Decorah's mission? Stop Brandon Wegher
7:42 AM
By Nick Petaros, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier | Posted: Saturday, November 22, 2008
DECORAH --- As fourth-ranked Decorah (13-0) prepares to take on top-ranked Sioux City Heelan (13-0) in Saturday's Class 3A state championship game, all the Vikings have to do is Google "Brandon Wegher" to see what they're going up against.
The Heelan running back has his own Web site listing the BCS schools that were interested in securing his services prior to committing to Iowa. Then there's the four-minute highlight video on YouTube and the scouts and rivals.com recruiting profiles.
Wegher enters the 4 p.m. championship at the UNI-Dome needing just 113 yards to break the state's single-season rushing record of 3,109 set in 2002 by Dustyn Baethke of Williamsburg. Wegher has already scored 49 touchdowns and is averaging 230.5 yards per game.
"He accelerates so fast and he's so strong that when you hit him it really takes a solid tackle to knock him down," said Decorah head coach Bill Post whose assistant showed him Wegher's YouTube video Wednesday morning. "If you hit him high you're just going to bounce off. If you hit him too low, he's just going to high-step over you. If you don't get him in a wrap, he's going to spin off you. He's going to be a challenge to tackle.
"Going into the game we're probably considered the underdog. We can just go out, play hard and see if we can make him trip a few times."
Perhaps the Vikings' best defense will be a strong offense. Winning the time of possession battle will be crucial for Decorah to stay competitive.
"That's kind of been our forte," Post said. "We've been able to put together some nice drives, keep the ball and use clock. ... That's always been part of my thought process to use offense a little bit as your defense to try and keep the other team's offense off the field as much as possible."
Decorah also had success running the ball this season behind backs Adam Bohr and Andy Sacquitne in addition to quarterback Jackson Stalberger. The Vikings have tallied 3,200 rushing yards, while Stalberger has thrown for 860 yards.
Often overlooked, Decorah has bolstered its offense and defense by winning the special teams battle.
Kicker Andrew Casper has recorded touchbacks on 53-of-74 kickoffs, while connecting on 7-of-11 field goals with a long of 55 coming on a free kick after a fair catch. Punter Brett Van Sloten is averaging 38.5 yards and has mastered directional kicking. He booted a ball out of bounds at the 1-yard line in Monday's semifinal win over Pella. Finally, Decorah's corps of Chris Wanless, Brock Arend and Josh Woodhouse has combined for 981 return yards and one touchdown.
At the beginning of this season, Post admits it would have been tough to predict his team playing for a state title.
"I felt really felt coming into the year we'd have a pretty good shot at making the playoffs, but as our year has gone along it's been really a pleasant surprise," he said. "Each week that we play, it seems that we get better and better at holding teams when they're down in the red zone area. We'll bend and bend, but somewhere along the line we cause teams to hopefully make an error here and there and we're able to overcome that."
The coach is attributes much of his team's success to the character of his upperclassmen.
"This group of seniors was behind class of last year's seniors that was not a real athletic-minded class," Post said. "These guys coming behind that class since they were freshman never got a chance to play together as a group until now.
"I think that has motivated these guys to step up and show that they're better than the years that they had coming up."
As Decorah makes its seventh state finals appearance and first since 2004, Post says he hopes his young men will enjoy the moment.
"There were a lot of other teams in our class that would love to be in this situation," he said. "It's an honor to be here. They just need to play their hardest and hopefully if we can make some things happen for ourselves they can win a state championship."
The Heelan running back has his own Web site listing the BCS schools that were interested in securing his services prior to committing to Iowa. Then there's the four-minute highlight video on YouTube and the scouts and rivals.com recruiting profiles.
Wegher enters the 4 p.m. championship at the UNI-Dome needing just 113 yards to break the state's single-season rushing record of 3,109 set in 2002 by Dustyn Baethke of Williamsburg. Wegher has already scored 49 touchdowns and is averaging 230.5 yards per game.
"He accelerates so fast and he's so strong that when you hit him it really takes a solid tackle to knock him down," said Decorah head coach Bill Post whose assistant showed him Wegher's YouTube video Wednesday morning. "If you hit him high you're just going to bounce off. If you hit him too low, he's just going to high-step over you. If you don't get him in a wrap, he's going to spin off you. He's going to be a challenge to tackle.
"Going into the game we're probably considered the underdog. We can just go out, play hard and see if we can make him trip a few times."
Perhaps the Vikings' best defense will be a strong offense. Winning the time of possession battle will be crucial for Decorah to stay competitive.
"That's kind of been our forte," Post said. "We've been able to put together some nice drives, keep the ball and use clock. ... That's always been part of my thought process to use offense a little bit as your defense to try and keep the other team's offense off the field as much as possible."
Decorah also had success running the ball this season behind backs Adam Bohr and Andy Sacquitne in addition to quarterback Jackson Stalberger. The Vikings have tallied 3,200 rushing yards, while Stalberger has thrown for 860 yards.
Often overlooked, Decorah has bolstered its offense and defense by winning the special teams battle.
Kicker Andrew Casper has recorded touchbacks on 53-of-74 kickoffs, while connecting on 7-of-11 field goals with a long of 55 coming on a free kick after a fair catch. Punter Brett Van Sloten is averaging 38.5 yards and has mastered directional kicking. He booted a ball out of bounds at the 1-yard line in Monday's semifinal win over Pella. Finally, Decorah's corps of Chris Wanless, Brock Arend and Josh Woodhouse has combined for 981 return yards and one touchdown.
At the beginning of this season, Post admits it would have been tough to predict his team playing for a state title.
"I felt really felt coming into the year we'd have a pretty good shot at making the playoffs, but as our year has gone along it's been really a pleasant surprise," he said. "Each week that we play, it seems that we get better and better at holding teams when they're down in the red zone area. We'll bend and bend, but somewhere along the line we cause teams to hopefully make an error here and there and we're able to overcome that."
The coach is attributes much of his team's success to the character of his upperclassmen.
"This group of seniors was behind class of last year's seniors that was not a real athletic-minded class," Post said. "These guys coming behind that class since they were freshman never got a chance to play together as a group until now.
"I think that has motivated these guys to step up and show that they're better than the years that they had coming up."
As Decorah makes its seventh state finals appearance and first since 2004, Post says he hopes his young men will enjoy the moment.
"There were a lot of other teams in our class that would love to be in this situation," he said. "It's an honor to be here. They just need to play their hardest and hopefully if we can make some things happen for ourselves they can win a state championship."
Story Comments
Read More and Post Comments 0 comment(s)
Please note: The following are comments from readers. In no way do they represent the views of The Sioux City Journal or Lee Enterprises. We will not edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to not post or to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain potentially libelous statements; obscene, explicit or racist language; personal attacks, insults or threats. Terms of Service
