Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The biggest games of the 2021 prep football season are yet to be played with semifinals getting underway on Wednesday and continuing through Saturday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

State titles will be up for grabs in all seven classes next week.

Your Prep Sports will once again be represented in the UNI-Dome with Solon and City High each reaching the semifinals.

Before the attention turns to the semifinals we take a look back at what has been an incredible season in the Your Prep Sports area.

We take a look back at some of the best plays, performances, games and moments from the 2021 season as well as handing out some individual and team awards.

Best Individual offensive performance: Mason Applegate against Davenport Central. Applegate was simply unstoppable against the Blue Devils rushing for a school-record 381 yards and four touchdowns on just 16 carries. The 190-pound defensive tackle turned tailback had touchdown runs of 93, 87, 72 and 68 yards while averaging 23.8 yards per carry.

Best individual offensive performance part II: Darius Willis-Newell against Clear Creek Amana.  The breakout game for Willis-Newell was the best game ever for a Liberty High running back as the senior rolled up school-record 306 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 44 carries.

Best individual defensive performance: Gable Mitchell against Urbandale. This category could conceivable go to four or five different City High players but Mitchell gets the nod after the senior safety had five tackles and three interceptions of Urbandale quarterback Peyton Rottinghaus who had thrown five interceptions in nine regular season games.

Best play call: City High’s reverse pass against Wesst Des Moines Dowling. Facing fourth-and-two and trailing 17-14 with under two minutes to play isn’t typically the time for some trickery. Then again maybe that’s why it worked so well when City High dialed up a reverse pass with the game on the line. Drew Larson took a pitch back and tossed a perfect strike to Ben Kueter in the endzone with 1:09 left to lift City High to a 21-17 win.

Best individual offensive play: Ben Swails to Gage Freeman against Liberty High. The pass itself was a thing of beauty as Swails lofted a perfect ball that hit Freeman in stride for a 60-yard touchdown. The circumstances of the play make it stand out. Trailing 28-24 and facing fourth-and-16 Swails got hit right as he delivered the ball that turned into the game-winning touchdown in a 31-30 Clipper win.

Best individual defensive play: Andrew Wiese against Cascade. Sure, lineman touchdowns are always fun but this wasn’t just a big guy grabbing a ball all alone and going untouched to the end zone. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Wiese has the awareness to located a tipped pass, made the interception, then side stepped a defender and outraced two Cascade players in a 67 yard return for a score.

Best individual special teams play: Zeb Kleinsmith against West Delaware. This was one of the easier choices on the list. With Solon’s season on the line Kleinsmith blocked a West Delaware punt, located the loose ball and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown for the go-ahead score with less than two minutes left in a 23-19 Solon win in the 3A quarterfinals.

Best team offensive performance: City High against Urbandale. The Little Hawks had three games with more total yards than the 440 they put up in the playoff opener against the J-Hawks and four games when they scored more than the 47 points they had against Urbandale. However, City High was never more than impressive than it was when it put up 35 first-half points against an Urbandale defense that hadn’t allowed more than 21 points in a game all season and entered holding opponents to 8.7 points and 198 total yards per game.

Best team defensive performance: West Branch against Lisbon. West Branch limited a Lisbon team that finished 8-2 and averaged 35.4 points per game over it final nine games to season-low outputs of six points and 113 total yards on 3.1 yards per play and forced three turnovers in a 12-6 win.

Best comeback: Clear Creek Amana against Marion. Forget best of the season this was one for the ages. The Clippers trailed 21-9 at the half and 35-23 with under nine minutes to play before scoring the final 13 points in a 36-35 win.

Best clutch performance: Ben Swails against Newton. Needing a win to secure a playoff berth Swails went out and threw for 250 yards and a career-high five touchdowns and also rushed for 29 yards in a 49-48 win over Newton.

Best clutch play: Carter Seaton against West Des Moines Dowling. Needing a stop to secure a win over perennial power West Des Moines Dowling Seaton picked off a Jake English pass in the final minutes to secure a 21-17 win.

Best bounce back performance: Andy Henson against Wilton. The week after being held to 32 rushing yards on 15 carries in a loss to Regina the West Branch junior tailback produced perhaps the best game of his career, running for 236 yard and four touchdowns in a 28-12 win over the Beavers.

Biggest game-changing play: Logan Sieverding against Grinnell. Third-ranked Solon was locked in a dogfight with Grinnell and staring at a halftime deficit with Sieverding stopped a Tiger drive late in the second quarter with an interception he returned 77 yards for a touchdown to give Solon a 14-10 halftime and completely swing the momentum in what turned into a 35-17 Spartan win.

