Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MARION – There wasn’t a second of hesitation from Mitch Moore in his decision to go a game-winning two-point conversion in the final seconds on Friday.

There wasn’t a flicker of regret from the City High head coach either following a 28-27 loss to Linn-Mar in a Class 5A thriller at Linn-Mar Stadium.

“There was zero doubt we were going for two,” Moore said. “There is a confidence about our team that we were going to go for two and we had a play dialed up. We could have been three-for-three but that’s high school football.”

For the third time in five weeks City High (5-3) scored a touchdown in the final 30 seconds of a game and went for two and the win.

The previous two times were successful in wins over West High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

City High couldn’t quite pull off the trifecta on Friday.

A botched handoff led to a fumble in the backfield on the two-point conversion attempt with 22.5 seconds allowing Linn-Mar (7-1) to escape.

“Credit to those guys to keep fighting and playing until the last play,” Moore said. “My hat is off to those guys for sure but there isn’t one iota of me that doesn’t think we belong in the football game or belong in the top when this thing is all said and done.”

Just as it had done in wins over City High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy last month City High put together a late drive to set up the two-point conversion.

Linn-Mar took a 28-21 lead when senior tailback Dylan Muszynski powered into the end zone from a yard out with 3:55 remaining.

As it has all year City High responded.

“It’s once again a testament to our ability to just stay with it,” City High senior quarterback Bobby Bacon said. “We stuck with it and when things weren’t going our way kept the positive mindset.”

City High marched 77 yards in 11 plays, cutting the lead to 28-27 on the second touchdown run of the game by sophomore Dawson Kahl with :22.5 remaining.

“Nobody on the sideline even held up one (finger),” Moore said. “I think everyone knew (we were going for two) and if you are a team defending that it’s kind of scary where we were down seven but we are going for two.”

City High tried to run a reverse but there was miscommunication on the handoff and the ball dropped to the turf.

Linn-Mar pounced on the loose ball to cap a wild back-and-forth game.

“I told our guys something I think they did better than us is they had fewer mistakes,” Moore said. “I think they played mistake free football and I think they played really hard.”

Linn-Mar led 21-14 at the half thanks to a 4-yard touchdown run by Muszynski with :34.8 remaining before halftime.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior rushed for 179 yards and two touchdown on 28 carries and caught a 44-yard pass.

“Hats off to Linn-Mar, we were really, really scared of Muszynski and I thought we did a pretty good job on him,” Moore said. “He’s the best back I’ve seen on tape this year, he’s elusive he has great vision and great feet and is a good kid so it’s fun to play a kid like that.”

Kahl rushed for 171 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries for City High as the Little Hawks rolled up 239 yards on the ground.

Bacon was 12-of-16 passing for 160 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s an open playing field and this game is a great example they can all go either way,” Bacon said. “We are taking it one week at a time and I believe we can hang with any team out there if we execute and play the football that we play.”

                                          ICH                LM

First downs                22                    16

Rushes-yards             45-239             35-214

Comp-Att-Int            12-16-0           10-15-0

Passing yards             160                  176

Total yards                399                  390

Punts-Avg.                 1-31                 0-0

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   1-0

Penalties yards          5-40                 2-10

City High                   0  14  0  13  –  27

Linn-Mar                   7  14  0   7   –  28

LM – Austin Waller 5 run (Bradley Duncan-Porter kick)

ICH – Gabe Egeland 14 run (Jackson Nichols-Lindsey kick)  

LM – Emerson Gasper 12 pass from Waller (Duncan-Porter kick)

ICH – Dawson Kahl 9 run (Nichols-Lindsey kick)  

LM – Dylan Muszynski 4 run (Duncan-Porter kick)

ICH – Adan Carbajal 20 pass from Bobby Bacon (Nichols-Lindsey kick)  

LM – Muszynski 1 run (Duncan-Porter kick)

ICH – Kahl 1 run (Run failed)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – City High: Dawson Kahl 31-171, Gabe Egeland 8-30, Dominic Salibi 4-31, Bobby Bacon 2-7. Linn-Mar: Dylan Muszynski 28-179, Emerson Gasper 3-18, Austin Waller 3-16, Tylee Alons 1-1.

PASSING – City High: Bobby Bacon 12-16-0 160. Linn-Mar: Austin Waller 10-15-0 176.

RECEVING – City High: Dominic Salibi 5-85, Parker Sutherland 2-24, Jack Lampe 2-9, Adan Carbajal 1-20, Iyon Harris 1-16, Chayse Newton 1-6. Linn-Mar: Daniel Peplinski 2-37, Tate McEowen 2-38, Stone Morgan 2-15, Dylan Muszynski 1-44, Carson Fairley 1-17, Landon Sorg 1-14, Emerson Gasper 1-12.

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