Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

City High (0-1) at Liberty High (0-1)

Where: Liberty Stadium, 7 p.m.

Last season: Liberty High 36, City High 19

Player to watch: Liberty High senior quarterback Graham Beckman (6-1, 194) passed for 285 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for a team-high 71 yards in a season-opening loss at West High.

Key stat: Liberty High ran a school-record 84 offensive plays in its season opener against West High. The previous high for offensive plays in a game for the Lightning was 68.

About the Little Hawks: City High will look to rebound following a 48-13 loss to Illinois powerhouse program Joliet Catholic in the season opener.

The Little Hawks travel across town to continue its rivalry with Liberty High after the Lightning won last year’s meeting 36-19 at Kinnick Stadium.

Liberty High has won three of the last four meetings in the series with City High winning the last meeting at Liberty High 41-0 in 2021.

Senior quarterback Drew Larson (6-1, 175) completed 18-of-25 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns in the loss to Joliet Catholic with senior Jeremiah Madlock (6-0, 175) making four receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown.

Senior linebacker Holdon Clay led City High with 11 tackles including one for loss in the opener.

About the Lightning: Like City High the Lightning will be looking to get back on track after a 35-28 loss to West High in their opener.

Liberty High outgained West High 446 to 243 and ran 84 offensive plays to 48 for the Trojans but committed five turnovers in the season-opening loss.

Five players had at least three receptions for Liberty High in the opener led by juniors Collin Decker (6-3, 190) with seven receptions for 100 yards and Dallas Miller (5-10, 160) with six receptions for 94 yards and two touchdowns.

Junior Owen Drapeaux (6-1, 196) rushed for 39 yards and junior Sutton Koller (5-11, 165) ran for 35 yards and a touchdown as Liberty High rushed for 161 yards as a team.

West High (1-0) at Urbandale (0-1)

Where: Frerichs Field in Urbandale, 7:30 p.m.

Last season: Did not play

Player to watch: Urbandale senior linebacker Gabe Carver (5-10, 185) ranked third on the team with 49 tackles last season and had 10 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss in the season opener against Indianola.

Key stat: West High forced five turnovers in its season-opening win over Liberty High recovering a fumble and intercepting four passes.

About the Trojans: West High scored a late touchdown to down Liberty High 35-28 in its season opener and will look to carry that momentum into its first trip to a Central Iowa Metro League team since 2019.

The Trojans are 3-3 against CIML teams under head coach Garrett Hartwig with three victories over Southeast Polk.

Junior quarterback Jack Wallace (6-3, 210) completed 13-of-20 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Liberty High with senior receiver Izaiah Loveless (5-11, 165) making seven receptions for 191 yards and two touchdowns.

Senior linebacker Santana Miller (5-11, 205) had a team-high 11.5 tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown in the week one win.

About the J-Hawks: Urbandale opened the season with a 31-0 loss at 4A eighth-ranked Indianola in which the J-Hawks managed just 95 yards of total offense and 2.3 yards per play.

Urbandale went 5-4, its eighth consecutive winning season, but the J-Hawks were breaking in plenty of new starters in key spots in it’s season-opening loss to Indianola.

Freshman quarterback Landon Rinnan (5-11, 180) completed 10-of-21 passes for 66 yards and an interception in his varsity debut last week.

Junior Elijah Hoyt (6-1, 180) was the top target for Rinnan with five receptions for 37 yards.

Urbandale was solid defensively holding Indianola to 264 yards of total offense with senior linebackers Carver and Garrett Paul (6-0, 180) combining for 21.5 tackles including 4.5 for loss.

Clear Creek Amana (0-1) at Solon (0-1)

Where: Spartan Stadium, 7:30 p.m.

Last season: Did not play

Player to watch: Solon senior linebacker Brett White (6-0, 210) has led the Spartans in tackles each of the past two seasons and had a team-high 12.5 tackles including four for loss and returned a fumble 33 yards for a touchdown in a week one loss to Davenport Assumption.

Key stat: Solon is 14-3 at Spartan Stadium under head coach Lucas Stanton.

About the Spartans: Solon will look to get its offense going in week two after managing just 123 total yards on 2.4 yards per carry in a 34-7 season-opening loss to Davenport Assumption.

The Spartans rushed for 114 yards in the loss to Assumption with senior Barret Schade (5-10, 195) leading the way with 62 yards and 10 carries and junior Eddie Johnson (6-1, 205) adding 32 yards on five carries.

The Spartans will look to shore up defensively after allowing 408 total yards including 301 rushing yards in the week one loss.

