Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High senior quarterback Bobby Bacon was in the middle of a post-game interview near midfield following the Little Hawk’s 40-39 win over West High on Friday in the annual Battle for the Boot when his head coach ran up and hugged Bacon.

“Best quarterback in the state of Iowa,” City High coach Mitch Moore said while slapping Bacon on the shoulder pads. “Best quarterback in the state.”

Where Bacon ranks among the top signal callers state wide can be debated at another time.

What isn’t debatable is the impact Bacon has had on the City High program the past several season.

Bacon continued his stellar play on Friday putting together perhaps the best game of his career as City High rallied for its fourth straight win over City High at Trojan Field.

The Pittsburg State commit, completed 16-of-17 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns and threw the game-winning two-point conversion to Jack Lampe with 22 seconds remaining as City High won its second consecutive game after an 0-2 start.

“The first two weeks we came out sluggish and we knew the things we had to improve on,” Bacon said. “Coaches got on us a bit after those first two weeks and it all paid off. It’s a similar story to last year and now we are just going to get this thing rolling.”

Bacon has been excellent all season, completing 74 percent of his passes while throwing for 892 yards and seven touchdowns in four games.

He was spectacular all game against West High throwing a single incompletion while helping the Little Hawks amass 457 yards of total offense.

However, Bacon was at his best with the game on the line.

He twice orchestrated second-half scoring drives that tied the game before leading the Little Hawks on the game-winning 76-yard touchdown drive in the final 2:07.

Bacon was 4-for-4 for 65 yards on the go-ahead drive and completed his final nine pass attempts in the win.

“Bobby is one of the most poised quarterbacks I’ve ever coached and on top of it he’s just got this flare for the dramatic, he’s got a flare for the moment,” Moore said. “There is going to be a commercial after that guy someday.”

After City High pulled to within 39-38 on a 7-yard touchdown run by Dominic Salibi with 22 seconds remaining the Little Hawks went for two.

Bacon rolled out, stopped and found Lampe alone in the back of the end zone.

“Bobby was on our sideline with two minutes to go saying, ‘We are going down and we are scoring two and we are winning this game’,” Moore said. “It permeated through that sideline.”

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