Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Virtually everyone involved with high school football in the state of Iowa was watching the weather forecast leading up to Friday evening.

Most winced when they saw a Friday forecast filled with wind and rain.

City High senior Miles Parlet couldn’t help but smile.

Parlet rushed slugged and sprinted his way to 142 yards and two touchdowns as City High handled Linn-Mar 30-0 at rain-soaked Frank Bates Field in Iowa City.

“Starting on Sunday, looking at the weather for this game I couldn’t help but be excited,” Parlet said. “It’s backyard football baby. This is in the back yard playing with your buddies in the neighborhood just making mom mad with the dirty laundry. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Parlet scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 6 yards and logged his fifth 100-yard rushing performance in the past six games as City High improved to 5-3 with its third consecutive win.

With the win City High kept its playoff hopes alive heading into its regular season finale next Friday at Bettendorf (7-1).

“I think this is why we play football, for nights like this,” Parlet said. “Sloppy conditions, win or go home, keeping the season alive it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Parlet provided the offense on Friday and the City High defense did the rest.

City High limited Linn-Mar (4-4) to 109 yards of total offense and 2 yards per play while posting its second shutout in the last three games.

The Little Hawk defense forced eight punts, had an interception and recorded a second-half safety.

After Linn-Mar recorded first downs on back-to-back plays on the opening drive of the game City High limited the Lions to just six first downs the rest of the game.

“That’s our mentality right now is we are backed into a corner and we are going to make them come to us and we are going to take care of business,” City High senior linebacker Sam Kueter said. “Our defense went out tonight and we took care of business.”

The start of the game was delayed by nearly an hour by lightning as a thunderstorm passed through the area and the game was played through a constant rain.

On a night when Parlet and the defense dominated City High used the passing game to get the scoring started.

Junior quarterback Bobby Bacon connected with Jeremiah Madlock on a 63-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-seven play to give the Little Hawks a 7-0 lead with 4:03 remaining in the first quarter.

“Scoring was super tough with the slippery conditions and fumbles so getting off to a lead like that was important,” Parlet said. “It wasn’t easy with the delay so I am super proud of this team.”

After the City High defense forced Linn-Mar to go three-and-out on its next possession Parlet carried nine consecutive times on a 9-play, 47-yard touchdown drive that put City High up 14-0.

“This team knows if we truly want to win in the playoffs this is how you win,” City High coach Mitch Moore said. “This is what the weather is going to be in the playoffs but colder. We are excited this is a good win for us.”

Leading 14-0 at the half City High put the game away early in the third period.

Parlet carried six times on 9-play, 49-yard touchdown drive to open the second half and his 1-yard touchdown run that capped the march put City High up 21-0.

Jake Mitchell added a 1-yard touchdown run and City High added a safety when a Linn-Mar shotgun snap went awry and quarterback Stone Morgan had to fall on the ball in the end zone.

“We all came out expecting this could be the last time on our field, and playing in weather like this on one of the only grass fields in the state in 5A we are playing to our advantage,” City High senior safety Drew Larson said. “We left it all on the field.”

City High limited Linn-Mar to 74 rushing yards on 38 carries and eight first downs in the game.

“The pass wasn’t a big part of the game tonight and we have some really good tacklers on the side and we read them well,” Larson said. “We knew what they were doing.”

Bacon finished 6-of-12 passing for 172 yards and a touchdown for City High with Connor Cross making two catches for 73 yards.

It was likely the final home game for the City High seniors which will try to earn a spot in the 5A playoffs with a win next week.

“With the weather it was just so much fun,” Kueter said. “It was a great game to end on Bates for sure.”

                                    ICH                L-M

First downs                13                    8

Rushes-yards             44-158             38-74

Comp-Att-Int            6-12-1             7-16-1

Passing yards             172                  35

Total yards                330                  109

Punts-avg.                  5-32.6              8-34.4

Fumbles-lost              3-1                   4-0

Penalties-yards          3-30                 4-20

Linn-Mar                   0  0   0  0  –   0

City High                   7  7  16  0  –  30

ICH – Jeremiah Madlock 63 pass from Bobby Bacon (Will Perrill kick)

ICH – Miles Parlet 6 run (Perrill kick)

ICH – Parlet 1 run (Perrill kick)

ICH – Safety fumble recovery in end zone

ICH – Mitchell 1 run (Perrill kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – City High: Miles Parlet 29-142, Gabe Egeland 6-25, Jake Mitchell 3-6, Dominic Salibi 1-(-1), Bobby Bacon 5-(-14). Linn-Mar: Dylan Muszynski 16-38, Tyree Alons 8-36, Talan Sivertsen 2-6, Emerson Gasper 1-3, Stone Morgan 11-(-9).

PASSING – City High: Bobby Bacon 6-12-1 172. Linn-Mar: Stone Morgan 7-16-1 35.

RECEIVING – City High: Connor Cross 2-73, Dax Judge 2-18, Jeremiah Madlock 1-63, Carsen Newton 1-18. Linn-Mar: Tyree Alons 4-18, Landon Sorg 2-15, Dylan Muszynski 1-2.

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