Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports 

NORTH LIBERTY – The Liberty High – Clear Creek Amana football game turned into the backyard brawl that everyone expected.

The Clippers won the first half, but the Lightning came back with the final decisive blows in the second half and won 28-21 on Homecoming.

The final horn sent a delirious student body onto the field to celebrate with players as the public address system played “Purple Rain.”

“This is our rivalry, and we prepared very hard for this,” Liberty senior Greg Mitchell said.

The game was the first in district play for both teams, each of which came in with a 3-1 record. With Davenport Assumption and North Scott in the district, this one was critical for both teams.

The Clippers controlled the first half, converting a fumble recovery into a quick touchdown and then mounting two long drives for touchdowns, the second coming in the final three minutes of the half.

“I was very happy with our first-half offense and our first-half defense,” CCA coach Gabe Bakker said.

But another drive that reached the Liberty High 22-yard line was thwarted on fourth down when defensive end Brian Lively crashed into the backfield and stopped Gage Freeman for a loss.

“I saw their linemen pulling, and I just had to keep contain,” Lively said. “We’d watched film all week. We had prepared for them. Our coaches did a really good job preparing us, so I knew what to do.”

Liberty High then drove 74 yards for the tying touchdown before the Clippers retook the lead with their three-minute drill.

At halftime the Clippers had 259 yards of offense and 14 first downs to go with their 21-14 lead.

The second half was Liberty’s.

“Our coach ripped us in the locker, so we came out with higher expectations,” Mitchell said. “We kept the energy up and kept playing ball.”

Liberty High’s offense isn’t exactly your father’s offense. It’s more like your grandfather’s. Running outside the tackles isn’t a sin, but it might put you in purgatory.

But there’s a reason for coach Jeff Gordon’s throwback offense.

It works and it’s based on year-round weight room activity. It moves the chains, slowly but surely, eats clock and it keeps the other team’s offense off the field.

“We came out at halftime and whatever was going to happen, we were going to go get ‘em,” Gordon said. “They really wanted to do that. They busted their tail in the weight room, and I think it showed tonight.”

In the second half Liberty High ran 38 plays to 20 for Clear Creek Amana. In the second half Liberty held CCA to 19 yards passing, 17 yards rushing and two first downs.

“They did a great job offensively; they kept the ball away from us,” Bakker said. “They got four, five, six yards a pop in the run game. They controlled the line of scrimmage and the time of possession.”

Liberty High intercepted two passes (by Mitchell and Darius Willis-Newell) and scored a touchdown after a fumbled snap on a punt led to an 11-yard punt.

Penalties also plagued the Clippers in the half.

“I think our kids are in the right place,” Bakker said. “Give credit to Liberty. They came out and did what they wanted to in the second half. We made too many mistakes in that second half. Those types of things you can’t have.”

“We just realized this is the biggest game of the season probably, and the reason why we came back is we’ve built the program off believing, doing your best and never giving up,” running back Max Tafolla said.

Liberty High had two running backs each gain more than 100 yards. Tafolla had 138 on 31 carries, and Kaleb Williams had 108 on just 11 carries.

Liberty High converted CCA’s 11-yard punt into a 24-yard touchdown drive, converting a fourth-and-one along the way. But a two-point conversion attempt was stopped, leaving the Lightning trailing 21-20 halfway through the third quarter.

Liberty High stopped the Clippers twice before mounting the winning drive.

It began with 1:15 left in the third quarter, ended with 6:20 left in the game and included another fourth-down conversion by Tafolla after a key CCA penalty caused Liberty to rethink punting at midfield.

Tafolla carried the next nine snaps.

“Everyone was doing their jobs,” Tafolla said. “From our center snapping the ball to our entire line just driving the guys back.”

“We were committed (to the weight room) all off season, and that’s what we pride ourselves on,” Lively said.

As Liberty High ground out the winning drive, CCA’s outstanding defensive end T.J. Bollers was on the sideline recovering from an injury.

“He’s one of our best defensive linemen, so it is a big deal for him not to be on the field,” Bakker said. “Our guys just have to step up, and we just couldn’t get the job done.”

A holding penalty left Liberty High with second-and-goal from the 12.

Liberty High quarterback Drake Woody then executed a perfect play-action pass to Ben Houselog for the go-ahead touchdown.

“We saw that he was kind of playing up on the hitch,” Houselog said. “We were thinking I could kind of bait him inside. I ran a close corner, and I got inside of him with a jab step, and Drake delivered the perfect ball.”

“We knew that we had been running the ball over and over,” Woody said. “We knew they were going to expect more of a run. I knew it was going to work because in practice every single time it’s been working. We have such a good connection, me and Houselog, and then our line takes care of their line. It all works out.”

It was Woody to Houselog for the two-point conversion for the 28-21 lead with 6:20 left.

“We talk about finishing,” Houselog said. “We came out with the mindset that we were going to finish, we were down, and we did.”

Liberty High plays North Scott (4-1, 1-0) next week while Clear Creek Amana plays host to winless Clinton.

                                        CCA                  ICL

First downs                    16                     17

Rushing-yards            32-127              49-264

Comp-att-int              16-23-2               5-12-0

Passing-yards                169                    59

Punts-avg.                     3-24                  3-43

Fumbles-lost                 1-0                     1-1

Penalties-yards            7-49.5                 6-42

CCA               14   7   0   0  –  21

Liberty           7    7   6   8  –  28

CCA – Alex Figueroa 15 run (JJ Denny kick)

ICL – Kaleb Williams 46 run (Ryan Nugent kick)

CCA – Sam Stevens 20 pass from Ryan Navara (Denny kick)

ICL – Jack Ankenbauer 1 run (Nugent kick)

CCA – Harrison Rosenberg 6 pass from Navara (Denny kick)

ICL – Ankenbauer 1 run (run failed)

ICL – Ben Houselog 12 pass from Drake Woody (Houselog pass from Woody)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – CCA: Alex Figueroa 11-70, Cole Pfister 12-33, Ryan Navara 5-24, Gage Freeman 4-0. ICL: Max Tafolla 31-138, Kaleb Williams 11-108, Jack Ankenbauer 5-18, Team 2-0.

PASSING – CCA: Ryan Navara 16-32-2-169. ICL: Drake Woody 5-12-0-59.

RECEIVING – CCA: Harrison Rosenberg 6-54, T.J. Bollers 4-46, Sam Stevens 3-35, Brock Reade 2-32, Cole Pfister 1-2. ICL: Ben Houselog 5-59.

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