Best game: Perhaps the toughest call on this list there are several games worthy of this list. City High’s home win over Dowling. Solon’s come-from-behind win over rival Mount Vernon. Any one of Clear Creek Amana’s four incredible one-point road wins or Regina’s season opening win over Williamsburg all could earn the top spot. However, we’ll go with Solon’s 23-19 quarterfinal win over fifth-ranked West Delaware in which the Spartans rallied from an early 12-0 hole and a late 19-9 deficit.

Best finish: Clear Creek Amana against Marion. The Clippers roared back from down 12 in the fourth quarter using a blocked punt to set up a touchdown and then came up with a pair of fourth down stops in the final 62 seconds its own territory to secure a 36-35 win.

Breakthrough offensive performer: Solon junior running back Sean Stahle. With Solon losing its top two running backs from a season ago there was an opening in the backfield but Stahle grabbed ahold of it early and never let go rushing for a team-high 1,127 yards and 17 touchdowns to go with 11 receptions for 280 yards and three scores.

Breakthrough defensive performer: City High senior linebacker John Klosterman. Klosterman got his feet wet at the varsity level as a sophomore and didn’t play a season but made a big-time impact in his return to the City High lineup this fall. The 6-0, 205-pound linebacker ranks third on the team with 55 tackles including 5.5 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss.

Most versatile: City High senior Gable Mitchell. Few players have the skill set or the stat sheet of Mitchell who has thrown three touchdown passes, caught four touchdown passes and returned an interception and two punts for scores. Mitchell leads City High with 23 receptions and 404 receiving yards, is second on the team in tackles (64.5) and leads in interceptions (5), averages 31.7 yards per punt return and 33.7 yards per punt.

Most consistent: Clear Creek Amana senior wide receiver Harrison Rosenberg. It is difficult for a receiver to be any more consistent than Rosenberg who had four or more receptions in seven games, had at least 60 yards receiving in seven games and caught a touchdown pass in eight games while finishing with 46 receptions for 855 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Coach of the year: Mitchell Moore. Perhaps no coach in the state can lay claim to a better first season at a new school as Moore has led City High to a 10-1 mark and its first state semifinal trip in a decade. City High was coming off a string of four consecutive two-win seasons before Moore arrive and directed the Little Hawks to their highest win total since going 13-1 in 2010.

Offensive newcomer of the year: Regina junior running back Levi Daniel. In his first season at Regina Daniel hit the ground running racking up 1,033 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns and also catching nine passes for 138 yards and a score.

Defensive newcomer of the year: Solon sophomore linebacker Brett White. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds White doesn’t look like a first-year varsity player and he doesn’t play anything like one either. In his first varsity season White has a team-high 87 tackles including 4.5 sacks and 14.5 for loss and also has an interception.

Offensive Freshman of the year: West High’s Jack Wallace. Freshman rarely see the field at the 5A level, especially at quarterback but Wallace showed high-end potential in his debut season. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Wallace passed for 829 yards and five touchdowns in his first taste of varsity action.

Defensive Freshman of the year: Clear Creek Amana’s Brody Clubb. Almost as rare as a freshman starting under center is a first-year player starting in the trenches but that’s what Clubb did this season for the Clippers. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound Clubb didn’t just start, he excelled at his defensive end spot ranking fourth on the team with 39.5 tackles to go with a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss.

Biggest under the radar impact: Regina senior lineman Aidan Udell. It’s not like Udell is a total unknown. He was the Class 1A, District 5 defensive line most valuable player and is a sure fire all-state selection. That said, Udell was so good this season he still probably went under appreciated. The 5-10, 195 senior had a team-high 66.5 tackles, including 10.5 for loss and three sacks to help Regina to a 9-1 record.

Unsung hero: Liberty High senior Luke Meyers. The senior defensive back turned wide receiver quietly put together an incredibly impressive senior season while playing full-time on both sides of the ball for the first time. Meyers caught a team-high 26 passes for 367 yards and two touchdowns and made 21.5 tackles and tied for the team lead with three interceptions.

Best QB Tandem: City sophomores Quinton Tran and Drew Larson. O.k., O.k. no other area team and few teams statewide have used a two-quarterback system all season but the Tran and Larson combo is more than deserving of a mention. Together the two have combined to complete 69 percent of their passes, while throwing for a combined 2,106 yards and 25 touchdowns with just eight interceptions.

Offensive MVP: Solon junior quarterback Blake Timmons. There may be players with better stats but few players mean more to the success of their team than Timmons who has accounted for more than 53 percent of the Spartans total yards this season. Timmons has passed for 1,442 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushed for 893 yards and 10 scores while helping Solon to a perfect 11-0 record.

Defensive MVP: City High junior linebacker Ben Kueter. It didn’t take long this season for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Kueter to lock up and accept an offer from Iowa or cement his status as one of the elite players in the state. Kueter leads City High with 94 tackles and 11.5 sacks and his 39 tackles for loss are the most in the state.

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