DES MOINES REGISTER: Cedar Falls, Ia. - Council Bluffs St. Albert quarterback Nolan Batten didn't need painkillers to ease the pain of a left hamstring injury. "I don't need that stuff," Batten said when asked about aids to help him. "I thought about how my team needed me to come together and not even worry about my injury."

The senior quarterback had 73 yards rushing, two touchdowns and added 74 yards passing in the Falcons' Class 1-A state-championship win over Montezuma on Friday at the UNI-Dome. It's the second state title in three years for St. Albert (11-2).

"The first one meant a lot, it was the first in school history," he said. "This one's a little better. It's just a great way to finish my career."

Montezuma had a chance to tie the score late with the ball on the St. Albert 18. The Falcons secured the win as Jake Hoffa intercepted a Luke Thompson pass in the end zone. "They didn't pass the ball much, I wasn't expecting it," Hoffa said.

Montezuma's Jake Bru had 201 yards on 23 carries and an 80-yard touchdown.

- Jason Galleske; Des Moines Register
  

CEDAR VALLEY PREPS / WATERLOO COURIER: CEDAR FALLS -- The team bus did not turn into a pumpkin. Their uniforms did not become rags. Still, midnight came and went for Cinderella in Friday's Class 1A state championship game at the UNI-Dome. Montezuma, the team whose season was described as the feel-good story of Iowa high school football, saw its hopes for a once-improbable state championship wiped away by some late-game heroics on the part of Council Bluffs St. Albert.

The Falcons claimed their second state crown in three years with a 21-14 victory over the Braves, a team that entered the title tilt having won nine straight contests since dropping its first three of the season.

St. Albert broke a 14-all tie with a 13-yard touchdown run by Doug Moran with just under 11 minutes to play. The Falcon defense then stepped up to do the rest, halting a Montezuma fourth-down conversion attempt on the Braves' next possession and picking off a Luke Thompson pass in the end zone on Montezuma's final shot at a score.

"I wasn't even expecting a pass on the last play," said Jake Hoffa, who hauled in the title-clinching interception. "(I was thinking), this is it, this is going to be a state championship if I get this. "That was probably the slowest play all game and all season, but it was great, though."

Montezuma had plenty of the trademark defense that had carried them past the likes of Aplington-Parkersburg, Dike-New Hartford and St. Ansgar in the playoffs, and Jake Bru churned up 200 yards rushing. Still, the Falcons' ability to exploit mistakes was too much for the Braves to overcome.

"Turnovers shot us in the foot," said Bru, a senior. "We all played our hearts out, and I give credit to our line and d-line and linebackers for creating big plays. "We just didn't have it at the end to finish it."

"We ran out of time, but the way the kids battled back to give us a chance showed how bad they wanted it," Montezuma coach Joe Donovan said. "I told the kids in the locker room that I could never ask for more out of them than they gave us."

After Montezuma picked up just 35 yards on its first 14 plays, Bru opened the second quarter by going nearly untouched on an 80-yard dash to the end zone that gave the Braves a 6-0 lead.

St. Albert quarterback Nolan Batten provided the Falcons' answer by directing a 10-play, 52-yard drive that took nearly 5 minutes to complete. Batten took an offense that looked as though it was about to stall and gave it a kick start by converting a fourth-and-1 at the Montezuma 43 yard line on a dive over the top. The Falcons then picked up first downs on consecutive runs by Doug Moran and Batten to keep their momentum rolling. Another 9-yard run by Batten brought the Falcons to the 10, and he later capped the drive with a 7-yard scamper to paydirt.

"That really just got the momentum flowing, our team wanted to go for it," said Batten, who left the game at one point in the second half with an arm injury, of the fourth-down play. "The momentum just shifted the game and our team and our crowd went with it, and it worked."

Jace Cochran halted Montezuma's attempt at a second score before halftime by intercepting Thompson pass at the Braves' 43 and returning it down to the 17. The Falcons induced Montezuma into a jump offsides on fourth-and-2 from the 9 to keep their touchdown hopes alive, and Batten answered with a 4-yard run to extend St. Albert's lead to 14-6 at the half.

"I told the kids at halftime, the team that plays flawless in the second half and wants it more is going to win," said Donovan. "I'm not sure who played flawless, it was just kind of trading back and forth there, but we just couldn't get that stop when we needed it."

Brian Mason; Cedar Valley Preps / Waterloo Courier

Montezuma 0 6 8 0 -- 14

Council Bluffs St. Albert 0 14 0 7 -- 21

Mont -- Jake Bru 80 run (kick failed)

CBSA -- Nolan Batten 7 run (C.J. Gradoville kick)

CBSA -- Batten 4 run (Gradoville kick)

Mont -- Kyler Kudart 6 run (Bru run)

CBSA -- Doug Moran 13 run (Gradoville kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

Mont CBSA

First Downs 15 13

Rushes-yards 47-286 40-158

Passing yards 20 74

Passes 2-6-2 6-10-0

Return yards 25 49

Penalties-yards 3-25 7-34

Punts-avg. 3-34.3 5-41.2

Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

MONTEZUMA -- Bru 23-200, Kudart 8-52, Cory Ferguson 12-34, Luke Thompson 4-0.

COUNCIL BLUFFS ST. ALBERT -- Batten 17-72, Moran 8-45, Jeremy

Schieffer 13-41, Jake Waters 1-2, Cameron Tucker 1-(negative 2).

Passing

MONTEZUMA -- Thompson 2-6-2, 20 yards.

COUNCIL BLUFFS ST. ALBERT -- Batten 6-10-0, 74 yards.

Receiving

MONTEZUMA -- Steven Johnson 2-20.

COUNCIL BLUFFS ST. ALBERT -- Tucker 3-46, Marc Baumert 1-14, Moran

1-12, Schieffer 1-2.