Chris Parks, Jim Field, Matt Mullenix, and Doug Leonard take a look at 8 area high school football games each week. We try to provide some insight into the match-ups while competing for top prognosticator and the Whosman Trophy.

Who’s Gonna Win? is brought to you in 2019 by Ag Business Associates and Rush CPA and Associates.

Last Week:

Matt Mullenix 8-0
Chris Parks 7-1
Jim Field 6-2
Doug Leonard 5-3

Season Records:

Chris Parks 54-18
Jim Field 52-20
Doug Leonard 50-24
Matt Mullenix 49-23

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The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.

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The CAM Cougars (7-2) visit the Lamoni Demons (8-1) tonight in a first round 8-man playoff contest.  Demons Coach Bryan Nowlin says he is impressed with what CAM has done this year.

The Cougars are trying to get back in the win column after suffering back-to-back season ending losses to Coon Rapids-Bayard and Audubon.  They face a Lamoni team that runs an option offense and CAM Coach Joe Wollum says it all starts with their quarterback Patrick Savage.

Wollum says the Demons are more than just one player.

The game kicks off at 7:00 pm at Graceland University.  We’ll have live coverage tonight on kjan.com.  Jim Field will be joined by CAM students Kolby Nelsen and Dietrich Herzberg for an audio broadcast of the game on the KJAN TV page of the KJAN Video Network.  Pre-game is at 6:30.

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs aren’t the only ones who hope Patrick Mahomes plays against Minnesota on Sunday. Vikings counterpart Kirk Cousins also wants to see the league MVP back on the field after missing last week’s game while recovering from a dislocated kneecap. If he can’t go, Matt Moore will make his second straight start for Kansas City.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals have hired Mike Matheny as manager. The 49-year-old Matheny was manager of the cross-state St. Louis Cardinals from 2012-18, going 591-474 and becoming the first manager to reach the postseason his first four seasons. Matheny was fired in July 2018 by the Cardinals. He was hired last November by the Royals as a special adviser for player development. He will take over for Ned Yost, who announced his retirement last month.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska freshman Luke McCaffrey made his true debut in college football last weekend and one of his rivals in backyard games must have had flashbacks as he watched. That’s Carolina Panthers star Christian McCaffrey. Luke is the last of the Brothers McCaffrey and son of former NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey. Luke made an unexpected entrance against Indiana last week and turned in a strong performance. Christian said Luke’s fighting spirit comes from getting pushed around in those family games.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — The Big 12 Conference has issued public reprimands and fines of $25,000 against Kansas State and TCU for how the schools handled fans storming the field to celebrate wins over ranked teams last weekend. Kansas also received a reprimand, but wasn’t fined after the Jayhawks beat Texas Tech on Saturday. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby says conference schools have a duty to provide a safe game environment.

UNDATED (AP) — In August, the three teams most talked about in the Big 12 were Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa State. The Sooners, Longhorns and Cyclones will head into November looking to bounce back from crushing defeats. It has thrown the conference title race into turmoil and left the Big 12 on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff.

UNDATED (AP) — TCU and Oklahoma State meet after both got needed wins in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs and Cowboys have freshman starting quarterbacks, and the league’s longest-tenured coaches. Gary Patterson is in 19th season at TCU and Mike Gundy in his 15th season at Oklahoma State. Both had lost three of four games before wins last week that knocked other Big 12 teams out of the Top 25. TCU beat Texas, and Oklahoma State beat Iowa State.

Class 1A and 2A Regional Semifinal Scoreboard from Thursday, October 31, 2019.

Class 1A Region 2

(3-0) St. Albert 25-25-25, Boyer Valley 11-15-9
(3-0) Riverside 25-30-28, Coon Rapids-Bayard 19-28-26

Regional Final on 11/5 @ Tri-Center High School: St. Albert vs. Riverside

Class 1A Region 3

(3-0) Sidney 25-25-26, Lenox 7-9-24
(3-0) East Mills 25-25-25, Southwest Valley 21-22-15

Regional Final on 11/5 @ Fremont-Mills High School: Sidney vs. East Mills

Class 2A Region 3

(3-0) Clarion Goldfield-Dows 25-26-25, South Central Calhoun 17-24-18
(3-0) East Sac County 25-25-25, West Monona 15-8-21

Regional Final 11/5 @ Manson NW Webster: Clarion-Goldfield-Dows vs. East Sac County.

