Woodbury Central was tested early on Thursday in the Class A semifinals of Iowa high school football.

But the top-ranked team responded, rolling past Maquoketa Valley, 43-14.

The Wildcats trailed 14-7 after a short rushing touchdown from Rogan Heidt early in the third quarter. They cut it to 14-13 moments later on a 69-yard TD pass from Jackson Verschoor to Jayden Lloyd, kick-starting a massive run.

Verschoor found Lloyd again later in the quarter, as Abe McGill followed with back-to-back touchdowns to make it 36-14 early in the fourth. A final Verschoor-to-Parker Phipps touchdown strike ended it.

McGill finished with 159 rushing yards and three touchdowns, as Verschoor completed 9 of 18 for 192 and three scores. Lloyd caught four passes for 121. Brody Thomas and Holden Koele each recorded 12 tackles, as Carter Wright and Brody Hagemann had quarterback sacks.

For Maquoketa Valley, Heidt ran 31 times for 130 yards and a touchdown, as Eli Dougherty caught a touchdown from Trevor Grimm. Dougherty had three receptions for 62 yards. Kipton Thompson anchored the defense with 15 tackles.

Awaiting Woodbury Central in the finals will be West Sioux. That championship game takes place on Thursday, November 19, at 1 p.m.

West Sioux Handles North Linn, 52-21

West Sioux raced out to an early lead and never looked back, besting North Linn in the Class A semifinals, 52-21.

Braylon Lopez had a monster game, rushing 26 times for 228 yards and four touchdowns. Liam Sheehan had a passing TD and a running one, racking up 165 total yards of offense.

Sheehan completed 7 of 17 for 125, hitting Nolan Demke on a score. Demke caught three passes for 91 yards.  Hugo Hernandez made a 20-yard field goal and was 7-for-7 on extra point attempts.

Josh Kennedy, Rafael Lopez and Dracin Coons each had quarterback sacks for West Sioux. Eli Mora made seven tackles.

Jackson Nielsen completed 16 of 27 for 231 and three touchdowns to three different receivers for North Linn. Waylon Raue had six receptions for 121 and a TD, Will Sommerfelt had two for 49 with a score and Landon Mertens caught a touchdown.

Sommerfelt had 12 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and broke up two passes for the Lynx on defense.