Heelan wins Class 3A championship

By Terry Hersom
thersom@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bishop Heelan Catholic celebrates their Class 3A championship victory against Decorah Saturday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. (Photo by Rick Chase, Cedar Falls/Waterloo Courier)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- It was almost like he was riding off into the sunset, Brandon Wegher's 100-yard pass interception return with 31 seconds left in Saturday's Class 3A state football championship game.

He wasn't, of course, and the running back headed for the University of Iowa was only too happy to make an end zone U-turn, answering endless questions about how terrific it felt to help his Bishop Heelan teammates achieve a dream.

Thanks in no small part to Wegher's five touchdowns, the 26-year vigil for Bishop Heelan has ended with a 35-10 triumph over fourth-ranked and previously unbeaten Decorah.

On a day when their celebrated star broke the state's single-season rushing record, the top-ranked Crusaders of Coach Roger Jansen delivered their school's third state championship in the playoff era and their first since 1982.

Six runner-up finishes in the interim finally became water under the bridge as Heelan, 14-0, got the monkey off its back and became the first Sioux City football team to go undefeated since the state introduced post-season play in 1972.

Heelan's previous champions, reigning in 1975 and 1982, lost once and three times, respectively. And, a 1984 state championship team from East had two losses on its slate.

This group, of course, was just the second of nine Heelan playoff finalists to compete in Class 3A after seven appearances in the Class 4A finals.

And, the previous 3A title bid was last year's demoralizing 42-7 loss to Keokuk and the state's all-time passing leader, James Vandenberg.

With starters returning in 18 of 22 positions, it had been Heelan's mission ever since to find vindication.

This performance certainly filled the bill, featuring the ninth 200-yard outing of the season for Wegher, whose 241 yards on 32 carries gave him 3,238 for the year.

That eclipsed the state record of 3,109 set by Dustyn Baethke in 2002, playing in 13 games for a Class 2A state runner-up team from Williamsburg.

"I can't take credit for any of that, it's all my blockers up front,'' said the gracious Wegher, who rushed for 51 of the 54 touchdowns that ranked him third on the all-time single-season list for the state.

His career rushing yardage (6,823) ranks third all time and his 114 career touchdowns are second.

"Everyone on this team has worked so hard for the last four years,'' he said. "I'm happy for everyone. No one works harder than these guys.

"I said last summer, 'I'd rather win a state championship than play college football.' My dream came true.''

The start wasn't really everything Heelan might have hoped to see.

First, Decorah moved the chains twice after receiving the opening kickoff, finding a little wiggle in Heelan's typically stingy defense.

Then, Heelan's opening series saw Wegher carry 10 times in a row for 58 yards, only to cough up a fumble at the Decorah 3-yard line.

Jansen was a little nervous.

"We knew Decorah was not real flashy but they were a good football team,'' said the Heelan skipper. "We knew they were going to shorten the game on us and limit the number of possessions. So, to go down there and not get anything, we were concerned.

"But we just kept hanging our hat on our defense. Our philosophy all year has been if we get 17 points we like our chances to win because our defense was just outstanding.''

Indeed, after a quick three-and-out for Decorah, forced to punt from its 9-yard line, Heelan's Ben Rickord returned a 30-yard kick 36 yards to the Vikings' 3-yard line.

Wegher scored two plays later.

Heelan made it a 14-0 lead just two plays into its next possession when Wegher uncorked a 74-yard scoring gallop.

Decorah caught a break when Rickord was ruled to have fumbled on a punt return 30 seconds before halftime, a play on which the replay appeared to show the Heelan runner had lost the ball as he hit the turf -- not a fumble.

That ruling enabled Andrew Casper to hit a 39-yard field goal as the half ended, giving the Vikings a little momentum.

Three plays into the second half, though, Zach McCabe, Heelan's junior quarterback, completed a 42-yard bomb to Jordan Lester at the Decorah 40-yard line. Five plays after that, Wegher scored from 16 yards out.

If it wasn't already nailed down, Heelan took care of that right away, stopping Decorah cold on defense, getting a 33-yard punt return from Preston Ives and letting Wegher cover 37 yards to paydirt in just two snaps -- a 17-yard run and then a 20-yarder for the score.

With 5:48 left in the third quarter, it was a 28-3 cushion.

Decorah, a running team that managed just 89 net yards on the ground, got its lone touchdown from the arm of quarterback Jackson Stalberger, who completed 12 of 17 passes for 17 yards and hit Chris Wanless with an 18-yard TD throw on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Vikings were threatening to score again in the final minute of the game, driving 75 yards with help from a pair of 34-yard pass plays. With first-and-goal at the Heelan 5, Stalberger's short toss was picked off at the goal line by Wegher. And, with a straight shot to the other end zone, last spring's Drake Relays 100-meter dash runner-up wasn't going to be caught.

