Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Six days ago City High got a story book win with a late two-point conversion to beat cross-town rival West High.

Not even the most creative of authors could imagine the sequel the Little Hawks pulled off on Thursday.

City High won its second straight game by a single point on a two-point conversion in the final minute knocking off Cedar Rapids Kennedy (1-4) 43-42 in another wild game at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids.

“You can’t even make that up can you?” City High coach Mitch Moore questioned after the wild finish.

The City High coach wasn’t wrong.

City High overcame a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and took its only lead of the game with 25 seconds remaining when senior tight end Parker Sutherland hauled in a two-point conversion pass from Bobby Bacon in the corner of the end zone.

“As soon as I saw our other tight end wasn’t open I knew the ball was coming to me,” Sutherland said. “Bobby put it in a spot where only I could catch it.”

Sophomore tailback Dawson Kahl rushed for 246 yards and three touchdowns including a pair of fourth-quarter scores.

Kah’s final score, a 2-yarder in the final minute cut the Cedar Rapids Kennedy lead to 42-41.

Just as they did last week against West High, the Little Hawks immediately lined up for a two-point conversion.

“We already knew,” Sutherland said. “It wasn’t a question. We always go for the win.”

Against West High Bacon rolled to his right and found Jack Lame in the middle of the end zone for the game-winner.

On Thursday, Bacon rolled left and heaved a pass toward a well-covered Sutherland in the corner of the end zone.

The 6-foot-6 tight end went up between two defenders and made the catch, wrestling the ball away from a Kennedy defensive back.

“Parker was the last guy in the back corner of the end zone,” Bacon said. “Any time he’s one on one I’m going to give him a chance I knew he was going to come down with it as soon as I threw it.”

The two-point conversion capped another late rally for City High.

The Little Hawks trailed from the outset but pulled even at 21-all at the half when Bacon hit Sutherland for a 20-yard touchdown pass with 6.5 seconds remaining in the first half.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy took advantage of a pair of City High fumbles that resulted in short fields while taking a 35-21 lead.

City High responded.

Kahl scored on a 10-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 35-28 and City High pulled even when Bacon found a wide open Iyon Harris for a 5-yard touchdown pass with 7:35 remaining.

“It’s just a credit to our kids, we have a lot of belief in that locker room what’s pretty powerful about this team is we know what our deficiencies are and I think we know what our strengths are and we never play the blame game,” Moore said. “We know what the deficiencies are and we know when they are happening and there is no reason to blame we are all in this thing together and that’s pretty powerful in high school football.”

Kahl rushed for 117 yards on 24 carries in the first four games this season but ran wild on Thursday.

The bruising 6-foot-2, 190-pound sophomore racked up his 246 yards on 37 carries.

“I’ve been ready for a night like this all season,” Kahl said. “I was prepared tonight, I’ve been working all season and I’m excited for more games.”

Kennedy regained the lead one final time on a 65-yard touchdown pass from Vinny Gianforte to Jacob Doyle with 5:050 remaining.

City High had one final answer in the form of a 61-yard touchdown drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Kahl.

The Little Hawks rolled up 293 yards on the ground and finished with 471 total yards.

“A lot of practice this week revolved around running the ball,” Kahl said. “I think our running game and our passing game are both very solid and I think we have a great offense.”

Bacon finished 18-of-23 and completed his final 12 pass attempts.

Dominic Salibi had six receptions for 63 yards and rushed for 30 yards and a touchdown.

The win was the third straight for City High following an 0-2 start which hosts Davenport Central (2-2) next Friday at Bates Field.

“We are going to try to keep it rolling the best we can,” Bacon said. “Last year we lost this game and we were 2-3 and we didn’t know if we were going to make the playoffs. We are going to take it one week at a time but I really think everybody knows what this team can do.”

                                      CRK               ICH

First downs                12                    27

Rushes-yards             28-152             48-293

Comp-Att-Int            9-19-1             18-23-0

Passing yards             194                  178

Total yards                346                  471

Punts-Avg.                 3-34.7              1-33

Fumbles-lost              2-1                   2-2

Penalties yards          5-50                 7-43

City High                   0  21   0  22 –  43

CR Kennedy              7  14  14  7  –  42

CRK – Jacob Doyle 13 run (Andrew Waterhouse kick)

ICH – Dawson Kahl 8 run (Jackson Nichols-Lindsey kick)

CRK – Doyle 74 run (Waterhouse kick)

ICH – Dominic Salibi 16 run (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

CRK – Damarian Orr 24 pass from Vinny Gianforte (Waterhouse kick)

ICH – Parker Sutherland 20 pass from Bobby Bacon (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

CRK – Doyle 1 run (Waterhouse kick)

CRK – Jackson Popelka 28 pass from Gianforte (Waterhouse kick)

ICH – Kahl 10 run (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

ICH – Iyon Harris 5 pass from Bacon (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

CRK – Doyle 65 pass from Gianforte (Waterhouse kick)

ICH – Kahl 2 run (Sutherland pass from Bacon)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICH: Dawson Kahl 37-246, Dominic Salibi 7-30, Bobby Bacon 3-20, Team 1-(-3). CRK: Jacob Doyle 19-150, Damarian Orr 3-9, Brayden Alber 1-8, Dawson Dougherty 1-6, Keegan Mastin 2-(-2), Vinny Gianforte 1-(-11), Team 1-(-4).

PASSING – ICH: Bobby Bacon 18-23-0 178. CRK: Vinny Gianforte 9-19-1 194.

RECEVING – ICH: Dominic Salibi 6-63, Chayse Newton 4-33, Jack Lampe 3-35, Parker Sutherland 2-30, Drew Nye 2-12, Iyon Harris 1-5,

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