Class 2A Region 4

(3-0) Grundy Center 25-25-25, Woodward-Granger 12-12-22
(3-1) Underwood 25-25-13-25, ACGC 18-16-25-14

Regional Final 11/5 Site TBD: Grundy Center vs. Underwood

Class 2A Region 5

(3-1) Van Buren 25-15-25-25, Pella Christian 17-25-21-20
(3-0) Nodaway Valley 25-25-25, West Central Valley 8-11-8

Regional Final 11/5 @ Site TBD: Van Buren vs. Nodaway Valley

Class 8-Man

Bracket A

Harris-Lake Park at Audubon – ON KJAN
CAM at Lamoni – ON KJAN TV (Audio Only)

Bracket B

Rockford at Turkey Valley
Midland, Wyoming at HLV, Victor

Bracket C

East Mills at St. Mary’s, Remsen
Coon Rapids-Bayard at Fremont-Mills

Bracket D

New London at Don Bosco
Easton Valley at Gladbrook-Reinbeck

Class A

Bracket A

IKM-Manning at West Hancock
Tri-Centera at South O’Brien

Bracket B

South Winneshiek at MFL MarMac
Grundy Center at Belle Plaine

Bracket C

Central Decatur at North Tama
Westwood at Woodbury Central

Bracket D

Edgewood-Colesburg at Saint Ansgar
BGM, Brooklyn at Earlham

Class 1A

Bracket A

Pella Christian at Van Meter
Mount Ayr at South Central Calhoun

Bracket B

North Linn at West Branch
Regina, Iowa City at Mediapolis

Bracket C

Panorama at Dike-New Hartford
West Lyon at Osage

Bracket D

Underwood at West Sioux
Western Christian at Treynor

Class 2A

Bracket A

Tipton at Waukon
Monticello at West Liberty

Bracket B

Spirit Lake at Clear Lake
Columbus Catholic, Waterloo at Williamsburg

Bracket C

Central Lyon/George-Little Rock at Algona
Greene County at Des Moines Christian

Bracket D

West Marshall at OABCIG
PCM, Monroe at Benton Community

Class 3A

Bracket A

Iowa City, Liberty at Solon
Independence at Pella

Bracket B

Washington at Western Dubuque
Xavier, Cedar Rapids at North Scott

Bracket C

Carlisle at Sergeant Bluff-Luton
Glenwood at Norwalk

Bracket D

Oskaloosa at Lewis Central
Harlan at Dallas Center-Grimes

Class 4A

Bracket A

Indianola at Valley, West Des Moines
Prairie, Cedar Rapids at Waukee

Bracket B

Dubuque, Senior at Cedar Falls
Bettendorf at Linn-Mar, Marion

Bracket C

Urbandale at Ankeny Centennial
Fort Dodge at Cedar Rapids, Kennedy

Bracket D

Des Moines, Roosevelt at Dowling Catholic, W.D.M.
Ankeny at Southeast Polk

The Audubon Wheelers (9-1) open up the 2019 High School Football Playoffs on Friday night by hosting the Harris-Lake Park Wolves (8-1). We’ll have coverage of the first round match-up for you on KJAN. The Wheelers have been well battle tested this year with a schedule that included 5 teams that are in the playoffs. Audubon Head Coach Sean Birks said his team has been through a grind but they are excited for the opportunity to play in front of the home crowd again.

The Wheelers have only lost one game at Chis Jones Field since moving to the 8-Man football ranks and that was a Quarterfinal round playoff loss to Remsen, St. Mary’s two years ago. The Wheelers and Wolves met during the first 8-Man season for the Wheelers in 2016, with Harris-Lake Park edging out a 36-26 win in that playoff battle. Harris-Lake Park Head Coach Lane Gunderson said he really respects the Wheelers program.

Audubon has been led on offense by a strong season from senior quarterback Skyler Schultes. He has rushed for 1,473 yards and 25 touchdowns to go along with 6 more scores passing. Harris-Lake Park has two very strong defenders in the middle of the field. Nose Tackle Abdulla Elbuytari leads the team in tackles with 68.5 and tackles for loss with 23. Linebacker Lucas Gunderson has 63.5 tackles and 11 tackles for loss. Coach Birks said the Wheelers will have their work cut out for them against that strong front.

