(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) A-W's Eric Eskra lines up a PAT kick while Ben Wolthuizen holds for the kicker, who nailed four extra points Friday night at River Valley. [Click to enlarge]

Akron-Westfield continued its district dominance Friday night as the Westerners defeated River Valley 42-6 on the road in Correctionville.

The game was evenly matched through most of the first half, with A-W holding a one-point edge with less than five minutes to play in the half.

The Westerners jumped on the board first with 3:35 to go in the opening quarter. Joe Sievert capped off a six-play, 40-yard drive with a five-yard run to the end-zone to score. Eric Eskra's PAT kick sailed through the uprights to give A-W a 7-0 lead.

The Wolverines answered in the second quarter with a 39-yard run by Zach Hullinger. However, a missed PAT left River Valley trailing 7-6.

A-W beefed up their lead right before half-time by punching in a pair of touchdowns. The first came at the end of an eight-play, 40-yard drive. With three minutes left in the half, Eskra connected with Nathan Easton on a 20-yard pass for the touchdown, boosting A-W's lead to 13-6.

Then, with just 37 seconds to go in the half, Christopher Carlson found the end-zone on a nine-yard run. Eskra ran in the two-point conversion to give A-W a 21-6 lead heading into half-time.

River Valley got the ball at the start of the second half, but only ate up precious time off the clock as they ended a six-play drive in 3:06 with a turnover on downs.

The Westerners took over on their own 24 and on first down, Carlson took the ball 76 yards to the end-zone to score the first A-W points of the half. The PAT kick by Eskra was good, building the Westerners' lead to 28-6.

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Still in the third quarter, with 6:28 to play, A-W struck again on a 70-yard punt return to the end-zone by Carlson. This was the junior's third straight touchdown. Eskra nailed the PAT kick to give A-W a 35-6 lead.

The Westerners tacked on their final points with 3:03 to go in the game. Ben Wolthuizen capped off a three-play, 21-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown run. Eskra kicked the PAT to give A-W the 42-6 victory.

In the Westerners' second district win, the offense was dominated by the ground game, led by Carlson. The junior rushed for 212 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns, plus a punt return for a touchdown.

Sievert added 24 yards on six carries plus a touchdown while Chet Utesch rushed three times for 21 yards and Eskra totaled 17 yards on nine keepers for the Westerners. Wolthuizen added the fourth rushing touchdown as he rushed three times for 12 yards. A-W totaled 291 rushing yards on the night.

The Westerners added their remaining yards of offense through the air under quarterback Eskra, who completed two-of-six passes for 26 yards and one touchdown. Easton was on the receiving end of both of Eskra's passes.

Defensively, the Westerners limited River Valley to 130 yards of total offense, including 86 yards on the ground.

The Westerner defense, led by Grant DeRocher with nine tackles on the night, totaled four takeaways on the night. Alex Frankl, Carlson and Easton each pulled down an interception while Nick Hoffmann recovered a Wolverine fumble.

Adding to the Westerners' total 44 stops on the night was Chad Morehead with 7.5 tackles and Troy Watkins with 4.5 tackles. Greg Dewey and Easton each had four stops on the night.

A-W also recorded three sacks for a total loss of 23 yards. DeRocher, Watkins and Nicholas Milbrodt each had a sack in the game.

On special teams, Wolthuizen punted five times to average 37.2 yards per punt as he totaled 186 yards. Two of the sophomores punts pinned River Valley inside the 20.

Reuben Ritz kicked off seven times for 264 total yards and an average of 37.7 yards per kickoff. Eskra added four points on PATs.

Carlson led the returns with three punt returns for 90 yards, including a 70-yard return for a touchdown. Easton had one punt return for 11 yards and a pair of kickoff returns for 28 total yards.

The Wolverines ate up 24:34 on the clock, while A-W controlled the field for 23:26 of the game. The Westerners were penalized six times for 70 yards while River Valley lost 10 yards on a pair of flags.

With the win, A-W improves to 3-1 on the season with a perfect 2-0 district record. The Westerners will put that 2-0 record on the line this week as they host Gehlen Catholic for homecoming Friday night.

The Jays - ranked No. 10 in Class A by Radio Iowa - are the only other 2-0 team in the district, making Friday night's game that much more important to the Westerners. Gehlen is coming off of a 53-14 district win over Kingsley-Pierson Friday night in Le Mars. The Jays grabbed their first district win by knocking off then-No. 2 Alta on the road on September 12.