Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Sometimes football can be reduced to its basics: blocking, tackling, running, protecting the football.

Carlisle showed the value of old-fashioned technical virtues in putting Liberty High away 56-28 Friday in a 4A quarterfinal playoff football game at Liberty Stadium.

Carlisle (10-1) heads to the UNI-Dome where it will face top-ranked Council Bluffs Lewis Central (11-0) at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the 4A semifinals.

Liberty High’s district championship season ends at 9-2.

Carlisle, running a split-back veer, scored every time it had the ball in the first half with the exception of the end of the second quarter when it just ran out of time.

The Wildcats racked up 316 yards in the first half, all on the ground, and all from running backs Jack Laughlin and Jes Krcil.

They piled up 17 first downs in the first half en route to a 35-7 lead.

“Our kids just executed really well,” Carlisle coach Mark Hoekstra said. “It’s kind of what we’ve done all year. It’s kind of how we’ve operated all year. Those two running backs have been the catalyst for us, and they did it again tonight.”

Liberty simply couldn’t stop the Wildcats’ offensive line from opening holes and the two backs from slashing through them.

“I don’t know (why they were so hard to stop),” Liberty coach James Harris said. “If I had an answer maybe we would have stopped them. We talked about maybe switching up some front stuff, but they still ended up cutting us backside.”

The Bolts made things harder on themselves, losing two fumbles and throwing an interception. But really, even with those offensive miscues, 28 points should be enough to win these kinds of games.

But tonight it wasn’t enough to get within hailing distance of the Wildcats.

The second half was back and forth, score versus score.

Liberty High took the third-quarter kickoff and  drove 82 yards in eight plays for a touchdown. Graham Beckman threw completions to Wyatt Williams, Trey Gregoire and Garrett Gregoire to get down the field in 1:34 and cut the lead to 35-14.

Even with a bit of momentum, Liberty High had no answer for the Carlisle running game.

The ‘Cats took only four plays to match that TD and bump the lead back to 42-14.

The ‘Cats scored every time they had the ball in the second half until the final possession when, with time running out, they took a knee at the Lightning 1-yard line.

They never punted. The Bolts never stopped them, and they never stopped themselves.

“They were running read and power. They were watching us and cutting us and maybe doing enough stuff blocking-wise that we didn’t have an answer,” Harris said. “I wish I did. It was pretty damn simple, but we should have had an answer.”

“Our bond as a team just really translates into how we play football,” Carlisle co-captain and lineman Jack Brewer said. “We’re just a great team together. It doesn’t take one person; it takes an entire team. I think this shows everybody who we are and what kind of team we are.”

Liberty High cut the lead to 42-21 and recovered the ensuing onside kick.

The Bolts scored a touchdown five plays later on a 52-yard drive to cut the lead to 42-28 with 5:39 left in the third quarter.

The key play of the drive was a 32-yard pass to Lucas Meyer.

But the bottom line was Carlisle’s offensive line.

“It was just a great job. They’re very talented. We just kept grinding and kept the lead and the weather helped us out a lot,” Hoekstra said. “The offensive line and our backs have been the backbone of our season.”

The Wildcats responded with a TD, a defensive stop and another TD to take a 56-28 lead early in the fourth quarter.

They killed the final 8:33 of the game with a grinding drive that ended on the Liberty 1-yard line when quarterback Joe Goodhue took a knee as time ran out.

The Wildcats came into the game averaging 326 yards rushing per game.

They accumulated 527 yards Friday against the Lightning, and all but three of those yards came from Laughlin and Krcil.

Those two carried the ball 67 times.

Carlisle threw two passes, both to end the first half. One was incomplete and the other was intercepted in the end zone as time ran out.

“Credit to them,” Harris said. “They’ve got great offensive coaches and those two backs are really good players. They ran wishbone and got up in our (grills) is what they did.”

The Wildcats racked up 28 first downs.

Mother Nature was another contributor to the result.

It rained the whole game and the temperature was around 45 degrees. Such conditions did not deter Carlisle’s attack.

Liberty High’s offense had some bright moments as Beckman and his bevy of receivers tried mightily to get back into the game in the second half.

Garrett Gregoire caught seven passes for 133 yards and one touchdown.

Trey Gregoire caught six passes for 52 yards and one touchdown and Wyatt Williams had two catches for 33 yards.

Also starring on offense was junior Dantrell Skinner, who did his Refrigerator Perry imitation in rushing for two touchdowns in three carries.

Skinner, a mainstay on the defensive line, was inserted into the backfield when Liberty was close to the goal line, and he found the end zone.

“Dantrell is a special player; we’re going to use him where we can,” Harris said.

The Lighting won their first district title this year and their first playoff game in the school’s most successful football season to date.

                                                   CAR               ICL

First downs                             28                    17

Rushing-yards                         70-527             20-50

Comp-Att-Int                           0-2-1               18-32-1

Passing-yards                          0                      265

Punts-avg.                               0                      1-27

Fumbles-lost                           0-0                   3-2

Penalties-yards                       2-15                 3-17.5

Carlisle          21  14  14   7  –  56

Liberty High 0     7   21   0  –  28

CAR – Jes Krcil 10 run (Gavin Pienkowski kick)

CAR – Jack Laughlin 14 run (Pienkowski kick)

CAR – Krcil 8 run (Pienkowski kick)

CAR – Laughlin 10 run (Pienkowski kick)

ICL – Dantrell Skinner 4 run (Hayden Saul kick)

CAR – Krcil 1 run (Pienkowski kick)

ICL – Garrett Gregoire 8 pass from Graham Beckman (Saul kick)

CAR – Laughlin 5 run (Pienkowski kick)

ICL – Dantrell Skinner 1 run (Saul kick)

ICL – Trey Gregoire 1 pass from Beckman (Saul kick)

CAR– Laughlin 7 run (Pienkowski kick)

CAR – Laughlin 6 run (Pienkowski kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – CAR: Jack Laughlin 33-279, Jes Krcil 34-245, Joe Goodhue 1-3, Mason Lucas 1-0, team 1-0. ICL: Graham Beckman 10-23, Trey Gregoire 4-18, Dantrell Skinner 3-6, Owen Drapeaux 3-3.

PASSING – CAR: Joe Goodhue 0-2-1 0. ICL: Graham Beckman 18-32-1 265.

RECEIVING – ICL: Garrett Gregoire 7-133, Trey Gregoire 6-52, Wyatt Williams 2-33, Lucas Meyer 1-32, Dallas Miller 1-16, Drapeaux 1-11.

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