UPDATE: Waukee Warriors Win Fourth-Straight Against Fort Dodge

The Dodgers of Fort Dodge have won nine consecutive Iowa Conference regular season games including a 21-7 win last season.

They do have one loss in the past year to an Iowa Conference foe though, and that was also to Waukee-in the first round of last year's playoffs.

The Warriors took a 3-6 regular season record into Fort Dodge and beat the Dodgers 10-7, in what was one of the biggest upset of last year's post-season.

This season both teams bring a 2-0 conference record into tonight's game, and unlike the pass-dependent Marshalltown Bobcats from last week, the Dodgers utilize the abilty to run and pass.

"They have a great quarterback just like Marshalltown, but they'll still keep you honset with the running game as well," said Head Coach Scott Carlson. "And they've really stepped up their running game in the last couple of weeks and the results of that are pretty obvious to anybody paying attention."

Waukee, Fort Dodge and West Des Moines Valley are the only teams with no conference losses. Waukee has never won an Iowa Conference title, and Carlson said a conference championship has always been priority No. 1 for his team.

"It's always been a goal of ours to win conference, Carlson said. "I think as the season begins as a team that should be your No. 1 goal. Not the playoffs, not a state championship, but a conference championship."

Valley will play a struggling Mason City team tonight. The Tigers will likely have a 3-0 conference record come Saturday. And the Tigers take on Waukee the following week; currently Valley is ranked No. 2 in Class 4A by The Des Moines Sunday Register.

"At the end of Friday night, at the very most, there's going to be two undefeated teams," Carlson said. "And we really want to be one of those."

If the Warrior offense continues at the pace it has been going the past three weeks, a victory seems likely.

Waukee erupted for 50 points last week in a win at Marshalltown. That was after the Warriors scored 102 points in the previous two weeks. 

They've been scoring the brunt of their points on the ground, and they're sixth in all of Class 4A in rushing yards. Quarterback Cole Pederson leads the team in rushing, and is third in the conference with 601 yards.

"I think coming into the season we didn't know exactly what we had offesively because Cole was a very unknown commodity," said Carlson. "He was a guy that we felt very comfortable with as an athlete playing the quarterback position."

Carlson said if the game plan calls for Pederson to throw the ball, then that would be no problem.

"I think though if there was ever a night where we had to throw the ball to be successful, I feel confident in our guys' ability to do that too," said Carslon.

Kickoff is set for 7:45 tonight at Fort Dodge.