Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – For the second season in a row the champions of Iowa City reside in North Liberty.

Liberty High completed a season sweep of its Iowa City rivals on Friday with a 48-29 win over City High on a warm and rainy evening at Liberty Stadium.

“Sweeping the city is awesome and doing it back-to-back years it feels really good,” Liberty High senior Logan Laubenthal said. “It’s an expectation to win these games and it feels great.”

Liberty High (7-1) scored 17 points in less than two minutes early in the second quarter to break open a 7-7 game and cruised to its fourth consecutive win over City High.

The win was the fourth straight for Liberty High, a streak that started with a 44-31 win at West High on September 26.

“It feels great to get a win especially against a rival,” Liberty High junior Pryor Reiners said. “Our coaches told us to stay composed and go out and get the win we needed.”

On a night when Liberty High wasn’t it’s usual razor-sharp self on offense the Lightning still managed to be productive.

Senior quarterback Reece Rettig threw for 185 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for a touchdown as Liberty High finished with 322 total yards.

“This game is a huge learning opportunity for us. There were a lot of plays that need to be made that we didn’t make and mistakes that need to be corrected. I don’t think one person on the team is proud of that game and we still put up a big score,” Rettig said. “At the end of the day it’s about winning and it’s not about how it looks,” Rettig said. “There are no pictures on the scorecard as some of our coaches like to say but we need to play better.”

Liberty High got key plays on defense and special teams while building a 27-13 halftime lead.

Senior placekicker Collin Weis hit two first-half field goals, including a 43 yarder on the final play of the half.

Junior Adrian Clerry capped a 17-point explosion in a span of 1:47 when he returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown to give the Lightning a 24-7 lead.

“The pick six really felt like it was a big play for us,” Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said. “These guys had turned it over a fair amount coming into the game and we really hadn’t turned the other team over defensively so it was good to see that and getting it into the end zone was big.”

Liberty High swung a 7-all game early in the second quarter.

Weis gave the Lightning a 10-7 lead with a 32 yard field goal 11 seconds into the quarter.

The Liberty High defense forced a three-and-out on the ensuing City High possession and two plays later Rettig raced 26 yards for a touchdown to make it 17-7 Lightning.

“We clearly had some not so good plays but when we execute it just takes one play and we can make the game flip like that,” Rettig said.

Clerry made perhaps the play of the game on the next City High drive when he picked off a Chris Kabiaza pass and raced 38 yards untouched for a touchdown to give Liberty High a 24-7 lead with 10:02 remaining in the first half.

“I saw the ball coming up in the air and I thought he was going to tip it,” Clerry said. “I went to go get it and I had to take it back for six.”

Liberty High spread the ball around on offense.

Reiners had a touchdown run and caught a touchdown pass and Logan Laubenthal had a touchdown run and threw a touchdown pass to Clerry.

Laubenthal rushed for a team-high 53 yards for Liberty High and Reiners had seven receptions for 81 yards.

“We just stuck with it and got through the ups and downs,” Laubenthal said. “When we are on we are on but when we are off a little we always keep doing our best and keep going.”

Kabaiza threw for 339 yards and four touchdowns for City High (1-7) as the Little Hawks rolled up 439 yards of total offense.

Chayse Newton caught six passes for 105 yards and three touchdowns.

Newton had touchdown receptions of 9, 32 and 35 yards.

ICL                 ICH

First downs                20                    14

Rushes-yards             32–123             26-100

Comp-Att-Int            19-35-1           24-34-2

Passing yards             199                  339

Total yards                322                  439

Punts-Avg.                 3-48.3              6-33.3

Fumbles-lost              2-0                   1-0

Penalties-yards          4-35                 13-90

City High                   7   6    0  16  –  29

Liberty High            7  20  14  7   –  48

ICL – Pryor Reiners 16 run (Collin Weis kick)

ICH – Chayse Newton 9 pass from Chris Kabaiza (James Caster kick)

ICL – Weis 32 field goal

ICL – Reece Rettig 26 run (Weis kick)

ICL – Adrian Clerry 38 interception return (Weis kick)

ICH – Newton 32 pass from Kabaiza (Pass failed)

ICL – Weis 43 field goal

ICL – Reiners 10 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)

ICL – Clerry 14 pass from Logan Laubenthal (Weis kick)

ICH – Newton 35 pass from Kabaiza (Jack Lampe pass from Kabaiza)

ICL – Laubenthal 4 run (Weis kick)

ICH – Adan Carbajal 10 pass from Kabaiza (Blaine Heick pass from Kabaiza)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICL: Logan Laubenthal 13-53, Reece Rettig 1236, Brody Beaver 5-18, Pryor Reiners 1-16, Adrian Clerry 1-0. ICH: Jack Lampe 17-100, Chris Kabaiza 6-6, Dominic Roe 1-2, Chayse Newton 2-(-8).

PASSING – ICL: Reece Rettig 19-34-1 185, Logan Laubenthal 1-1-0 14. ICH: Chris Kabaiza 24-34-2 339.

RECEIVING – ICL: Pryor Reiners 7-81, Adrian Clerry 6-46, Jordan Schroeder 2-27, Logan Laubenthal 2-12, Landon Bell 1-25, Cale Baldwin 1-8. ICH: Chayse Newton 6-105, Blaine Heick 5-62, Adan Carbajal 4-32, Jack Lampe 4-29, Chris Santarrelli 3-44, Owen Raefield 1-19.

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