Harris-Lake Park has been efficient on offense. Quarterback Brody Sohn has thrown for 1,962 yards and 31 touchdowns with just 7 interceptions. Running Back Lucas Gunderson has rushed for 615 yards and 9 touchdowns. Coach Gunderson said they will need to try to keep some balance to have success against the Wheelers.

The Wheelers and Wolves will kick off at 7:00pm. Chris Parks and Mike Smith will have the call on KJAN with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30pm. Tune in at 6:00pm for our final pick ’em show of the year “Who’s Gonna Win?”. Then stay tuned after the game for all the playoff scores on “The Iowa High School Scorebaord Show” from 10:00pm-11:30pm. Catch the action on AM1220, FM101.1, and online at kjan.com.

The State Cross Country Meet will be held on Saturday, November 2nd at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge. The Schedule of events is as follows.

11:00am Girls 4A

11:30am Boys 4A

12:00pm Girls 3A

12:20pm 4A Awards Ceremony

12:30pm Boys 3A

1:00pm Girls 2A

1:20pm 3A Awards Ceremony

1:30pm Boys 2A

2:00pm Girls 1A

2:20pm 2A Awards Ceremony

2:30pm Boys 1A

3:00pm 1A Awards Ceremony

Take a look at the starting grids for each class by following the links below.

Class 1A Starting Grids

Class 2A Starting Grids

Class 3A Starting Grids

Class 4A Starting Grids

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.

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(Radio Iowa) — The bobcat comeback in Iowa continues and that’s led the Iowa D-N-R to raise the trapping limit in the area where they are most prevalent in the state. D-N-R wildlife biologist Vince Evelsizer says the limit was raised “Up from one bobcat up to three across the southern three tiers of counties in southern Iowa. While other counties — it’s a one bobcat bag limit.”  Forty-six of Iowa’s 99 counties are still closed to any bobcat trapping — stretching from the counties next to the western border across central Iowa to the eastern side of the state. Evelsizer says some of those close counties are starting to see more animals. “The bobcat population continues to do well — it’s still in expansion mode — so, we are happy to see bobcats still expanding into more areas of Iowa from a south to north direction,” Evelsizer says. “Right now, kind of the front line for that is northeast Iowa. There’s starting to be more bobcats up there.”

Bobcat

The bobcat range has already expanded from southwest Iowa northward along the western border.”Places like Boone County, Webster County they are doing very well up through there, up through the river corridors. And then in western Iowa they now extend all the way up the South Dakota-Minnesota border in western Iowa. We are seeing them fill in in areas of good habitat throughout the state in a south to north direction,” Evelsizer explained.  He says they have taken a conservative approach to the amount of bobcats that can be taken as they’ve made a comeback. “It’s another case of a wildlife success story that they largely did on their own, where they naturally came back to Iowa. They are originally native to Iowa — and they came back over time,” according to Evelsizer. “In this case all we did was protect them from harvest and any other kind of take from the mid 70’s up until 2007 when there was a closed season on them.”

The bobcat comeback has not gone unnoticed among the human residents of the state. There were many unconfirmed reports of bobcat sightings as their population increased — that in some cases were cats or other animals — and some cases were actually bobcats. Evelsizer says there’s still a lot of talk about them. “It’s really mixed. There’s more folks that have seen bobcats than ever. They tend to show up — especially on trail cameras — and sometimes folks will see them in their backyard walking along the edge and that sort of thing,” Evelsizer says. “In general bobcats are secretive. There’s a few places in some towns where bobcats are getting spotted regularly. But in general bobcats they are a secretive animal that’s mostly nocturnal.”

The bobcat season opens Saturday (November 2nd) and runs through January 31st. The counties where the bobcat bag limit has been raised from one to three (locally) include: Adair, Adams, Cass, Fremont, Madison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor and Union. The counties that stay at a one bobcat limit include: Audubon, Crawford, Dallas, Guthrie, Harrison, Monona, Shelby, Sioux and Woodbury. The overall season limit for bobcats is three.