What a fun first week of football it has been so far in Iowa. Even though week one is still not officially in the books, we wanted to start our weekly updates of top Iowa High School football performers for NAIA, DIII, DII, and Drake (FCS non-scholarship)
So, let’s start with the Drake – Upper Iowa game on Thursday night at Drake Stadium. We were excited to watch this game in person as a team and catch up with the fans pre-game. It was a perfect night and thanks to the Drake team for the press passes so we could catch some good game footage.
Let’s start our coverage with our number one read article of the week-
Pre-Game at Drake, I got the chance to interview Mick Mulherin Linn-Mar Football All-Stater and Iowa Hawkeye on the back-to-back 1989 and 1990 State Champs, and this article was a lot of fun. Just click on the link to read and see the interview. Mick was on one of the best Iowa High School teams ever and finished 2nd in the Gatorade Player of the Year in 1990 to Fred Hoiberg (we had some fun with this fact in the article). It was too hard to do all the research for every state since they started the Gatorade player of the year some 40+ years ago, but Fred Hoiberg is likely the only High Schooler to win both the Football and Basketball player of the year ever.
Upper Iowa Peacocks at Drake – Drake 41 – Upper Iowa 7
This game was the first game of the Joe Woodley era at Drake as he moved just a few miles west in Des Moines from Grandview. Coach Woodley was 72-5 as the head coach of the Grandview Vikings including going 72-5 the past five years and won the NAIA National Title last year. Drake is predicted to finish second in the FCS Pioneer league this year (after winning the league for the past 2 years).
SGI Preview – Drake Bulldogs 2025 Football – SportsGuysIowa In our preview on Drake, which you can read in this link, we were high on the Bulldogs, but at SGI we were unsure what would happen with the new staff. Transitions in coaching staffs today, with the transfer portal, create a lot of new players coming in every year. Drake was no exception with a new transfer quarterback Chase Spellman (transfer from Tennessee State) leading the way in an impressive win over the Peacocks.
There were 5 games involving Iowa Colleges and Universities that we cover.
As noted, above Drake defeated Upper Iowa 41-7 in Des Moines
Northwestern College defeated Waldorf 40-0 in Orange City
William Penn defeated William Woods on Thursday Night in Oskaloosa 52-23 to retain the Billy Belt trophy (Cool trophy game name)
Briar Cliff had a 35-23 win against St. Ambrose in a home game clash of two Iowa NAIA Schools
Morningside lost a heartbreaker to Benedictine College 38-34. This was the NAIA game of the weekend in the country as it is rare you see two top 5 teams play each other.
The SGI team had a chance to watch these games on some great feeds and broadcasts from each home team. Briar Cliff got off to a good start and Morningside will be fine as they lost a very close game in which both teams are National Title Contenders. Waldorf is working to build a program after moving up to join the most competitive NAIA Conference in the country two years ago, so that will take time.
Northwestern looks like the number #7 team in the country, and had as always a great crowd to support them on their 2025 quest to win the national title. Drake looks like a strong contender to win the Pioneer league, and the Upper Iowa Peacocks will bounce back from a tough start as we expect them to keep building in 2025 and contend for their league crown.
Top Iowa High School Performers – NAIA, DII, DIII, and Drake (FCS Pioneer League)
Beau Bush – Northwestern College – Transfer from South Dakota – Pella IA, Little Dutch – Beau threw for 14-24 for 222 yards and 1 touchdown in the Raiders win.
Solomon Tea – Northwestern College – Sioux Center, IA HS – Tea ran for 93 yards on 21 carries and 2 touchdowns.
Tanner Schouten – Northwestern College – Unity Christian Orange City IA – Senior Wide Receiver – had 5 catches for 99 yards and a touchdown
Levi Egli – Northwestern College – Fort Dodge, IA – had 5 tackles including 2 sacks versus Waldorf
Luke Beyer – Waldorf College – Vinton Shellsburg, IA – led Waldorf with 10 tackles in the loss
Kael Forsyth – Briar Cliff University – Winterset, IA – had 7 tackles in the win against St. Ambrose
Maximo Vasquez – St. Ambrose – Vinton Shellsburg, IA – had 72 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown in the loss at Briar Cliff.
Cade Harriman – Morningside – Holstein, Iowa Ridgeview – was everywhere in the top 5 clash with Benedictine with 12 tackles.
Trevor Thompson – Upper Iowa University – Ellsworth, IA South Hamilton – had a team-high eight tackles with five solo. He added a sack and two tackles for loss in the loss to Drake.
Tade Parsons – Upper Iowa University – Wapello, IA – Parsons finished with five tackles and an interception in the Drake game.
We got a great shot at the Drake-UIU game of Tade’s interception. P.S. Shout out to Grant Tighe Assistant AD of Sports Communications at Upper Iowa, who right before this play standing next to me called the pick. The Dude knows football.
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