Comets fall to West Delaware Hawks 56-0 after 2-week layoff

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

MANCHESTER — The quintessential “tough road game” had to be when Charles City trekked 100 miles to take on West Delaware in a Class 3A-District 3 football matchup last Friday.

The Comets had been inactive for two weeks due to several players testing positive for COVID-19. The team was finally cleared to restart practice the Monday before in preparation to face the defending Class 3A state champions.

Kind of like emerging from the frying pan and falling right into the fire.

It was the Hawks’ Homecoming Game, and they were no doubt smarting a little bit from losing a 4-point game to Decorah in the final minutes the week before which halted their 15-game winning streak.

Though an upset would have been a stretch, the Comets were fairly game against the Hawks in the early going. A 56-yard pass play from WD quarterback Jared Voss to Logan Woellert on the first snap of the game put the Hawks deep inside the red zone, but the Comets’ defense held strong and forced a turnover on downs.

Then Charles City began to push the ball upfield on the subsequent possession.

But as you might expect from a team that hadn’t played let alone conducted a formal practice in two weeks, Charles City went on to commit a series of penalties — some of which nullified big plays; and several Comet players got plagued by leg cramps during the cool football-weather conditions.

Also, Charles City lost several key players due to injuries.

None of this helped for the Comets as West Delaware eventually ran away with it and won big 56-0.

It put the Class 3A-No. 10-ranked Hawks (4-1) back on track as one-sided wins go as they had outscored the opposition 156-6 before their 31-27 loss to the Vikings.

Voss completed 11 of 15 passes for 185 yards including a 12-yard TD pass to Kyle Cole. Voss also rushed for 44 yards on eight carries and scored twice.

Hawk junior Conner Funk led all rushers with 72 yards on just two carries — most of which came on a 59-yard TD run.

For Charles City (0-2), Trever Heitz had 37 yards on eight carries and was among the Comet defensive leaders with six solo tackles. But early in the fourth quarter, Heitz went down with a leg injury and was unable to return.

The Comets earlier lost junior Cael Bohlen who had six solo tackles on defense in the first half alone. While running for first-down yardage late in the first half, Bohlen took a helmet-to-helmet tackle and didn’t return in the second half.

The Comets threatened to score late in the first half when quarterback Alec Staudt connected with Mario Hoefter along the sidelines for a 34-yard pass play. It put the Comets at the WD 13-yard line, but they only had enough time to run one play and they were kept out of the end zone.

Things will likely not get much easier this Friday (Sept. 25) when the Comets host Class 3A-No. 9-ranked Decorah for their Homecoming Game. The Vikings improved their undefeated record to 4-0 when defeating Waterloo East 45-8 in their last game.