CONRAD — A Week 9 game isn’t promised, so if the BCLUW football team played its final game on Friday night, the Comets would be more than content with the way the season ended.

BCLUW put a beatdown on Postville to potentially close out the regular season with a Senior Night stomping, pounding the Pirates 48-0 for its first home win since 2022.

The decisive non-district victory lifted the Comets to 3-5 for the year with hopes of getting a Week 9 game scheduled against another Class A team that won’t make the playoffs.

Going out with the program’s most lopsided shutout win at home since 2003 wouldn’t be so bad, either.

“We’re hoping to get a Week 9 home game, but if we don’t, that’s just a great way to end off the season,” said BCLUW senior lineman Daniel Zoske. “It just means a lot to all of us.”

Zoske and the Comets’ senior-heavy offensive line led the way to 269 yards rushing and six of the team’s seven touchdowns, led by senior running back Wyatt Gould. Gould carried 12 times for 136 yards and two scores and BCLUW plundered the Pirates (0-8) in convincing fashion.

Postville has won just once in its last 49 games, going winless from 2020-2023.

The Pirates entered Friday’s contest with just two touchdowns this season, and a hustle play late in the fourth quarter by BCLUW senior safety Maverick Grafke may have prevented a third. Postville’s McKinley Burns spun out of a tackle and sprinted up the sideline for a 36-yard run before being brought down by Grafke. The Pirates failed to advance the ball again in their final four plays, and the Comets let time expire on their most lopsided home shutout since beating Colo-NESCO 53-0 on Oct. 10, 2003.

“Not to be mean, but we knew Postville wasn’t that great of a team,” Zoske said. “Our plan was to not let them score, and that tackle really just sealed the deal and kept the momentum going.”

Zoske finished with three sacks of Postville quarterback Zade Brock, who had minus-40 yards rushing on the night. The Pirates only reached the red zone once, rushed for just 23 yards and suffered their sixth shutout loss of the season.

“Give Postville credit, they’ve had a rough year, but those kids didn’t quit,” said BCLUW first-year head coach Bob McIntyre. “They’re very young.”

The Comets honored 11 seniors before the game, including four starting offensive linemen: Aiden Frank, Nate Bishop, Lucas Vibbard and Zoske. And once the game started, the linemen honored their teammates with a lot of good blocking.

“They improved all year,” McIntyre said of his offensive line. “Our strength is running the football, and they put it all together.

“This was our first home win in four years, so it means a lot. We’ve had great fan support all year, so this means a lot to everybody.”

The end of their 15-game home-field losing streak seemed imminent after the first quarter for the Comets. BCLUW took the opening possession 70 yards in just six plays, finishing with a 19-yard touchdown run for sophomore quarterback Maddin Helms.

The Comet defense held Postville to a three-and-out on their first try, and BCLUW needed only five plays to cover 35 yards before Gould got into the end zone from one yard out.

Postville punted after another three-and-out, and BCLUW went 61 yards on six plays to take a 21-0 lead on a 29-yard screen pass from Helms to Gould.

The Pirates took their ensuing possession 70 yards down to the BCLUW 10 before coming up short on downs, and the Comets put the game away with a 14-play touchdown drive that consumed 94 yards and 6:26 off the clock. Gould capped it with a 7-yard TD run to make it 27-0 with 1:01 left in the first half.

Grafke added two touchdown runs in the second half, senior fullback Zaden Eggers got another, and the Comets sailed to the finish line with a 48-0 victory.

“It’s momentum,” McIntyre said of the win. “It shows the kids how to battle adversity. We’ve won our last two games with our backs against the wall, so if you stick with it in life, sometimes it’s going to go your way.

“Plus we’ve got a great group of seniors. I’m a new coach, we got in here very late, and these kids — the seniors specifically — did whatever we asked. They gave great leadership. So to come out with a win like this on a beautiful night, that’s what it means.”

Eggers finished with 70 yards and a touchdown, Grafke had 66 yards and two TDs, Helms added 60 yards and the first score of the game, and the Comets churned out 20 first downs. Helms was 4-for-6 passing for 71 yards and a score, and BCLUW didn’t turn the ball over.

“It was really good because we’d never gotten a win at home in like four years,” said Zoske. “My freshman year, first game of the year we got one, and the win drought kinda stinks. We played some tough opponents to start this year and then towards the end it’s more our speed and we really just took care of it.

“We got momentum with that win at AGWSR last week and we came into this game and just ran it right down their throats.”

The Comets clipped the Cougars 16-13 last week on a late interception by Grafke and a game-winning 27-yard field goal by foreign exchange student Mateus Keller with 7 seconds left.

“It was really great,” Zoske said. “It came down to the last moment, we got a field goal, and it was just awesome. It gave us momentum.”

BCLUW 48, Postville 0

Score by Quarter

POST 0 0 0 0 — 0

BCLUW 21 6 14 7 — 48

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

BCLUW — Maddin Helms 19 run (Mateus Keller kick), 9:43.

BCLUW — Wyatt Gould 1 run (Keller kick), 5:45.

BCLUW — Gould 29 pass from Helms (Keller kick), 1:26.

Second Quarter

BCLUW — Gould 7 run (kick failed), 1:01.

Third Quarter

BCLUW — Maverick Grafke 10 run (Keller kick), 9:15.

BCLUW — Zaden Eggers 4 run (Keller kick), 2:51.

Fourth Quarter

BCLUW — Grafke 7 run (Keller kick), 6:28.

TEAM STATISTICS

POST BCLUW

First downs 10 20

Rushes-yards 30-23 38-169

Passing yards 161 71

Comp-Att-Int 14-25-0 4-6-0

Total offense 55-184 44-340

Fumbles-lost 3-1 3-0

Penalties-yards 3-15 5-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — POST: McKinley Burns 3-29, Ahmed Ali 5-18, Cedric Navarro 2-17, Xander Martinez 1-4, Antoni Solovi 2-4, Micah Minikwu 4-(minus-9), Zade Brock 13-(minus-40); BCLUW: Gould 12-136, Eggers 8-70, Grafke 4-66, Helms 6-60, Vance Hoyt 2-36, Eathan Petermeier 3-15, TEAM 3-(minus-14).

PASSING — POST: Brock 14-25-161-0; BCLUW: Helms 4-6-71-0.

RECEIVING — POST: Martinez 3-59, Navarro 3-57, Derick Reyna 2-19, Burns 2-16, Minikwu 2-8, Ali 1-1; BCLUW: Gould 1-29, Petermeier 1-27, Eggers 1-15, Avery Schipper 1-10.