Senior defensive back Jack McCarty (5-10, 175) had 7.5 tackles while junior linebacker Oliver Owens (6-0, 200) had six tackles against Assumption.

About the Clippers: Clear Creek Amana finds itself in a similar spot to Solon after being shutout in a 15-0 loss to Marion in week one.

The Clippers were solid defensively, holding Marion to 268 total yards on 4.2 yards per play, but couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively putting up 191 total yards and just 43 rushing yards on 40 attempts.

Senior quarterback Quinton Tran (5-9, 165) completed 12-of-19 passes for 131 yards with junior Owen Rosenberg (6-2, 180) making six receptions for 92 yards.

Senior tailback Jackson Stevens (5-10, 155) rushed for 59 yards to lead the Clippers.

Junior linebacker Ben Haughey (5-10, 175) and junior defensive end Brody Clubb (6-4, 255) each had 6.5 tackles for the Clippers and combined for 2.5 sacks.

Mid-Prairie (0-1) at Regina (1-0)

Where: Regal Field, 7 p.m.

Last season: Regina 35, Mid-Prairie 14

Player to watch: Mid-Prairie junior quarterback Brady Weber (5-9, 160) completed 14-of-20 passes for 114 yards and two interceptions and rushed for 50 yards on 10 carries in a 13-0 season-opening loss to Wilton.

Key stat: Mid-Prairie allowed 253 rushing yards and 5.8 yards per carry to Wilton in a week one loss.

About the Regals: Regina was impressive in a 44-6 season-opening win over West Liberty bolting to a 21-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.

The Regals rolled up 408 yards of total offense and averaged 8.2 yards per play in the win over the Comets despite missing several key players for part of the game.

Senior quarterback Gentry Dumont (6-2, 205) completed 10-of-18 passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns in less than a half of action while senior receiver Jackson Naeve (6-1, 180) rushed for 63 yards and caught two passes for 44 yards.

Regina was equally impressive on defense holding West Liberty to 179 total yards on 3.7 yards per play.

Jack Clark (6-2, 215) had a team-high 7.5 tackles while junior Leren Fernandez (5-10, 180) had 5.5 stops.

About the Golden Hawks: It’s a new era for Mid-Prairie football with Daren Lambert taking over the head coaching duties for Pete Cavanagh who stepped down last spring after 20 seasons leading the program

The Golden Hawks are coming off back-to-back 6-4 seasons and lost 13-0 to Wilton in their season opener.

Weber was solid in his first career start against Wilton and has a weapon in the backfield in sophomore Hudson Ehrenfelt (5-10, 180) who rushed for 85 yards and caught four passes for 57 yards against Wilton.

Sophomore linebacker Kaden Kos (5-11, 175) had a team-high 13.5 tackles in the loss to Wilton including a tackle for loss.

1A No. 8 Dike-New Hartford (0-1) at West Branch (0-1)

Where: The Little Rose Bowl, 7:30 p.m.

Last season: Did not play

Player to watch: Dike-New Hartford junior running back Noah Borcherding (5-11, 190) rushed for 83 yards on 18 carries in the season opener against Grundy Center. Borcherding ran for 649 yards as a sophomore at Hudson last season.

Key stat: West Branch hasn’t lost back-to-back games in the same season since consecutive losses to West Liberty and Cascade in weeks two and three of the 2020 season.

About the Bears: West Branch opened the season with a 42-14 loss at 3A fifth-ranked Williamsburg.

The Bears were limited to 173 yards of total offense in the opener but got a boost from sophomore running back Cooper Gates who rushed for 67 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.

Senior linebacker Reese Trepanier (6-1, 210) led West Branch with 5.5 tackles in the opener while senior defensive back Cale Seydel (5-10, 165) had five tackles.

This will be the first meeting between these two teams since Dike-New Hartford defeated West Branch 35-18 in the Class 1A playoffs in 2014.

About the Wolverines: Coming off a 7-3 season a year ago Dike-New Hartford opened the season with a 7-6 loss against 1A top-ranked Grundy Center.

Dike-New Hartford held Grundy Center to 217 yards of total offense but committed three turnovers in the season-opening loss.

The Wolverines finished with 215 yards of offense led by Borcherding and junior quarterback Colin Meester (6-2, 170) who completed 6-of-15 passes for 58 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Tyler Bakken (6-0, 14) caught two passes for 30 yards and junior Devon Lotts (6-0, 165) had two receptions for 17 yards and a touchdown.

Seven different players were part of a tackle for loss in

Lotts and junior linebacker Jack Severson (5-11, 176) lead the Wolverine defense and combined for 11 tackles in the season opener.

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