Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Things got a little wild for Your Prep Sports area teams in week two.

Class 3A top-ranked Solon had its winning streak over Mount Vernon snapped at home in the Battle of Highway 1 and Clear Creek Amana lost a heartbreaker at Independence on a last second Hail Mary.

The other five area teams picked up wins on Friday.

So what did we learn in the second full week of football action?

We dive in.

What Stood Out?

Liberty High (Again)

If last week was the breakthrough this week was prove it time for the Lightning and boy did they ever deliver.

Class 4A seventh-ranked Liberty High stormed out of the gate again and posted a second consecutive win over a ranked 5A opponent downing 5A No. 10 Linn-Mar 25-14 in North Liberty.

Graham Beckman threw for two more touchdowns and ran for another as Liberty High (2-0) raced to a 25-0 halftime lead.

There is a lot of football to be played but Liberty High has things that travel.

The Lightning are much improved upfront on both sides of the ball from a year ago.

They play good defense.

Beckman is mature beyond his years at quarterback and is a threat in the run and pass game.

The Gregoire boys, Garrett and Trey, lead a deep group of capable playmakers.

Hayden Saul is a weapon in special teams.

The list goes on and on and that is without even mentioning guys like Christian Barney, Wyatt Williams and Amari Thigpen.

This team isn’t just better than a year ago they are legit good and can be a real factor in Class 4A.

Christian Janis (Again)

Last week Janis showed he is going to be an absolute bear for opposing defenses.

The West High senior was back at it again on Friday hauling in a 58-yard touchdown pass and taking back a punt 82 yards for a score in a 42-21 win over Muscatine.

Jack Wallace was playing his 10^th varsity game on Friday. He is only going to get better and he’s already prove to be pretty dang good.

That means Janis is going to get the ball in his hands often.

West High has had an impressive string of single season receiving efforts over the past several seasons between Oliver Martin, Traevis Buchanan and Grahm Goering.

Janis is going to challenge those numbers this fall.

City High and Regina Bounce Back

There wasn’t much doubt that City High and Regina would get back on track.

Those are two programs that are simply too good to let one loss in week one linger.

The wins on Friday aren’t what stood out but more the way the Little Hawks and Regals got into the W column for the first time.

City High set school records for single game points and winning margin with a 77-0 win at Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Regina jumped to a 35-0 lead and downed West Liberty 49-14.

Forget the scores though. Both teams were sharper, cleaner, more composed than a week ago.

That’s the bigger takeaway. Week one didn’t linger with either.

West Branch Gets one Back

Last season West Branch didn’t get to 100 yards of offense in a 17-6 week-two loss to Waterloo Columbus at the Little Rose Bowl.

On Friday the Bears flipped the script on the Sailors locking down defensively in a 34-13 win.

West Branch is 2-0 with a couple of pretty impressive wins over Lisbon and Waterloo Columbus.

The Bears have a new look offense with Tye Hughes at the helm and have put up good numbers.

West Branch showed on Friday it can still get nasty on defense when required holding Columbus under 200 yards of total offense.

With Regina and Durant and the Nolan DeLong show still on the schedule being able to show up defensively is a must for the Bears.

Who Stepped Up?

Regina junior Jackson Naeve

Regina was looking for some playmakers to emerge in its receiving corps and it seems to have found one in Naeve.

The 6-foot, 170-pound junior saw action last season but has excelled early this season in an expanded role leading the Regals with nine receptions through two games.

Naeve had his best game yet on Friday with four catches for 63 yards and two touchdowns.

As the Regina offense continues to gain traction Naeve is going to be a factor going forward.

What’s Next?

Three Games to Watch Next Week

Ames (2-0) at City High (1-1) – Ames comes to Iowa City for the annual Little Cy-Hawk series after snapping a six-game losing skid to Fort Dodge with a 36-32 win over the Dodgers on Friday.

Solon (1-1) at Williamsburg (2-0) – Solon doesn’t get any time to linger on its loss to Mount Vernon as it travels to 2A second-ranked Williamsburg which won at 1A second-ranked Van Meter 18-13 on Friday.

Mid-Prairie (2-0) at Regina (1-1) – The River Valley Conference rivals hook up for the first time since 2008 after the Golden Hawks were forced to forfeit last year’s scheduled meeting.

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