The 100-yarder broke the all-class record for longest interception return, a 98-yard dash in 1981 by Randy Kraayenbrink of Class A Paullina, later a Northern Iowa basketball star.

For Decorah, which won its most recent of four state titles in 1989, it was the third straight runner-up finish since that last crown.

"Every time we've gotten to this point, it seems we run up against a team that's got their best something or other,'' said Decorah Coach Bill Post. "We faced Harlan a couple years ago (2005) and they had the best team they've ever had. Now, we face this group and they've got the best back in the state.

"I don't know if it's the best team Heelan's ever had, but he's the best back, I'd imagine. They have a good line, good physical guys up front, not huge guys, just strong, rough-nosed, quick, agile guys. You put that all together with that back (Wegher) and it spells a lot of terror for other people.''

Heelan 35, Decorah 10

Heelan 0 14 14 7 � 35

Decorah 0 3 0 7 � 10

Second Quarter

Heelan: Brandon Wegher2 run (Zach Maxey kick) 11:12

Heelan: Wegher 74 run (Maxey kick) 6:49

Decorah: FG Andrew Casper 35, 0:00.

Third Quarter

Heelan: Wegher 16 run (Maxey kick) 8:34

Heelan: Wegher 20 run (Maxey kick) 5:48

Fourth Quarter

Decorah: Chris Wanless 18 pass from Jackson Stalberger (Casper kick) 11:35

Heelan: Wegher 100 pass interception return (Maxey kick) 0:31

TEAM STATISTICS

Heelan Decorah

First downs 13 12

Rushes-yards 39-268 34-89

Passing yards 79 160

Passes 2-4-0 12-17-2

Total plays-yards 43-347 51-249

Punts, avg. 2-38.0 7-39.9

Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0

Penalties-yards 3-25 2-15

3rd down conversions 3-8 4-12

Possession time 21:41 26:19

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Heelan � Brandon Wegher 32-241, Zach McCabe 4-15, Sean Keane 1-6, Nate Berger 1-5, Preston Ives 1-1. Decorah � Andy Sacquitne 10-42, Adam Bohr 10-24, Jackson Stalberger 11-18, Robbie Jewell 2-5, Collin White 1-2.

PASSING: Heelan � Zach McCabe 2-4-0-79. Decorah � Jackson Stalberger 12-17-2-160

RECEIVING: Heelan � Jordan Lester 2-79. Decorah �Chris Wanless 5-69, Adam Bohr 3-53, Brett Van Sloten 2-18, Garret Strand 1-15, Andy Sacquitne 1-5.

Story Comments

TO Who Cares wrote on Dec 3, 2008 12:51 PM:

" Envy - those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it. "

To Who Cares wrote on Dec 2, 2008 3:20 PM:

" "Who cares"...you never picked up a dictionary and are poorly educated. You don't know the difference between good pride and bad pride. All forms of pride are not one of the seven deadly sins. The word, pride, is a translation from Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which originally had different words to express different types of pride. The man who put
"pride" on the back of Heelan uniforms knew more about the seven deadly sins than you will ever know. "

whocares wrote on Dec 2, 2008 8:49 AM:

" Cogs, Pride is one of the seven deadly sins,period. You can try to spin it however you want,but that's what it is. Pride is also arrogance,which we all know Heelan has plenty of as well.They have succeeded in raising another group of stuck up,arrogant brats to add to their tradition. "

Heelan Alum wrote on Nov 30, 2008 1:14 PM:

" JM--Heelan did play Dubuque Wahlert (previously Loras) and Des Moines Dowling, every year, for a long time. At the time, all three were larger high schools. When I was a junior, we were ahead of Dowling, 62-0, going into the last quarter. Our coach told us to all fall down on the next play, so that Dowling could score one touchdown. "

JM wrote on Nov 29, 2008 9:43 AM:

" Heelan wasn't the smallest 4A team in football. That distinction belongs to Davenport Assupmtion which has a 2A enrollment total. One could make the argument that parochial schools should play in their own league but the teams in Iowa have such an enrollment disparity, you couldn't do it. The distance between the schools also makes it impractical. Imagine Heelan playing Assumption or Dubuque Wahlert. It's too far. On the enrollment side, imagine Dowling playing a small parochial school. If you were to change the rules, the only thing that could be done is to make them play up one class which would put Heelan back into 4A. At the end of the day, as a parent of a SC public school student, there is obviously a great amount of PRIDE at Heelan and not enouth at the SC schools to make their teams better. Leave it as it is and force the other teams to raise their standards. "