IOWA — Iowa’s defense stepped up in the second half on Friday, and the Yellow Jackets were able to secure their second consecutive District 3-3A championship, beating St. Louis 26-21.

Iowa (7-2, 6-0) shut out the Saints (7-2, 5-1) in the second half and held them to 12 total yards over the final 24 minutes. Iowa gave up 177 yards in the first half and trailed 21-12 at the break.

“We weren’t playing very well,” Iowa head coach Tommy Johns said. “They (St. Louis) were smoking us pretty good.

“They got after us, and we couldn’t match their intensity. That was the message at halftime. We can’t just match their intensity, we are going to have to exceed it if we have any shot at winning this game. We kept telling them if we shut them out in the second half, we are going to have a pretty solid shot at winning this football game. I couldn’t be more proud of our football team. Hats off to those guys (St. Louis). That is a hell of a football team. We just kept playing and playing and made some opportunities for ourselves and we were able to cash in late.”

Iowa won its sixth consecutive game since starting the season 1-2.

“The way this group started the year off, I think a lot of people wrote them off,” Johns said. “I always told them the only people that matter are the ones in the locker room.

“They continue to believe in themselves. They could have completely gone in the other direction. They came back to work, took it game by game.”

Iowa forced St. Louis to punt twice in the second and half, plus a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter. Junior Cohen Charles came up with the ball on both Saint turnovers to preserve the Yellow Jackets’ lead. With 3:26 left in the game, a high snap sailed over the head of Graham Montet, who was lined up in the wildcat, and Charles pounced on the ball. Two minutes later, the Saints were driving for the go-ahead score, but Charles intercepted a pass with 1:20 left in the game.

Those were not the only big defensive plays made by Iowa in the second half. Just before Charles’ interception, Andrew Duhon sacked St. Louis quarterback Luke Pierson. On St. Louis’ only possession of the third quarter, two-way player Jonathan Walker Jr. broke up a deep pass on 3rd-and-4.

Iowa held a huge time of possession advantage (17:03 to 6:57) in the second half as the offense was able to sustain multiple drives. Iowa racked up 431 yards of total offense.

“That is what we pride ourselves on physicality, and so do they,” Johns said. “It is just two really good football teams battling it out.

“This is what everybody expected. It was a close football game, and we were just fortunate to come out of it with a few more points.”

Iowa opened the second half with an 80-yard drive capped by a 22-yard run by Cole Corbello, who bulled his way past multiple St. Louis defenders.

With the Saints’ lead down to 21-19, Iowa went on a 69-yard, six-play drive in the fourth quarter. Josiah Bushnell found his younger brother, Jeremiah, for a 19-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-11 with 5:18 left in the game for the Yellow Jackets’ first lead.

A late score in the first half helped set the tone for the Yellow Jackets in the second half. Iowa went 80 yards in under five minutes, and Josiah Bushnell scored his second touchdown with 11 seconds left in the second quarter to pull Iowa within nine points, 21-12. Bushnell finished with 120 yards on 20 carries, including a 70-yard touchdown in the second quarter when he spun away from three defenders at midfield. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 182 yards. Walker had six catches for 82 yards and ran for 38 yards on six carries. Corbello had 85 yards on 13 carries.

“We had to get something out of that drive,” Johns said. “We were able to fortunately even though it was technically a two-possession gall game. I knew if we were in striking distance, we would have a chance.”

St. Louis came out on fire as it built up a 14-0 first-quarter lead on a 35-yard run by Kyle Turner and a 4-yarder by Graham Montet.

The Saints stopped a seven-minute Iowa drive early in the fourth quarter when Ethan Goss sacked Bushnell on third down but couldn’t come up with a similar stop on the Yellow Jackets’ go-ahead drive later in the quarter.