Lewis Central 31, North Polk 5: Titans advance to state championship for third straight year
CEDAR FALLS — Reggie Postel attempted a deep pass to Jake Hout on the first play of the Class 4A Iowa high school football state semifinal game, but it was broken up by Curtis Witte.
Two plays later, after a four-yard completion, Lewis Central’s Garrett Rutledge sacked Postel for a loss of 12 yards. That resulted in a fourth-and-18 scenario for North Polk, and the Comets were forced to punt.
That was how things went for North Polk in the Comets’ 31-5 loss to Lewis Central on Thursday.
North Polk was held scoreless in the first half and only managed five points in the second half. Lewis Central piled on the points, and the Comets — despite showing some life after a safety in the fourth quarter — couldn’t do much to get past the Titans’ defense.
“Our kids hadn’t been here a while,” North Polk coach Tim TeBrink said postgame. “It’s been 13 years. We knew we were going up against a tough opponent. …And if you want to continue to grow as a program, you’ve got to take your lumps as well as the successes.”
Lewis Central won the battle in most aspects of the game
North Polk made it into the postseason in 2022, but did not make it to the UNI-Dome. Before that, the last time the Comets made the playoffs was in 2015.
Well, Lewis Central has a bit more recent experience playing in the high-stakes environment. The Titans won a state title in 2021 and were runners-up in 2022. The Dome is almost like a second home for the western Iowa team, at this point.
The Titans' comfort level showed against North Polk.
Lewis Central had zero turnovers to North Polk's two. The Titans were called for two penalties for a loss of 10 yards; the Comets had five fouls for 35 yards. Lewis Central compiled 327 total yards of offense and had 18 first downs. North Polk managed seven first downs and 140 total yards.
“The keys for us were to start fast and cause turnovers,” TeBrink said. “Start fast on offense, we didn’t do that. We didn’t cause any turnovers. …That recipe of playing complementary football, offensively moving the ball, defense getting stops and turnovers, certain things didn’t happen for us tonight.”
North Polk shows promise in 4A
The Comets were bumped up to 4A football this season.
While competing in 3A last season, North Polk made it to the state quarterfinals, where they lost to ADM and fell just short of a trip to the Dome. The competition didn’t get any easier with the move up a class.
North Polk faced Bondurant-Farrar, another state semifinal qualifier, in the season opener and won. The Comets lost by one point to Webster City, which featured one of the best running backs in the state. ADM, Ballard and Xavier all presented their own challenges, but North Polk came out on top in all those matchups.
All that to say: Losing in the semifinals doesn’t mean this season wasn’t a success.
“Yes, it is (a success) for us,” TeBrink said. “We wanted more, but for our kids to be able to get here in a new class with a tough schedule, that was good for us.”
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lewis Central football beats North Polk, moves to Iowa state title game
