a game like this,” said Xavier head coach Duane Schulte.

Newton has got some offensive dudes in quarterback Caden Klein, running back Isaiah Hansen and wide receiver Finn Martin, and those dudes helped give it a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter. A Xavier fumble gave the Cardinals field position at the Xavier 34, and eventually Klein connected with Martin on a 22-yard touchdown pass.

Those simple words don’t explain the TD. Klein was pressured and rolled right, suddenly pulled up and threw a ball to the right corner of the end zone that Martin (brother of former Iowa City West prep and Michigan/Iowa/Nebraska collegiate) just went up and high pointed while keeping his feet in bounds.

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“I think it was the best overall offense we’ve faced,” said Xavier linebacker Beau Morio. “Every single guy on that team played a huge part in this game. That’s what we expected. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, knew it was going to be a fight all game through. That’s what it was.”

Xavier seemed in trouble down two scores, but a good return of a short kickoff gave the Saints the football at the 50, with Parks eventually hooking up with A.J. Evans for a 20-yard touchdown pass that stemmed the Newton momentum tide and made it a 17-14 game following the extra point.

Like Martin before him, the 6-foot-8 Evans (who’s a James Madison basketball signee) simply went up over everyone at the about the 2-yard line and fell into the end zone.

“I’ll just say all season we really haven’t faced that much adversity,” Evans said. “Quite honestly, that’s the first time we’ve gone into halftime down (10-3). We were in the locker room and it was, like, not a good half, but you’ve just got to flush it. Move on, it’s a whole new game in the second half. We had to play our game, had to play our brand of football.”

Which was getting the running game going.

Tailback Carter Hoffmann was outstanding in the second half, as Xavier really started to get a push going up front. Fullback Dustin Cook was integral, too.

“The guys up front starting pushing,” Parks said. “We just went to our practices, we were better conditioned than those guys, I think. We just pounded it down the field and were able to score points.”

Newton tried a trick formation for a fake punt play on fourth-and-4 from its own 23-yard line that Xavier sniffed out and held Klein two yards shy of first down. The Saints took full advantage of that unexpected great field position, with Cook eventually clanging over from the 5 for a touchdown, the extra point tying it at 17 with five minutes left in the third.

That was a series that swung the game.

“It was 17-3 we were down? I didn’t even realize that,” Schulte said. “One thing that happened this week was was Veterans Day. We have two coaches on our staff who are veterans in Coach (David) Schreck and Coach Kevin) Malloy. They talked to our guys on Veterans Day about being a veteran, being a soldier, representing the United States of America, and how you’ve got to overcome adversity. That really resonated with our players. I don’t know if they were thinking about that during this game. But they overcame adversity, just like Coach Schreck and Coach Malloy talked about.”

Xavier went ahead for the first time since early in the second quarter (24-17) on a Parks 1-yard sneak with 10:41 left in the game. Newton came right back, with Klein hitting Martin for 44 yards on a deep post to the Xavier 27, and eventually Klein running in from the 1 for the TD.

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That made it 24-all with 7:29 left. The dual-threw Klein threw for 135 yards and a touchdown and ran for 171 yards and two scores.

Perhaps temporarily exhausted from all the quick scoring, Xavier and Newton each went three and out on their next drives. Xavier took over possession at its 12 with 5:42 left, with Hoffmann and Cook running their team downfield and to the end zone.

Cook had a 58-yard run up the middle of the ol’ fullback trap play, taking the ball to the Newton 15. A couple of Hoffmann runs took it to the 4, with Parks taking care of the rest of the yardage on back-to-back sneaks.

Hoffmann finished with 130 yards on 20 carries. Xavier finished with 388 total yards to Newton’s 378.

Two excellent football teams, for sure.

Cedar Rapids Xavier 31, Newton 24

(At UNI-Dome)

Newton 0 10 7 7 - 24

C.R. Xavier 3 0 14 14 - 31

Team Statistics

First Downs - Newton 19, Xavier 22. Rushes-Yards - Newton 45-243, Xavier 41-257. Passing - Newton 9-19-0-135, Xavier 7-18-1-131. Total Yards - Newton 378, Xavier 388. Punts-Average - Newton 6-31.0, Xavier 4-31.0. Penalties-Yards - Newton 6-35, Xavier 3-30. Fumbles-Lost - Newton 0-0, Xavier 1-1.

Individual Statistics

Newton - Rushing: Caden Klein 20-171, Isaiah Hansen 16-66, Nick Thomason 5-20, Qhjuan Coley 3-(minus) 5, Finn Martin 1-(minus) 9. Passing: Caden Klein 9-19-0-135. Receiving: Finn Martin 7-95, Isaiah Hansen 2-40.

Xavier - Rushing: Carter Hoffmann 20-130, Dustin Cook 4-67, Ryan Kelly 5-23, Cash Parks 10-21, Ty Weiss 1-17, Team 1-(minus) 1. Passing: Cash Parks 7-18-1-131. Receiving: Dustin Cook 3-73, A.J. Evans 2-36, San Leuck 1-14, Carter Hoffmann 1-8.

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