The North Butler football team with a balanced offensive night bounced back with a 36-14 home win over West Fork on Friday. This was the Bearcats fourth win in a row in the series.
North Butler pulled ahead to a 22-8 advantage before halftime. The Bearcats scored the only points of the 3rd to increase their lead to 30-8. Both teams broke through for touchdown apiece in the 4th, in what turned out to be a defensive heavy second half.
North Butler got their offense in rhythm with 152 rushing yards and 187 through the air, generating a season high in points. Brody Wangsness was 6-10 for 187 yards and two touchdowns, and Jaxson Miller had seven carries for 61 yards and two touchdowns to lead the team.
Bearcats Head Coach Jordan Vanderloop on the balanced offensive performance.
“I just told them trust your instincts,” says Vanderloop. “The running backs were able to find the holes. We kind of figured we’d have some good open running lanes if we block certain ways and peel people around and we were able to do that. Lead blockers also came through to. The passing game, we cleaned up our routes this week. We told Brody, go through your progressions, trust yourself and make sure that he hits short routes first and the long ball will eventually come and that’s what happened.”
West Fork was limited to 85 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown. Dax Suntken on 16 carries rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown, and Zander Hansen went 4-5 for 82 yards and a touchdown.
Warhawks Head Coach Dan Westhoff on the Bearcats response to their run game.
“We had our moments offensively,” says Westhoff. “They did a good job with their scheme that they run and they were disciplined defensively. We could not get our perimeter run game going. They really pursued sideline to sideline well. That’s a big part of our offense, we need to be able to get the edge and get up the sideline. That opens up the rest of our offense. They did a good job of taking that away.”
North Butler improves to 2-1 overall and will return to district play at Wapsie Valley on Friday.
West Fork moves to 1-2 overall and will host Lake Mills in their home opener on Friday.
