CEDAR RAPIDS — From the very first snap, the Saints were superior.
Six straight scores on offense. Six straight stops on defense. And an emphatic return to the UNI-Dome.
Top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier earned its 24th consecutive win in dominant fashion, hammering No. 8 Newton 48-9 in a Class 4A football quarterfinal Friday night at Saints Field.
“All night long, we were able to execute our gameplan,” quarterback Cash Parks said after running for five short touchdowns, all in the first half.
“This has been one of our goals since the beginning of the season. Now we’ve got to do our job and get ready for next week.”
Xavier (11-0) will face No. 4 Western Dubuque (10-1) in a semifinal at 7 p.m. next Thursday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. The Saints earned a hard-fought 21-13 win at Epworth in Week 2.
“We played complementary football again this week,” Coach Duane Schulte said. “It’s a good way to win football games.”
The Saints have won their first two postseason games by a combined margin of 100-9.
Newton (7-4) has a productive back in Isaiah Hansen, who entered the game with 1,251 rushing yards. The Saints held him to 16 yards Friday, on 12 carries.
Hansen took a handoff on the first play and was stuffed in the backfield for a loss of 2. It was a prelude of what was to come.
The Xavier defense held the Cardinals without a first down in the first four series, and the visitors had minus-9 yards of offense in the first quarter.
“We just tell guys, ‘One play at a time,'“ defensive captain Beau Morio said. “We watched a lot of film, and we came to the conclusion to hit (Hansen) low, and have all of the guys rally to the ball.”
After Xavier’s first stop, Zavier Murray returned the punt to the Newton 13, and it took just a pair of Cael Stutzman carries to get the Saints in the end zone.
A fumbled snap at the conclusion allowed Xavier to start the next possession at the Newton 9. Then an unsuccessful fake punt by the Cardinals gave the Saints the ball at the Cardinals 39. Parks ran for TDs on both of those drives.
It was 21-0 after a quarter, 42-0 at the half.
Parks ran for the five TDs, passed for 96 yards and caught a pass for 18.
The only real bummer for the Saints on Friday is the declining depth in the backfield. Dawson Doyle, who is near the 1,000-yard mark for the season, missed the game with injury, then Stutzman went out after seven carries for 30 yards.
Murray (five carries, 76 yards) and Eli Morio (eight for 34) accounted for most of the carries after that.
“When we say our rosary, we bring up that somebody is going to have to do something they didn’t think they were going to have to do,” Schulte said.
Parks said, “Everybody has that next-man-in mentality. Guys were ready to step up, and I’m really proud of them.”
Class 4A Quarterfinal, at Saints Field
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Newton 8, Xavier 15
Rushes-yards: Newton 24-131, Xavier 37-169
Passing yards: Newton 53, Xavier 114
Passing: Newton 6-14-2, Xavier 5-9-0
Total yards: Newton 184, Xavier 283
Fumbles-lost: Newton 2-0, Xavier 2-0
Punts-average: Newton 2-31.0, Xavier 0-00.0
Penalties-yards: Newton 3-30, Xavier 3-25
SCORING SUMMARY
Newton…………….………0…..0…..2…..7…— …..9
C.R. Xavier……….…….21…21…..0…..6…— …48
CRX — Cael Stutzman 6 run (Ty Weiss kick)
CRX — Cash Parks 4 run (Weiss kick)
CRX — Parks 3 run (Weiss kick)
CRX — Parks 10 run (Weiss kick)
CRX — Parks 5 run (Weiss kick)
CRX — Parks 2 run (Weiss kick)
Newton — Safety, ball snapped out of the end zone
CRX — Weiss 32 pass from Parks (kick failed)
Newton — Josh Lampe 68 run (Jackson Price kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Newton: Josh Lampe 7-134, Isaiah Hansen 12-16, Dro Felton 1-(minus 2), Qhjuan Coley 3-(minus 3), Team 1-(minus 14). Xavier: Zavier Murray 5-76, Cash Parks 9-34, Eli Morio 8-34, Cael Stutzman 7-30, Dustin Cook 1-7, Cash Wilson 2-5, Kellen Conlon 3-2, Gavin Ireland 1-2, Team 1-(minus 20).
Passing — Newton: Lampe 5-12-2-44, Hansen 1-1-0-9, Landry Rausch 0-1-0-0. Xavier: Parks 4-8-0-96, Ty Weiss 1-1-0-18.
Receiving — Newton: Felton 2-47, Lampe 1-8, Hansen 1-4, Coley 1-2, Nick Milburn 1-1. Xavier: Weiss 2-54, Cook 2-42, Parks 1-18.