Former Boll Weevil leads Reivers to title
Following the lead of a quarterback who once played in Arkansas, the Iowa Western Reivers hammered the East Mississippi Lions 61-14 in the NJCAA Division I championship game Wednesday night at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Iowa Western quarterback Hunter Watson, who played two seasons at the University of Arkansas-Monticello before transferring north last summer, passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more as the Reivers won their second straight national title.
A native of Celina, Texas, Watson completed 17 of 26 passes for 204 yards and rushed for 108 yards, including a 45-yard scoring run in the third quarter. He was named the player of the game.
“They are all special, but this [national title] is by far the most dominating,” said Iowa Western Coach Scott Strohmeier, who has led his team to the national title game three straight years. “We lost so much off last year’s national championship team and just a handful of them [returned] that played in this game last year.
While Watson was running the offense, the Western Iowa defense controlled the line of scrimmage and neutralized East Mississippi quarterback Ty Keyes, who passed for 261 yards but was sacked four times. The Reivers collected 11 tackles for loss and end Jaylen Pettus had 2 sacks and a blocked punt.
“I felt like if we could stop their run game and make them one dimensional, we would be OK,” Strohmeier said.
East Mississippi managed 56 rushing yards and was 4 of 17 on third down.
Western Iowa led 27-7 at the half and the Lions’ only score came on a 91-yard kickoff return by Jaylon York that gave East Mississippi a 7-6 lead with 5:15 left in the first quarter.
The Reviers answered with a 10-play, 53-yard drive that was capped with Watson scoring from the 1.
East Mississippi had 17 yards rushing and 134 total yards in the first half. Iowa Western finished with 553 total yards while holding East Mississippi to 317.
“We’ve been working for this since we got to Western in the summer,” Watson said. “Getting out there and getting the victory made it all pay off.”
Watson had touchdown passes of 19 and 26 yards to Bryant Williams in the first half. LJ Fitzgerald caught the other score with a 10-yard pass in the third quarter.
Keyes added a 42-yard touchdown pass to Raymon Blackman that cut it to 41-14.
Williams finished with 3 receptions for 42 yards and Fitzpatrick caught 6 for 91 yards. Jonathan Humpal, who ran for two touchdowns, rushed for 108 yards on 16 carries.
“We were all just locked in” Strohmeier said. “Our kids were focused. After the last regular-season loss, we felt like we were going to get in in the playoffs we just didn’t know where. And you’ve got to play your best football and our two best games we played in all three phases the semifinal game and the national championship game. We did the same thing last year.”