Matt Coss

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High saw a rivalry trophy elude its grasp last week.

The Lightning weren’t about to let it happen again.

Powered by a dynamic offense which erupted for 421 total yards and a defense which pitched a second-half shutout, Liberty High’s football program kept its sweaty palms on the Zeus trophy Friday night with a 41-14 rout over City High at Liberty High Stadium.

It helped ease the pain of last week’s seven-point loss to West High in the Principal Bell trophy contest.

“You look good Zeus,” Liberty High coach James Harris said after clutching the hardware for the second straight season and fourth time in six years. “I’m pretty salty about giving that Bell away last week. So it is good to keep Zeus home.”

Liberty High (1-1) was undone by turnovers and yielding significant chunk plays on defense in Week 1.

The Lightning cleaned up both areas in scoring the game’s final 27 points.

Senior quarterback Graham Beckman, coming off four interceptions in the season opener (the same number he threw all of last season), completed 26 of 32 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns. Beckman also had a rushing touchdown.

“Graham flushed that game right away,” Liberty High receiver Dallas Miller said. “I was talking to him last Saturday and he was like, ‘We’ll come back and execute. I got you guys. That was my fault.’”

Beckman’s performance didn’t surprise Harris one bit.

“He’s a high-character young man and that’s what we expect from him,” Harris said. “We weren’t worried about him. Obviously, we don’t want to turn the ball over like that, but we weren’t ready to pull the plug on him.”

Miller was the recipient on all three touchdown passes — two on fade routes in the back of the end zone.

The 5-foot-10 junior finished with 10 receptions for 95 yards.

“I have a lot of trust in Dallas,” Beckman said.

The two live in the same neighborhood and came to the field frequently during the summer to work on routes.

They also played 7-on-7 together.

“We’ve got that connection,” Miller said.

The game turned in Liberty High’s favor just before halftime.

Deadlocked at 14, Liberty High elected to go for it on fourth and 3 from the City High 5-yard line in the final 20 seconds of the half.

Junior running back Sutton Koller carried it in for a touchdown.

Then on the opening possession of the third quarter, set up by a long kickoff return, the Lightning converted another fourth down inside the Little Hawk 5 for a touchdown when Beckman hit Miller.

“It is having confidence in our guys knowing we’re going to be physical up front or we can throw the ball,” Beckman said. “Most things work for us, especially on fourth down because everybody can move.”

The two scores, in a span of 2 minutes, 45 seconds, turned a tie game into a 28-14 Liberty High cushion.

“We have a lot of confidence in our offense,” Harris said. “My offensive coordinator is elite, my quarterback coach is elite and our quarterback is a hell of a player.”

Liberty had success running the ball, too.

Led by Koller, Owen Drapeaux and a physical offensive line, the Lightning accumulated 154 yards on the ground and compiled 27 first downs in the game.

Dantrell Skinner had a rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter and Miller had the last of his three touchdowns midway through the final quarter to put an exclamation point on a dominant second half.

“We were ready to go,” said Koller, who also had a team-high 11 receptions for 113 yards, “and unleashed everything we had. I’m really proud of this team and our offense.”

Liberty High’s defense allowed one scoring drive in the opening half, but City High’s other touchdown came when Sam Kueter recovered a blocked punt and darted into the end zone.

The Little Hawks (0-2) were undone by two turnovers and 10 penalties for 110 yards.

They had five 15-yard infractions, three that came on scoring drives for the Lightning.

City High senior Drew Larson completed 8 of 10 passes for 62 yards in the first half, but junior Bobby Bacon took all the snaps at quarterback in the second half.

He hit on 8 of 22 passes for 110 yards. Larson stayed in the game on defense at safety.

Liberty High surrendered scoring plays of 87, 51, 50 and 44 yards last week.

City High had only one play go beyond 20 yards Friday.

“That was certainly a point of emphasis this week,” Harris said. “Our whole defensive coaching staff has put in so much work and our guys are buying into 11 hats to the football.

“We’re playing 11 as one. We’re running to the ball, ripping the ball and playing good team defense. We’ve got some elite guys on that side, so if we continue to do that, good things are going to keep happening.”

City High plays another trophy game next week when it visits Ames.

Liberty High remains at home to face Pleasant Valley, a 36-35 double-overtime winner over Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

“We came back and really executed today,” Miller said. “We’re going to have a lot of momentum going into next week.”

                                  CITY                LIB

First downs                 11                    27

Rushes-yards              20-72               47-154

Comp-Att-Int              16-32-1           27-33-0

Passing yards              172                  267

Total yards                  244                  421

Punts-avg.                   3-34.7              2-17.5

Fumbles-lost               1-1                   0-0

Penalties-yards           10-110             8-75

City High                   0          14        0           0  – 14

Liberty                       0          20        8          13 – 41 

ICL – Dallas Miller 4 pass from Graham Beckman (Conley Sundblad kick)

ICH – Carsen Newton 5 pass from Drew Larson (kick failed)

ICL – Beckman 1 run (Sundblad kick)

ICH – Sam Kueter blocked punt return (Holdon Clay run)

ICL – Sutton Koller 5 run (kick failed)

ICL – Miller 5 pass from Beckman (Miller from Beckman)

ICL – Dantrell Skinner 1 run (run failed)

ICL – Miller 9 pass from Beckman (Sundblad kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — City High: Dominic Salibi 12-46, Miles Parlet 5-16, Bobby Bacon 2-9, Drew Larson 1-1. Liberty: Sutton Koller 14-61, Owen Drapeaux 15-55, Graham Beckman 10-14, Anyhlan Peoples 4-13, Dantrell Skinner 3-6, Reece Rettig 1-5.

PASSING — City High: Bacon 8-22-0, 110 yards; Larson 8-10-1, 62 yards. Liberty: Beckman 26-32-0, 269 yards; Rettig 1-1-0, (-2 yards)

RECEIVING — City High: Carsen Newton 7-67, Connor Cross 4-52, Jeremiah Madlock 3-40, Parker Sutherland 1-14, Salibi 1-(-1). Liberty: Koller 11-113, Dallas Miller 10-95, Collin Decker 1-24, Cody Nichols 1-19, Gabe Clark 2-14, Drapeaux 1-4, Jack McDowell 1-(-2).

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