Matt Coss

Your Prep Sports

BETTENDORF – Liberty High had not turned the football over in its first 11 quarters of the season.

But in the fourth quarter of a back-and-forth game Friday night, Liberty High gave it away twice and saw its opportunity for a signature road victory dissipate.

Evan Barr intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble in a three-minute span as Pleasant Valley outlasted Liberty 42-28 at Spartan Stadium.

“Tough loss,” Liberty High senior Dallas Miller said. “We were in it until the end, but those turnovers really hurt us. That’s not what we do.

“We’ve just got to click better on those plays.”

Up until Barr’s pick, neither defense could generate a stop in the second half.

Miller scored on a 15-yard pass from Reece Rettig to give the Lightning a 28-27 advantage with 9 minutes, 36 seconds left.

Rettig threw for 215 yards and Liberty (2-1) accumulated 195 yards on the ground.

“Coach (Scott) Chandler had a good game plan and called a lot of good plays,” Miller said. “He gave our playmakers the ball and we did our job.”

Miller had 111 receiving yards, rushed for 89 yards and returned multiple kickoffs into PV territory.

“Dallas is a handful,” Chandler said. “A guy that’s as quick as him, runs with the vision like he does, it seems every time he touches the ball he’s dangerous.

“He’s worked hard his whole career since he was a freshman here. He’s consistently getting better.”

As potent as Liberty was offensively, PV was just as dynamic with its triple-option attack.

Senior Elijah Rodney rushed for 164 yards and a touchdown while senior quarterback Harrison Fierce added 157 yards and two scores on the ground. He also threw two long touchdown passes to Camryn LeMoine.

The Spartans had touchdowns covering 19, 37, 55, 51 and 23 yards. They finished with 503 total yards — 365 via the ground.

“It is nearly impossible in a week with a scout team (to contain an offense like that),” Chandler said. “You try and replicate it, but you can’t with the speed they’re coming off the ball.

“You know you’re going to give up 3 or 4 yards, even 7 or 8 at times. You want to keep them from getting those 30-yard runs and deep passes over the top.”

Fierce’s first touchdown run, a 51-yard jaunt, moved PV in front 35-28 with 8:43 remaining.

Then on Liberty’s ensuing possession, Rettig rolled left and threw a pass near the PV sideline that was intercepted by Barr at the Lighting 40-yard line.

Four plays later, Fierce darted 23 yards for a touchdown to make it a 14-point lead with 6:12 left.

“The guy on the edge for them was diving down instantly so I could pull the ball,” Fierce said. “We were reading things right in the second half.

“Before the game, I was kind of nervous because I knew we had to step it up offensively. The first half didn’t go as well as we wanted it to go, but we came out and did our thing in the second half.”

Aided by a 46-yard kickoff return from Miller, Liberty marched inside the PV 15-yard line before Barr recovered a fumble in the Lightning backfield.

The Spartans chewed the final 5-plus minutes off the clock to secure the win.

After losing in overtime to rival Bettendorf in Week 1, PV has rebounded with victories over Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Liberty.

“The Bettendorf game really (ticked us off) and lit a fire under us,” Fierce said. “We wanted that game so bad, but things happen in sports and we’re firing back as much as we can.”

Liberty High hopes it can respond now.

The Lightning welcomes Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids Prairie to town the next two weeks.

Despite the result, the Lightning found plenty of positives to take from Friday.

“We’ve got a tough group,” Chandler said. “We came out and fought hard. We’re learning a lot about ourselves.

“We’ve got some young guys in some key positions that are growing a lot. The one thing I can see is, our kids are tough and mentally they’re into it. They want to go and be a great team.”

Owen Drapeaux and Sutton Koller had rushing scores and Logan Laubenthal recorded a receiving touchdown for Liberty.

“We have a bright future here,” Miller said. “As you saw tonight, we have a lot of playmakers on offense and coach Chandler does a good job of getting us the ball in space.

“We just have to regroup and get ready to beat Cedar Falls.”

                                      ICL                PV

First downs                18                    26

Rushes-yards             31-195          55-365

Comp-Att-Int             12-19-1           7-13-0

Passing yards            215                  138

Total yards                410                  503

Punts-avg.                  1-6.0               1-27.0

Fumbles-lost              1-1                   1-1

Penalties-yards         8-65                 6-50

Liberty High             7   7    7    7   –  28

Pleasant Valley        7  10  10  15  –  42

PV – Elijah Rodney 19 run (Jack Reiter kick)

ICL – Sutton Koller 11 run (Collin Weis kick)

PV – Camryn LeMoine 37 pass from Harrison Fierce (Reiter kick)

ICL – Owen Drapeaux 2 run (Weis kick)

PV – FG Reiter 39

PV – FG Reiter 30

ICL – Logan Laubenthal 6 pass from Reece Rettig (Weis kick)

PV – LeMoine 55 pass from Fierce (Reiter kick)

ICL – Dallas Miller 15 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)

PV – Fierce 51 run (Fierce run)

PV – Fierce 23 run (Reiter kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — ICL: Dallas Miller 4-89, Sutton Koller 7-46, Owen Drapeaux 12-41, Reece Rettig 7-29, Team 1-(-10). PV: Elijah Rodney 26-164, Harrison Fierce 18-157, Micah Herlich 2-23, Joey VanWetzinga 3-12, Ben Birkel 2-9, Evan Barr 1-6, Team 3-(-6).

PASSING — ICL: Rettig 12-19-1, 215. PV: Fierce 7-12-0, 138; Dominick Kurtz 0-1-0, 0.

RECEIVING — ICL: Miller 5-111, Collin Decker 5-58, Koller 1-40, Logan Laubenthal 1-6. PV: Camryn LeMoine 3-101, Trey Bahnks 2-21, Max Schmeltzer 1-12, Rodney 1-4

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