Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High has had more than its share of wild football games in the last few years, but the Bolts’ scintillating, down-to-the-wire, 31-28 quarterfinal victory Friday over four-time defending champion Southeast Polk was just SO Liberty.

Let us count the ways.

*The Bolts gave up a 74-yard touchdown run by Drew Thompson on the first play from scrimmage to trail 7-0 before fans could locate that extra blanket.

*Trailing 14-7 in the second quarter Liberty failed to convert a fourth down on its own 32-yard line. The Rams were ready to deploy their powerful ground game to go up two TDs, but a fumbled handoff was recovered by Liberty’s Erik Strunk.

“When he fumbled the snap he looked a little worried,” Strunk said. “All I had to do is get by one blocker, and I just saw it. All I did was fall on it.”

The Bolts, of course, drove 63 yards for the tying touchdown with 1 minute, 22 seconds left in the half.

The defense forced a punt, and the Bolts got the ball back on their own 39 with 45 seconds left. They moved to the Ram 25 where Collin Weis kicked a 42-yard field goal as the half ended.

At the time it seemed unreal that the Lightning had the lead.

*Leading 17-14 in the third quarter the Bolts drove 67 yards to the Rams’ 13-yard line, but a Reece Rettig pass was batted and intercepted by Dokken Biladeau, who returned it to the Liberty 5.

The Rams scored a touchdown three plays later.

Instead of Liberty scoring an insurance touchdown, the Rams took the lead 21-17 with just 11:19 left.

*The Bolts deflected what might have been a gut punch by mounting one of the more extraordinary drives you’ll ever see in high school.

Liberty put together a 15-play touchdown drive that included three converted fourth-down situations (fourth and 10 twice and fourth and four).

In each instance coach Scott Chandler took a timeout to select the right play, and in each instance his players executed with the game on the line.

Pryor Reiners leaped high to snag Rettig’s pass for the first conversion, and caught a 16-yard pass on the second conversion.

Landon Bell caught the final pass conversion, and Cooper Lester scored on an 8-yard jet sweep as Liberty retook the lead 24-21 with 5:41 left.

“You look at a kid like Pryor, and he just says, ‘Give me the ball,’” Liberty coach Scott Chandler said. “So we just draw up plays in the dirt for him and he got it. Some of the throws were high. He didn’t care.”

“It was a long drive, and it was really stressful,” Rettig said. “I’m not going to lie. We tried to force a few things. And then it’s fourth down, and we’re all like we’re going to trust our coaches. We’re going to convert; we know we can. And we went out and we did a great job of it. Everybody executed on those plays.

“Pryor had a hell of a game. He had so many great catches. You can think the games over and that you’re not going to get that fourth down, but we have the confidence in ourselves and the camaraderie and we want to win. We find a way to do it.”

*Southeast Polk came back again behind its huge offensive line and the running of Thompson and Stanley Cooper.

It took the Rams just 3:18 to score the go-ahead TD on a 24-yard sprint up the middle by Cooper. Liberty was left with 2:23 on the clock and no timeouts.

Surely this would be too much.

Oh, ye of little faith.

*Liberty returned the kickoff to its 34 with 2:19 to play.

Reiners was wide open for a 30-yard gain by the sideline to preserve the time.

Two runs left the Bolts with third and two and the clock ticking.

Southeast Polk was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, and the 15-yard penalty gave the Bolts the ball at the 14.

Rettig faded back against a big rush and lofted the ball toward the end zone and into the arms of the closely defended Reiners.

The Bolts led 31-28 and the stadium went nuts.

“He had to get it off quick because they were blitzing six, and Reece found me open in the end zone, I made a couple moves, and it worked out,” Reiners said.

“We just believed,” center Pete Hanson said. “Our work the last couple weeks, especially in the playoffs, has been on belief. We believe we’re going to make the plays to win.”

“We do that every single practice,” Rettig said of the two-minute drill. “Two minutes? That’s plenty of time. I feel like it showed there. We had more confidence in the two-minute drive than the drive before that.”

But did Liberty leave too much time (1:30) for the Rams?

No, as it turns out, but the Bolts got some help.

The kickoff bounced off returner Brayden Lewis and out of bounds at the 2.

The Rams used their timeouts and moved the ball.

Alex Strunk had a big sack during the drive that cost the Rams critical yardage and time.

The Rams, now out of timeouts, reached the Bolts’ 34-yard line but had to try a 51-yard field goal with 3 seconds left. It went wide right and the celebration was on.

“That’s what we live for. I want that every day,” Liberty coach Scott Chandler said of the mayhem his team creates and escapes. “The four-time champ isn’t going to go down easily and they definitely didn’t tonight. I’m so proud of our guys.”

They had it the whole way.

“We just had to be more physical and play with them,” Erik Strunk said of the defense. “It was nice; it was a good win.”

The victory ended Southeast Polk’s memorable run of four consecutive titles and its 17 consecutive playoff victories.

“It’s pretty special, but we still have two more games to finish the job,” Hanson said.

The Rams finished 6-5 with two of their losses to Liberty High.

In its second consecutive state semifinal appearance Liberty High will play Waukee Northwest (10-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

                                SEP            ICL

First downs           14               21

Rushing-yds         35-229        29-130

Comp-Att-Int         5-10-0         19-32-1

Passing yards        57               196

Total yards              286             326

Punts-avg             2-37.5         1-42

Fumbles-lost         1-1             1-0

Penalties-yds        6-57            6-40

Southeast Polk          7    7    0   14  –  28

Liberty High              7   10   0   14  –  31

SEP – Drew Thompson 74 run (Samer Arafa kick)

ICL – Pryor Reiners 14 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

SEP – Boston Bailey 1 run (Arafa kick)

ICL – Brody Beaver 15 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)

ICL – Weis 42 field goal

SEP – Thompson 4 run (Arafa kick)

ICL – Cooper Lester 8 run (Weis kick)

SEP – Stanley Cooper 28 run (Arafa kick)

ICL – Reiners 14 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – SEP: Drew Thompson 20-152, Stanley Cooper 10-92, Boston Bailey 5-(-15). ICL: Reece Rettig 13-68, Brody Beaver 8-17, Cooper Lester 2-15, Pryor Reiners 2-12, Leo Rozz 2-11, Jordan Schroeder 1-7, team 1-0.

PASSING – SEP: Bailey 5-10-0 57. ICL: Rettig 18-31-1 181, Lester 1-1-0 15.

RECEIVING – SEP: Lewis 2-22, Owen Vossberg 2-11, Lafoy Hall 1-9. ICL: Reiners 9-114, Beaver 5-50, Schroeder 3-29, Adrian Cleery 1-9, Tate Rettig 1-7, Lester 1-1.

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