Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – It takes more than one game, obviously, to build a rivalry, but the football teams from City High and Liberty High showed signs on Friday that they might have one building.

The Little Hawks withstood three costly turnovers in the third quarter and overcame a valiant effort by Liberty High in its varsity debut to prevail 38-21 in the season opener for both teams at Bates Field.

Cith High scored the final 21 points in the game after falling behind 21-17 early in the fourth quarter.

“What a football game,” said City High coach Dan Sabers. “Those first games you never know what you’re going to get. We certainly helped them out in the third quarter and they got after us. And I’m proud of how we battled back.”

Trailing 17-0 at halftime, Liberty blocked a punt in City High territory and also recovered two fumbles in the third quarter as the momentum, and eventually the lead, shifted sides.

Junior Kaleb Williams scored on a 2-yard run on the second play of the fourth quarter to give the Lightning their first lead ever at 20-17 with 11 minutes, 17 seconds remaining.

Ryan Nugent converted the point-after kick to expand the lead to 21-17.

The Little Hawks had a quick response, though, as senior Max DePrenger returned the ensuing kick to the Liberty 32-yard line.

DePrenger then capped the drive by scoring on a 10-yard run with 9:46 left to play.

DePrenger said he benefitted on the kick return by having the ball bounce deep in Little Hawk territory. He then scooped up the ball and blasted through a huge opening on the left side.

“Once that ball got past me I knew they were all were going to just start flying down and go get that ball or try to tackle me like close to the five-yard line or something,” DePrenger said. “So once I saw them over-pursuing, I saw a huge open area because all my guys were blocking on that right side. I saw just two guys on that left side and I knew I could just explode through that big old hole. So that was a huge momentum shift in that second half.”

The momentum continued to shift towards City High as it forced Liberty into a three-and-out on its next offensive possession.

The Little Hawks started their next drive at their own 39-yard line and then marched for a touchdown on six plays, all of which were runs.

DePrenger capped the drive by scoring on a 2-yard run with 4:46 remaining. Steve then converted the point-after kick, expanding the lead to 31-21.

“I think we got the juice back after we took the lead, because obviously, in the first half things were going pretty well for us and we felt pretty good,” Sabers said. “And then we just turned it over three possessions in a row and then they got the momentum and got it going.

“So that was big and just that drive. The o-line, I thought was special. And I thought our backs, other than ball security, did a good job of sticking it in there and running hard.”

Junior Tonka Hickman put the game out of reach by scoring on a 55-yard touchdown run with 2:10 left to play. Hickman darted through a huge hole up the middle and then outraced several Liberty defenders to the end zone.

His touchdown run came on the first play after City High senior Malik Kimber had been helped off the field with what appeared to be a right knee injury.

“It was just for him,” Hickman said of dedicating his touchdown run to Kimber. “I told him that. This is for you. I did it for him.”

Kimber had played a pivotal role up the point when he was injured on both offense and defense, including rushing for 121 yards on just five carries. He gained most of his yards on a 91-yard touchdown run that occurred late in the second quarter.

“It’s definitely a knee, but we don’t know,” Sabers said of the severity of Kimber’s injury. “I just hope he’s okay.”

City High failed to complete any of its six pass attempts, but compensated by rushing for 335 yards.

Hickman led the ground attack with 175 rushing yards, while Kimber and DePrenger finished with 119 and 72 rushing yards, respectively.

Hickman also intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter that helped to set up his 55-yard touchdown scamper.

“That was an old-style football game,” Sabers said. “Neither team wanted to throw it much.”

Liberty’s passing attack was mostly ineffective until junior quarterback Drake Woody completed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Zimmerman that trimmed the deficit to 17-14 with 7:53 left in the third quarter.

Zimmerman’s touchdown was the second among three consecutive touchdowns that Liberty scored during a stretch in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter.

But then City High answered by scoring the final 21 points in the game.

The Little Hawks scored their first points of the season on a 44-yard field goal by Steve with 4:31 left in the first quarter. Steve also made all five of his point-after kicks.

Williams led the Lightning with 78 rushing yards, while junior Jack Ankenbauer finished with 72 rushing yards and one touchdown.

“We’re just going to go back and try to correct our mistakes and get better as coaches and put these players in a position to win,” said Liberty High coach Jeff Gordon. “I’m so proud of how they fought. They could have easily packed it in, but we built this program on believing in yourself and what we’re doing and your teammates, doing the best in everything you do and never giving up. I thought we displayed that tonight, but we’ve just got to do a better job as coaches.”

                                ICL             ICH

First downs            9                14

Rushes-yards      41-169       45-335

Passing yards      83              0

Penalties/yards    4-20           2-10

Fumbles-lost        1-1            3-2

Liberty High   0   0  14  7  –  21

City High        3  14  0  21  – 38

ICH – Ben Steve 44 FG

ICH – Tonka Hickman 2 run (Steve kick)

ICH – Malik Kimber 91 run (Steve kick)

ICL – Jack Ankenbauer 2 run (Ankenbauer run)

ICL – Dawson Zimmerman 29 pass from Drake Woody (run failed)

ICL – Kaleb Williams 2 run (Ryan Nugent kick)

ICH – Max DePrenger 10 run (Steve kick)

ICH – DePrenger 2 run (Steve kick)

ICH – Hickman 55 run (Steve kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing – ICL: Kaleb Williams 13-178, Jack Ankenbauer 23-72, Drake Woody 6-19. ICH: Tonka Hickman 21-175 Malik Kimber 5-121, Max DePrenger 16-72, Rafe Hamilton 3-16, Quincy Wells 2-7.

Passing – ICL: Drake Woody 6-12-1 83. ICH: Wells 0-3-0 0, Hamilton 0-2-0 0, Kimber 0-1-0 0

Receiving – ICL: Zimmerman 2-44, Ben Houselog 1-20, Carter Fedeler 1-17, Brian Lively 1-5.