March 28, 2024

Area Football: Pair of rematches await area teams in second round of playoffs

Class 2A No. 3 PCM and Baxter will see familiar foes on the gridiron Friday night.

The second-round of the playoffs for the Mustangs and Bolts will be against teams they faced in district play earlier this season.

Undefeated PCM gets Saydel at home this time around, while the Bolts take a three-game winning streak into a rematch with No. 7 Gladbrook-Reinbeck.

This time, the Bolts face the Rebels at "The Pit."

Saydel (4-4) at PCM (7-0), 7 p.m.

The Mustangs are one of only three 2A teams still unbeaten, joining top-ranked Williamsburg and second-ranked Central Lyon/George-Little Rock.

The first meeting between these two teams ended in a 68-0 win for the Mustangs. Saydel had minus-11 yards on offense, while PCM ran for 390 yards.

"We are a different team now in many aspects so the gameplan is continuing to evolve and it will be different against Saydel this time around," PCM head coach Greg Bonnett said. "We have seen some new things out of them offensively and defensively as I am sure they have noticed us doing so it will look different."

The one new thing with personnel for the Mustangs is that Aidan Anderson will not play in this game. He rushed for 185 yards in the first meeting.

But quarterback August Stock threw for four touchdowns, two of which went to Gatlin Boell.

Stock has 836 passing yards and 13 TDs and 276 rushing yards and six TDs this season.

Sage Burns leads the rushing attack with 538 yards and 12 TDs, while Jacob Van Winkle has gained 369 yards and six TDs since moving to running back after Anderson went down with an injury.

PCM is outscoring its opponents 410-46 this season with four shutouts. The Mustangs are averaging 8.6 yards per carry.

"We don't think about if we have played the team once before or not," Bonnett said. "We treat it like it's any other game with one advantage being we have already been in the trenches with them and have the film to see what worked and what did not."

The defense has been dominant all season for PCM.

In the first meeting against Saydel, Justin Maggard had three picks and the Mustangs held the Eagles to 17 total yards. They were on the field enough to collect only 16 tackles.

"It starts up front. Without those guys we are not near as good at all," Bonnett said. "If we can get some things working in our favor in the pit then things are going to work well on the perimeter. As long as we all keep our focus we can do really special things. We have some talented dudes out there and they are exciting to watch fly around."

Saydel started the season 1-3 but has since gone 3-1 to even its record at 4-4. Last week's playoff win was the first such victory in school history.

The Eagles are led by quarterback Judd Roberts, who has thrown for 1,261 yards and 14 TDs. The team has only rushed for 295 yards.

Gavin Godwin leads the defense with 41 tackles, two sacks, one interception and a fumble recovery that resulted in a TD. Trevor Lause has 34 tackles, two sacks and six tackles for loss.

Chris Malone has three of the Eagles' 13 interceptions.

"I think we are ready for a challenge because we know that to be the best you have got to beat the best," Bonnett said. "It was a great regular season and a historic one because we went undefeated. But we know exactly what we want and that was only part of it."

Baxter (4-4) at Gladbrook-Reinbeck (8-0), 7 p.m.

The Bolts and Rebels met in Week 5, and Baxter failed to hold a halftime lead. The visiting Rebels outscored Baxter 40-0 in the second half, winning 62-28.

Baxter is peaking at the right time though, going 3-0 since that loss to the Rebels in late September.

That win streak includes a 64-20 road win over Iowa Valley to open the postseason last week. That was the first playoff win in Baxter's 8-man history.

If the Bolts want to extend the win streak to four games, they'll have to slow down quarterback Keagan Giesking.

Giesking rushed for 324 yards and seven TDs in the first meeting. He also leads all of 8-man and is second in the entire state with 1,884 rushing yards. His 28 rushing TDs is tied for the most in all of Iowa.

Giesking has thrown for 124 yards and four touchdowns. Defensively, he has 50.5 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss.

The Rebel defense has accounted for 14 interceptions, nine sacks and 42 tackles for loss. In the first meeting, G-R intercepted Baxter quarterbacks four times.

G-R is the only 8-0 team in 8-man. Baxter has held halftime leads in all but one game this season.

Baxter junior Rory Heer had 69 rushing yards, caught nine passes for 121 yards and two scores and tallied 13 tackles on defense in the first meeting against the Rebels.