Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High senior Miles Parlet made his Battle for the Boot debut on Friday night.

It didn’t take long for the Little Hawk lead back to make an impact.

Parlet rushed for a career-high 220 yards and two touchdowns, including a game-clinching 63-yarder late in the fourth quarter as City High downed West High 23-8 in front of a large crowd at Bates Field in Iowa City.

“I can’t even really speak for myself, I just follow my line,” Parlet said. “Those guys they lead the way for everything.”

Parlet provided an offensive spark with his second consecutive 200-yard game and City High forced four turnovers while winning the Battle of the Boot for the third year in a row.

The three-game winning streak is the first for City High over West High since the Little Hawks won seven in a row over the Trojans from 2005 to 2011.

City High improved to 2-2 on the season with its second win in as many weeks while West High dropped to 2-2 with the loss.

“This team deserves it, this team follows the process more than any team I’ve been around,” City High coach Mitch Moore said. “We were 0-2 and had our backs against the wall and we dug deeper, I couldn’t be more proud of all these guys right here.”

Bobby Bacon threw for 255 yards and a touchdown in his second career start and City High never trailed on Friday.

City High outgained West High 442-227, including a 244 to 94 edge in first-half yardage, and had a 4-1 advantage in turnovers but couldn’t put the Trojans away until late in the fourth quarter.

The Little Hawks had two first and goal situations result in three points in the first quarter and turned it over on downs inside the Trojan 25 yard line on two of their first three possession.

City High had a fumble return for a touchdown negated by one of their 12 penalties that total 120 yards.

Still, the Little Hawks did enough to come away with a win.

“We were not pretty on offense tonight we stuck together,” Moore said. “We weren’t pointing fingers, we weren’t yelling at each other we were trying to figure out what we could do to crack one open.”

City High had first and goal on the 5 yard line on its opening drive of the game but turned it over on downs.

On its second possession the Little Hawks had the same situation and settled for a 24-yard field goal.

Starting quarterback Drew Larson who moved to safety after breaking his thumb in week two scooped up a fumble to set up the first Parlet touchdown of the game, a 1-yard burst with 6:05 remaining in the first half.

“We had lots of momentum and the feeling of playing a cross-town rival gives us a lot of motivation,” Larson said. “To go 3-0 against them the last three years is pretty good.”

City High took a 16-0 lead when Bacon connected with Jeremiah Madlock for a 31-yard touchdown pass with 5:18 remaining in the third quarter.

West High came storming back.

The Trojans put together an 8-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jack Wallace to Nick Caylor with 11:11 remaining.

The two-point conversion run cut the lead to 16-8.

The teams traded punts and Parlet all but put the game away when he raced 63 yards for a touchdown with 6:56 remaining.

Parlet finished with 220 yards on a career-high 38 carries.

“It was all my line,” Parlet said. “Those are my brothers, that’s my family. A running back’s best friend is his line. I love those guys.”

The City High defense limited West High to 227 total yards, including just 76 rushing yards and forced four turnovers.

“For three games our defense just kept bending and I don’t know if we bent very much tonight,” Moore said. “We played pretty damn good.”

Kael Kurtz and Dominic Salibi each made diving interceptions to end drives and Sam Kueter and Larson recovered fumbles.

“We were going to do a lot of man and as the game went on we realized two high safeties would do the job,” Kurtz said. “They couldn’t establish the run against us and that’s what really sealed the win.”

                                    ICH               ICW

First Downs                17                   9

Rushes-yards             38-187             29-76

Comp-Att-Int            17-23-1           12-23-2                      

Passing yards            255                  151

Total yards                442                  227

Punts-avg.                  3-37.3              6-37                

Fumbles-lost              3-0                   4-2

Penalties-yards         12-120             7-55    

West High                  0    0    0    8  –   8

City High                   3    6    7    7  –  23

ICH – Will Perrill 24 field goal

ICH – Miles Parlet 1 run (Kick failed)

ICH – Jeremiah Madlock 31 pass from Bobby Bacon (Perrill kick)

ICW – Nick Caylor 8 pass from Jack Wallace (Santana Miller run)

ICH – Parlet 63 run (Perrill kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – City High: Miles Parlet 34-220, Dominic Salibi 1-(-1), Bobby Bacon 1-(-11), Team 2-(-21). West High: Jack Wallace 12-27, Todd Rent 10-20, Marquise Rose 4-24, Ashton Honore 2-4, Butali Butali 1-1.

PASSING – City High: Bobby Bacon 17-23-1 255, Jake Mitchell 0-2-0 0. West High: Jack Wallace 12-23-2 151.

RECEIVING – City High: Carsen Newton 7-77, Jeremiah Madlock 5-133, Connor Cross 1-33, Miles Parlet 3-8, Parker Sutherland 1-4. West High: Mason Woods 4-61, Izaiah Loveless 2-49, Nick Caylor 3-17, Todd Rent 1-26, Julian Manson 1-1, Mason Goering 1-(-3).

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.