Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – The first ever state semifinal appearance for Liberty High last season ended in heartbreak.

The Lightning got redemption in their return to the UNI-Dome on Friday.

Fourth-ranked Liberty High (11-1) advanced to the state title game for the first time in program history with a no-doubt 31-15 win over second-ranked Waukee Northwest in a Class 5A semifinal.

“Last year we were the team walking away disappointed and at halftime we were talking about that,” Liberty High senior Reece Rettig said. “We weren’t going to leave it to that this year, we wanted to put the foot down and take this game ourselves.”

Liberty High scored touchdowns on its first two drives and never trailed while earning a spot in the 5A title game on Friday at 7 p.m. against West Des Moines Dowling (11-1).

Top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling defeated West Des Moines Valley 14-10 in the first 5A semifinal on Friday.

“That’s what all the summer practices and the film room in the winter that’s what we worked for is getting to next week,” Rettig said. “We haven’t been satisfied all year and we aren’t going to be satisfied with this win. We are going to go give it our best shot next week and we are going to have a great week of practice and go into the game confident like we always do.”

Rettig passed for 207 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 66 yards and a touchdown as Liberty High outgained Waukee Northwest 387-202 in an offensive masterclass.

The Bolts had three touchdown drives of 80 yards, held the ball for 32:39, ran 65 offensive plays to 36 for Waukee Northwest and held a 25-9 edge in first downs.

“You don’t want their offense to get hot and it’s hard to maintain a rhythm when you play, what 15 plays in the first half?.” Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said. “If we can take the air out of the ball while we are driving it down the field and eat all the clock I think that’s a great way to play football.”

Meanwhile the Liberty High defense limited a Waukee Northwest offense that entered averaging 42.1 points and 427 total yards per game to a season low point total and just 202 total yards on 5.7 yards per play.

“This week we moved some people around on defense and the guys made it happen,” Liberty High junior Pryor Reiners said. “We got a turnover and we just played great defense.”

A year after falling to eventual state champion Southeast Polk 38-35 in the semifinals Liberty High set the tone early on Friday.

On the opening possession of the game Liberty High marched 80 yards in 13 plays, taking a 7-0 lead on a 12-yard strike from Rettig to Reiners.

Liberty High went 3-for-3 on third down on the game’s opening drive that took 7:15 of the clock.

“We were running the rock and we knew if we got a double move we could get them,” Reiners said. “It was a great throw, a great play call.”

The Liberty High defense forced a quick punt and Liberty High put together a second consecutive impressive drive.

Brody Beaver capped a 10-play, 80-yard march that last 4:51 with a 6-yard touchdown run that gave Liberty High a 14-0 lead with 10:01 left in the second quarter.

Liberty High outgained Waukee Northwest 211-54 and held the ball for 17:42 in the first half while building a 14-0 halftime lead.

“We came in with a lot more confidence and we talked about we could feel their nervousness,” Rettig said. “There is a hum to the Dome that is different than any other game and we’ve been there and that played to our advantage and we tried to feed off of that.”

Waukee Northwest cut the lead to 14-7 when Bodie Morrison fell on a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown with 5:49 remaining in the third quarter.

As they did all game Liberty High had the answer.

Rettig capped a 13-play, 80-yard Liberty High touchdown drive with a 2-yard run on the ensuing Liberty High possession to push the lead back to 21-7.

“That wasn’t necessarily the game plan we talked about but our plan every game is try to try to control the ball because we know that if our defense is fresh they are going to play amazing like they did tonight,” Rettig said. “They played lights out.”

The Liberty High defense forced a quick three-and-out on the next Waukee Northwest possession and Collin Weis tacked on a 22-yard field goal set up by a 53-yard run by Brody Beaver to the Waukee Northwest 4.

Liberty High put the game away when Rettig found Logan Laubenthal for a 25-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-four play.

“That’s been the game plan all year and we don’t even talk about it we just want to put our drive together,” Rettig said. “We don’t do anything out of the ordinary we just do our thing and our thing is drive it, get into second and manageable, third and manageable even fourth and manageable.”

ICL                 WNW

First downs                25                    9

Rushes-yards             34-177             11-52

Comp-Att-Int            26-31-1           19-25-0

Passing yards             210                  150

Total yards                387                  202

Punts-Avg.                 0-0                   4-36.5

Fumbles-lost              1-1                   1-1

Penalties-yards          1-5                   4-20

Liberty High                 7  7  0  17  – 31

Waukee Northwest   0  0  7   8   – 15                      

ICL – Pryor Reiners 12 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)   

ICL – Brody Beaver 6 run (Weis kick)   

WNW – Bodie Morrison fumble recovery (Kenan Quaid kick)

ICL – Rettig 2 run (Weis kick)

ICL – Weis 22 field goal

ICL – Logan Laubenthal 25 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)  

WNW – Jordon Green 12 ass from Mack Heitland (Isaiah Oliver pass from Heitland)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICL: Reece Rettig 16-66, Brody Beaver 10-93, Logan Laubenthal 4-15, Cooper Lester 1-10, Team 3-(-7). WNW: Mack Heitland 4-32, Ryan Woodruff 7-20.

PASSING – ICL: Reece Rettig 26-31-1 210. WNW: Mack Heitlan 19-25-0 150.

RECEIVING – ICL: Jordan Schroeder 6-46, Pryor Reiners 6-53, Adrian Clerry 4-16, Brody Beaver 4-25, Logan Laubenthal 2-24, Tate Rettig 2-22, Cooper Lester 1-12, Landon Bell 1-12.  WNW: Isaiah Oliver 8-66, Jordon Green 6-49, Joe Vinyard 3-27, Michael Dunagan 2-8.

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