Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Even with all the football Gable Mitchell has played before and during a stellar prep career the City High senior had to search deep into his memory bank for a performance like the one he had last Friday.

Mitchell had a career-high three interceptions and threw a pair of touchdown passes to help fourth-ranked City High to a 47-21 win over ninth-ranked Johnston in the Class 5A postseason opener for both teams at Bates Field in Iowa City.

“You could probably go back to flag football and maybe find (a three-interception game) but I don’t really remember a game like that,” Mitchell said. “Plus having two touchdown passes when I don’t really play QB. I don’t think I’ve ever had a game like that.”

A three-interception game is rare but not totally unbelievable for a ball hawk like Mitchell that entered the postseason with four career interceptions.

It is the two touchdown passes that would qualify as unlikely for Mitchell, a wide receiver who leads the Little Hawks in both receptions and receiving yards this season.

A pair of passing touchdowns for a receiver seems improbable but City High players and coaches have grown accustomed to watching Mitchell make plays of all varieties on the football field.

“We’ve nicknamed him the general and rightfully so, he can do it all,” first-year City High coach Mitchell Moore said. “He’s a Swiss Army knife.”

Mitchell has done a little bit of everything on both sides of the ball while helping City High to a 9-1 record and a spot in the Class 5A quarterfinals.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior ranks second on the team with 56.5 tackles including 35 solo stops from his safety spot.

Mitchell has a team-high four interception after picking off Urbandale quarterback Peyton Rottinghaus three times on Friday.

“He has tremendous ball skills but his awareness, his field awareness, his IQ his savvy for sports is off the charts,” Moore said of Mitchell. “He is so savvy and he understands angles and understands positioning and he has great ball skills, his ball skills are elite. He’s not superior athletically but he’s superior in so many other areas it makes him so unique.”

Mitchell has done a lot more than just play safety this season.

As a receiver he leads City High with 22 receptions for 388 yards and has caught four touchdown passes.

Mitchell has also completed four passed for 88 yards and three touchdowns and returned two punts and an interception for a score.

On top of that he is averaging 32.9 yards per punt.

Mitchell is busy on any given Friday night but last week against Urbandale he was at his versatile best.

Along with three interceptions Mitchell made five tackles and tossed a couple of scoring strikes to junior tight end Ben Kueter.

“His performance on Friday I’ve told his grandpa and I’ve told his mom and dad it might be one of the single handed best high school performances I’ve seen,” Moore said. “He has three interceptions, he throws two touchdown passes and he’s directing traffic out there both offensively and defensively.”

Mitchell had scoring strikes of 54 and 8 yards to Kueter against Urbandale helping City High return to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016.

“Most people would look at it as a trick play but for us it’s just another play that we use,” Mitchell said. “We don’t do it that often but it seems like once or twice a game we are doing something like that and it allows us not just to confuse the other team but to use the athletes we have.”

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