Iowa high school football 4A state championship: Lewis Central holds off Western Dubuque

CEDAR FALLS – Western Dubuque’s senior running back Grant Glausser left everything he had on the UNI-Dome turf during a Class 4A championship game record-setting rushing performance late Thursday night. It took a complete Lewis Central team effort to defeat Glausser's Bobcats. 

Lewis Central’s balanced offense accounted for 487 total yards as the Titans secured their second Class 4A state championship in the past three seasons with a 40-21 win over Western Dubuque.

Glausser surpassed Class 4A’s title-game record of 250 rushing yards set by Bettendorf’s Tavian Banks in 1992 during a touchdown series in which his 4-yard run cut the Bobcats' deficit to 27-21 with 11:56 remaining. But Lewis Central took advantage of a substitution infraction on fourth-and-two to extend an ensuing drive capped by quarterback Brady Hetzel’s pass to a wide-open Curtis Witte for a 55-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

Glausser finished with 263 yards and three touchdowns on 33 carries.

“He’s a great running back,” Lewis Central head coach Justin Kammrad said. “We had to have 11 guys on him at all times and he broke free a lot. It is what it is, but I’m proud of our guys for continuing to battle.

“We talked about before we walked out, 11 guys as one. You’ve got to believe in the guy next to you and you’ve got to execute and make plays and do your job. We did that from the get-go. Our quarterback trusted in his receivers, trusted in his linemen. They trusted that they would make plays and we just kept coming back time and time again.”

Hetzel, a junior first-year starter, is among the new contributors during this year’s Lewis Central title run. He passed for 325 yards and four touchdowns with Lual Maker (four receptions, 133 yards, one TD) and Witte (eight receptions, 157 yards, three TDs) serving as valuable targets.

Hetzel’s 34-yard pass to Maker on a flea flicker during Lewis Central’s opening drive helped the Titans get on track. Maker added a 51-yard reception in the second quarter and set up scores with a pair of big plays in the second half.

“Lual make one heck of a play and he kind of got me back in rhythm,” Hetzel said. “I just thought to myself that I’ve got to make plays for these guys. All year they’ve been supporting me, helping me.”

Western Dubuque received a scare in the second quarter when Glausser took a big hit while trying to catch a pass over the middle near midfield, and play was stopped to clean up his vomit, but he returned that drive. Glausser rushed for 148 of his 268 total in the second half, including a 62-yard TD run that cut the Bobcats' deficit to 10 before his final TD made it a six-point game.

“We did leave it all out there, but I wish we could have executed better,” Glausser said. “We could run the ball very well against them. A lot of tosses were working and our offensive line was just better than their defensive line. We did have a little bit of spark going there but had costly penalties and stupid mistakes.”

For Lewis Central, this victory showcased the resilience and leadership of a 19-player senior class. The Titans opened the year 2-2 with losses to Creston and Bondurant-Farrar, and lost three running backs to injury, before making a run to the championship. Kamdyn Cross finished with 137 yards on 24 carries to lead the Lewis Central ground attack in the title game.

“It’s just our resilience,” Hetzel said. “We started 2-2. We could have just given up, but everybody here bought in and now we’re state champs.”

Added Kammrad, “At the beginning of the year everyone said that we had lost so many guys. They’d be OK, but they wouldn’t have a chance. And our guys just continued to rally, continued to get better week after week. They had a chip on their shoulder, especially this senior class, they wanted to etch their name in stone and do their own thing. It’s really special with these guys.”