Gladbrook-Reinbeck defenders Austin Lott, left, and Hunter Lott team up to bring BGM wide receiver Mayson Sherwood after a 6-yard gain during the second quarter of Monday’s Class A second-round state playoff football game at Gladbrook. The third-ranked Rebels racked up a 56-14 victory to advance to the quarterfinals on Friday against fourth-ranked Pekin of Packwood. Photo by Ross Thede/Times-Republican

GLADBROOK – The new playoff pairings format adopted by the Iowa High School Athletic Association leaves winning teams uncertain of what direction they’re going next. Sounds a lot like opposing defenses trying to gameplan against Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s offense. The third-ranked Rebels saw five different players score touchdowns for the second game in a row, helping them advance around, over and through BGM of Brooklyn, 56-14, in Monday’s Class A second-round playoff football game at ‘The Pit.’ The state’s fourth-leading rusher still scampered his way to 167 yards and two touchdowns for the second week in a row, but Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s dedication to turn its offense into a multi-faced machine has paid off in full so far in the playoffs. Quarterback Camden Kickbush ran for two touchdowns, threw for another, and Hunter Lott hit paydirt twice as the Rebels (10-1) won their 10th straight heading into the Class A quarterfinals. Gladbrook-Reinbeck will go on the road to face fourth-rated Pekin (11-0) on Friday night in Packwood with a trip to the UNI-Dome and the state semifinals on the line. BGM (8-3), the runner-up in District 7, surrendered season-highs of 364 rushing yards and 486 total yards as trying to slow Eric Stoakes – and all methods of G-R’s maddening offense – proved futile. Four of the Rebels’ eight touchdowns came from at least 80 yards away, too. “I think that’s been our struggling point on the offensive side of the ball for probably the last four or five years, when our tailback has 2,100 yards and nobody else has more than 200,” said G-R head coach John Olson. “We said at the beginning of the season we’re going to start off, build things up, but we knew we had to get our quarterback in the game, we had to get receivers in the game, and we forced ourselves to do that. “It’s very good up front when you have more than one thing going on, like tonight when they focused on Stoakes, and our fullback and other guys made big plays.” After Cameron Murphy recovered BGM’s muffed punt at the Bears’ 19-yard-line, Kickbush capped a five-play drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. After the G-R defense forced a three-and-out, Stoakes took the Rebels’ ensuing handoff 80 yards for a 14-0 advantage. “It was obviously a huge play in the game, but you’re not going to pin a game like this on one play,” said BGM coach Jerod Burns of the fumbled punt in the steady drizzle. “I thought our guys were ready to go tonight, but that was a huge momentum play.” The Bears were all set to try and convert a short fourth down on their next possession before a false start penalty forced them to punt, and Kickbush connected with Jake Schuman for an 81-yard pass and run on the very next snap. Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s stout defense sacked BGM quarterback Tanner Jansen twice on the next drive, and five plays after the Bears’ third punt it was Kickbush again from 1 yard out. BGM’s best drive of the night followed, but it was cut short when Jansen and tailback Colton Massengale missed their exchange and Zach Pierce fell on the loose ball. It took the Rebels just four plays to cover 73 yards, capped by Lott’s 29-yard reverse run. The rout suddenly on, Josh Cooley intercepted Jansen three plays later and Stoakes went untouched 16 yards for his second touchdown of the night. “We came out and played our game, came out strong and got it done,” said Stoakes, who ran his season totals to 184 carries for 1859 yards and 31 touchdowns. “It’s nice that we can use everybody on the team. Our line just is amazing, did amazing tonight.” Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s 42-0 lead provided plenty of cushion coming out for the second half, but Lott took the opening kickoff back 85 yards for a touchdown just to be sure. And Colton Dinsdale’s 85-yard dash up the gut capped G-R’s 56-point night, matching the team’s top scoring output of the season. “It’s just great, we do many things and we have a lot of different people who are special in different ways,” said offensive tackle Luke Holman. “No matter what the score was, they’re still a great team and we respect them, but we just came out with fire. We’ve got to do that with every game from here on out.” BGM closed out its final game of the fall with a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs for Jansen and Kevin Kilmer, bringing to an end the Bears’ seventh consecutive playoff run. They were the Class A state runner-up to West Lyon last season. Colton Massengale, the state’s sixth-leading rusher going into the second round, finished with 30 carries for 132 yards, though only 27 of them came in the first half. The Bears’ 286 total yards was their third-lowest output of the year. “We just didn’t show up tonight,” Burns said. “After we got behind the kids hung their heads and we really let some things happen that we didn’t want to let happen to us, and it got out of hand in a hurry. “Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s a great football team. We knew we had to roll the dice, we couldn’t just sit back and play these guys straight up and we rolled the dice wrong several times tonight. We guessed wrong and they’re really good, they’re really good in space, they’re explosive and they can hit you from a lot of different angles too.” Stoakes racked up his 167 yards on just 14 totes, while Dinsdale had 89 yards rushing and a 31-yard reception. Kickbush finished 2-for-4 passing for 112 yards, and the Rebels did not turn the ball over or commit any penalties. “I thought our guys played really well and they’re playing better here at the end of the year, and that’s what you want.” Notebook This is Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s fifth consecutive state playoffs appearance, and the Rebels are into the quarterfinals for the second year in a row. They will face a Pekin team in the postseason for the 26th time in school history, this being the Panthers’ seventh straight appearance. … G-R is one of two remaining teams from District 4, as Denver knocked off No. 2 Maquoketa Valley 22-20. Sixth-ranked AGWSR was defeated by No. 7 Nashua-Plainfield, 23-20, after a late field goal. … Bryce Ehlers led the G-R defense with 10 tackles, while Pierce had nine tackles, a fumble recovery and a quarterback sack. Cameron Clark had five tackles and a sack.