Western Dubuque moves to top spot in Class 4A after win over North Scott

EPWORTH, Iowa (KCRG) - There’s a new No. 1 in Class 4A. After taking down then top-ranked North Scott last Friday, Western Dubuque is ready to show the state why they deserve to remain the top cat.

“It’s a lot of pressure on us, but I think we’re ready to handle something like that. I feel like we have a lot of potential to do something great,” senior linebacker and running back Derek Hoerner said.

Western Dubuque won their tough tilt against North Scott 31- 24 to improve to 3-1 on the season.

“It felt great,” Hoerner added. “We lost to those guys last year two times. One time in the playoffs and that was tough. It left a bad taste in our mouth, so it was great to get back at them.”

“We haven’t beaten them since freshman year as a team,” senior running back Grant Glausser said. “It was really good to finally get that off our chest.”

The Bobcats had not beaten the Lancers since 2019, which was the road to their state championship and undefeated season.

“Anytime you can get a win against a them, it’s a big victory. Ranking aside, it’s just difficult to beat North Scott and hopefully we can change the tides on them a little bit,” Western Dubuque football head coach Justin Penner said.

Their performance may have not been flawless, but they’ve got a workhorse in the back field. Glausser rushed for 389 yards and four touchdowns against the Lancers.

“It was definitely tiring, but I know what I bring to the table, so I just really wanted to do it for my teammates,” Glausser said.

The senior ranks second in the state in rushing yards with 906 and counting and became the Bobcats’ career rushing leader.

“We’ve got a stud in the back field. Grant Glausser is a bad man,” Hoerner said.

When he ran for 1,500 yards last year, I think coming into the season, people knew we were going to give him the football. Grant’s very talented. He had a great track season and he’s gotten faster, bigger and stronger,” Penner added.

Western Dubuque’s only loss came against the defending state champions. Xavier won a game of inches 22-20 in week three of the football season.

“You wished you would have had a better two point play call, obviously. We had a couple broken coverages in the second half and really we spent about one quarter looking around, looking for somebody to make a big play and when we finally did, it was a little too little,” Penner said.

Friday night the Bobcats welcome a winless Waverly-Shell Rock team, but it’s been the Go-Hawks that have had their number the past two seasons.

“We know they’re coming. We don’t really care about their record. We don’t really care about ours. We’re starting out new,” Glausser said.

“Last year, we had a tough game, real cold and we didn’t execute that game. I’m really ready to capitalize on this game.” Hoerner said.

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