Maquoketa Valley hangs with No. 1 Woodbury Central … for a while

CEDAR FALLS — They hung with number one. They led number one in the second half. Then, just like that, the Maquoketa Valley Wildcats’ dreams of posting one of the more monumental playoff football upsets in state history went poof. Gone. Woodbury Central scored three touchdowns in five minutes and 21 seconds, ending the Wildcats’ Cinderella story, 43-14 , Thursday in a Class A semifinal at the UNI-Dome. Maquoketa Valley (8-4) was one of two 3-loss teams to reach the semis (Algona is the other in Class 3A). It won three straight road games to there, all trips of more than two hours. Its shortest trip turned out to be the worst. Woodbury Central (12-0) had everything to do with that. “I thought we played a really good football game for about 26, 27 minutes,” Maquoketa Valley Coach Andrew Christensen said. “We knew that they were good, they were fast. They’re physical up front. There’s a reason they’re ranked first in the state. But I thought our kids came out guns-a-blazing and really took it to them for the first 26 minutes.” The Western Iowa Wildcats are top ranked for a reason. Their closest game this season was a 28-point