By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
New London, Mediapolis Ready for Round of 16 Action:
Tonight will mark the Round of 16 in all classes as the Iowa High School Football Playoffs roll on, statewide.
Two area programs are left standing as Mediapolis will travel to Waterloo Columbus Catholic while New London will head north to battle Janesville.
Our featured matchup on KILJ-FM will be New London-Janesville, the first ever meeting between the two schools.
The Tigers, 7-1 this year, are playing some of their best football over the last five weeks, going 5-0 averaging a robust 51.2 points per game during that span.
More impressive however, has been the New London defense.
Over that same stretch of games, the defense is yielding just 12.6 points per game and they’ll need to be just as sharp against a Janesville team that has scored 70-plus in three of the last four games.
Defensively, sophomore Blaise Porter has been just as good as he has been on the offensive side of the football — Porter leads 8-man with nine interceptions.
Head Coach Mark McSorely calls Porter his “ball-hawk” in the Tiger secondary.
The lot of Janesville’s offensive production is led by senior tailback Carson Pariseau.
Pariseau has rushed for over 1400 yards and has 30 touchdowns under his belt.
As a team the Wildcats are average north of 8.5 yards per rush.
They’re coming off a 62-26 win over Kee last Friday, a game in which Pariseau rushed 20 times for 244 yards and five touchdowns.
The aforementioned Blaise Porter was equally up to the task for New London against English Valleys, rushing for 211 yards, totaline five touchdowns.
Tonight’s game will kick from Janesville High School at 7:00 p.m., we’ll have coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on KILJ-FM 105.5.
Nathan Bloechl and Ben Fry will have the call this evening.
Meanwhile in 1A, the 7-2 Mediapolis Bulldogs will meet up with the Sailors of Waterloo Columbus Catholic — who enter tonight’s Round of 16 with a record of 7-1.
Similar to New London-Janesville, this will be the first ever meeting between the Sailors and Bulldogs; and the stakes could not be higher.
The emergence of sophomore bell-cow Anthony Isley has been critical to Mediapolis’ late season surge.
Isley ran for 285 yards and two touchdowns in the Bulldogs 20-13 win over West Branch last week.
Since taking over around the mid-season mark, Isley has totaled over 1,000 scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns — he’s got a chance to be a very special player when it’s all said and done.
Senior quarterback Regan Thornburg wasn’t asked to make a ton of plays against West Branch but he’s been good when asked to deliver the ball downfield this season, tossing 17 scores, passing for just under 1,000 yards on the season.
On the other side, Columbus Catholic was tested — yet ultimately prevailed — over a very game Osage team, 42-35 last week.
A balanced rushing attack is spearheaded by senior Joe Dunlay, who is one of three Sailors rushing for over 400 yards this season.
Quarterback Carter Callagher is second on the team with 433 yards and eight scores, while Josh Heine has found paydirt five times while rushing for 416 yards.
Callagher has hurled 11 passing strikes this season while being picked off just twice.
Tonight’s game at Columbus Catholic will kick at 7:00 p.m.
Blint Readies for 2020 State XC Meet:
Mount Pleasant junior is all set to make her debut at the 2020 State Cross Country Meet.
The junior qualified by finishing Top-15 at last week’s State Qualifying race in Monticello.
It’s the fifth straight year where a Panther girl will race at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course, in Fort Dodge.
Mount Pleasant sent Abby Ryon, a 7th place finisher in Class 3A last year, each of the last four years — she now runs at the University of Iowa.
Head Coach Lyle Murray said the expectations for Blint remain the same as they have been all season, run your best, set a new personal time and don’t worry about where you finish in the field.
She’s seeded about 60th, he surmised.
The girls’ race will begin at 3:30 p.m. today, while the 3A boys’ will run at approximately 4:00 p.m.
Class 1A and 2A will run on Saturday, where Addison Parrott and the Danville-New London boys’ have their sights set on dominating the Class 2A girls and boys’ fields respectively.
Former Mediapolis’ Standout Massner Named to SLIAC All-Decade Team:
Former Mediapolis Bullette standout Darby Massner has been named to the SLIAC All-Decade Team after competing at Iowa Wesleyan, the conference has announced.
Massner competed for the Tigers from 2015-2019.
Over those four seasons, she racked up 1,223 total points, made 205 three-pointers, and averaged 13.74 points per game.
She tied a long-standing record for three-pointers in a game in 2016 by draining ten during her freshman season.
Massner is number eight on the women’s individual career scoring list for Iowa Wesleyan.
During her time at Iowa Wesleyan, Massner also earned CoSIDA Academic All-American, All-District, USCAA All-American, and 2x USCAA Honorable Mention All-American, SLIAC 1st, 2nd and 3rd-Team All-Conference, All-Sportsmanship, 1st-Team Google Cloud Academic All-American, SLIAC All-Academic honors.
Iowa State Men’s Hoops Tabbed 7th:
Iowa State is picked 8th in the Big 12 preseason men’s basketball poll.
The Cyclones received 19 points and are only slated ahead of TCU and Kansas State, which are picked 9th and 10th, respectively.
Baylor is the preseason favorite with seven first-place votes and 79 points while Kansas has three and 73 in second.
West Virginia, Texas and Texas Tech are the rest of the top five.