Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The Boot overflowed with big plays Friday at Frank Bates Field, and City High created nearly all of them en route to a 56-7 whipping of West High.

“We’ve had our struggles the last few years, and we’ve turned it around this year,” City High senior running back Joey Bouska said. “The last three years we’ve had the (stuff) kicked out of us, and to turn it around is a little payback.”

City High remained unbeaten after five games and West High is 1-4.

This series, as competitive and emotional as it is, sometimes produces lopsided games.

This was one.

City High made big play after big play whether it was on offense or defense.

The Little Hawks produced runs of 86, 69 and 30 yards, two of which were touchdowns. 4

They caught passes of 50, 24 and 35 yards, one of which was a touchdown and one led to another touchdown.

They intercepted three passes, all of which led to touchdowns.

Gable Mitchell returned one 73 yards for a TD.

“We have some of the best players in Iowa,” City High junior wide receiver Akili Maddox said in explanation.

“It’s our preparation,” Bouska said. “We prepared better than anybody.”

Bouska got the hit parade started with an 86-yard TD run on City High’s second possession.

He seemed to squirt out of the pack and was off.

“Saw a hole open up, hit it hard and ran with it,” Bouska said.

City High’s second scoring drive featured the hard running of Darren Richardson, who finished with 201 yards on 20 carries with four touchdowns.

An interception by Carter Seaton halted a promising West High drive and set up a City drive capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Quinton Tran to Mattox.

It was Mattox’s first TD of the season.

“I had a “go” (route); I just ran straight down the field,” Mattox said. “I had my head down in practice all week and got in a zone and caught it. It felt amazing. We practiced it all week.”

City High finished the first half with a 57-yard touchdown drive in the final 1:11.

The key play came on a short pass that Mitchell took 50 yards to the Trojan 7-yard line. City High led 28-0 at half.

West High mounted its only scoring drive to begin the second half.

The Trojans drove 80 yards with Jack Wallace hitting Nate Gudenkauf with a 28-yard pass for the score.

City was unfazed.

“No, we know we have one of the best defenses in Iowa, so we were like, ‘we’ll just bounce back,’ and we did. And the offense helped out,” Mattox said.

“It was a wake-up call,” Bouska said. “You know, they’re going to try to punch us in the mouth; we’re going to punch them right back, and that’s what we did.”

“Our team has shown up every day; there’s no quit,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “It’s been one of those seasons. We’ve had some injuries; we’ve played very good teams. City High was the better team tonight, and we’ll do our best to move forward.”

The Little Hawks scored three TDs in the third quarter.

Richardson accounted for one drive with four rushes for 84 yards and a touchdown.

Another Seaton interception set up a one-play drive, a 30-yard TD run by Richardson.

Mitchell capped off the quarter by returning an interception 73 yards to the end zone.

He actually ran a lot farther because he cut back clear across the field to avoid tacklers and seemed to lunge into the end zone in relief.

“After a long, hard-fought game I was pretty tired at the end of that run. I just had to get in,” he said. “And it felt good.”

City High’s defense held West in check with the exception of the indefatigable Mason Applegate, who ended up with the hardest-earned 123 yards of his season.

City High’s defense successfully pressured Wallace, West’s freshman quarterback, into mistakes. He seemed to always have company in the backfield.

Hartwig said he has great respect for what his freshman is going through.

“There’s only one way to get experience,” Hartwig said. “He’s a fighter and he shows up day in and day out. He’s going to be a great one. We’ve got to put him in position to be successful.”

City High was ready to pounce.

“It’s just preparation,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got a lot of tough guys on our team, and we play hard and do what we had to do.”

“He’s a freshman and we wanted to take advantage of that,” senior defensive lineman Jacob Williamson said. “We had a great game plan, and we were able to execute it. It’s just been an honor to play on this field for this game.”

                                   ICW                ICH

First downs                 13                    20

Rushing-yards            44-155            40-359

Comp-Att-Int              2-15-3             11-17-1

Passing yards              70                    182

Total yards                  225                  541

Punts-avg                    8-33                 2-29

Fumbles-lost               1-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards           4-35                 9-85

West High        0    0     7   0  –   7

City High         14   14   21  7  –  56

ICH – Joey Bouska 86 run (Kongalo Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Darren Richardson 5 run (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Akili Mattox 24 pass from Quinton Tran (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Bouska 4 run (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICW– Nate Gudenkauf 28 pass from Jack Wallace (Matt Jetton kick)

ICH – Richardson 4 run (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Richardson 30 run (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Gable Mitchell 73 interception return (Mwenemkamba kick)

ICH – Richardson 11 run (Mwenemkamba kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – West High: Mason Applegate 27-123, Davontae Morris 9-34, Wallace 2-(-12), team 3-(-1). City High: Darren Richardson 20-201, Joey Bouska 13-106, Quinton Tran 5-37, Sam Rew 1-4, Carson Newton 1-1.

PASSING – West High: Jack Wallace 2-15-3 70. City High: Quinton Tran 9-11-0 146, Drew Larson 2-6-1 36.

RECEIVING – West High: Owen Aanestad 1-42, Nate Gudenkauf 1-28. City High: Gable Mitchell 3-58, Joey Bouska 1-35, Will Larson 3-34, Akili Mattox 1-24, John Klosterman 2-21, Jovan Harris 1-10.

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