The Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves (1-3, 1-1) welcome a consensus top three team to town in this week’s edition of the KCII Area Game of the Week as they host the No. 2 Iowa Valley Tigers (5-0, 2-0) on Thursday.
A few critical mistakes haunted the Wolves last week, as junior quarterback Cody Milks threw three interceptions and the Wayne Falcons ran away from Winfield in week four. Iowa Valley continued its dominant season, crushing HLV-TC 70-12. The Tigers have outscored their opponents this season by a combined score of 321-125.
Milks’ first season at the helm of the WMU offense has been a promising one, as his 848 passing yards are the fourth-most in 8-man football across the state. He’s thrown six touchdowns and six interceptions on the year.
Milks’ top two targets, senior tight end Max Edwards and junior wide receiver Tayson Samuels, have each produced over 300 receiving yards on the season. Wolves’ head coach Scott McCarty discussed how the receiving duo has helped Milks develop during his first year leading the offense, “Max’s leadership has been phenomenal, whether it’s talking with Cody and getting him to understand things and even the whole team in certain aspects… and Tayson’s done a really nice job of making his quarterback feel comfortable. I played that position and when you’ve got a comfortable receiver, somebody that you know you get the ball near them and they’re going to come down with it, it makes your job a lot easier.”
Sophomore running back Cade Sweezer leads the way on the ground for the Wolves with 117 yards and two touchdowns on 31 attempts.
Edwards has also emerged as a defensive leader for WMU, leading the team with ten tackles for loss. Samuels and M ilks have shined in the secondary, collecting three picks for Winfield-Mt. Union.
That defense will have its hands full this week as they take on one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the state, Noah Kriegel.
Kriegel leads all players in the state of Iowa regardless of class with 1073 rushing yards, 25 rushing touchdowns, and 34 total touchdowns. He sits 11 total touchdowns ahead of Easton Valley’s Keagan Lee and 10 rushing scores ahead of Clarksville’s Nathan Moon, who are in second in their respective categories. He also leads 8-man players with 1509 total yards. The junior quarterback is coming off of a second-team all-state selection a season ago and is looking to take the crown following the graduation of Remsen-St. Mary’s quarterback Landon Waldschmidt.
While Kriegel is the focal point of the Tigers’ offense, he is not their only threat, with 10 other rushers combining for over 800 yards.
Seven Iowa Valley receivers have caught passes from Kriegel, led by Dane Smith, who’s gone for 101 receiving yards on the season.
Junior Mason Hoyt leads the charge defensively for Iowa Valley, as he’s racked up 10.5 tackles for loss on the season, while the Tigers’ secondary has combined for ten interceptions on the year.
Iowa Valley leads the series 7-4 in the Varsity Bound era. The Tigers won last year’s matchup 72-30. WMU’s last win came the year before with a score of 76-14. The matchup has only produced a single one-score game, a 14-6 Iowa Valley win in 2014.
Coverage will begin with the Area Game of the Week pregame show at 6:30 p.m. Kickoff will be at 7 live from Winfield-Mt. Union High School.