Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Davenport North and City High took turns making life difficult for themselves. Turnovers, penalties and missed opportunities sent the two teams into overtime where the Wildcats finally prevailed 24-21 Friday at Frank Bates Field.

North senior Kyp Ridenhour kicked a 32-yard field goal to win the game after City High’s 24-yard field-goal attempt went wide.

It was a significant victory for North (5-1) which moved to 2-0 in distrct play and sits atop the Class 4A District 4 standings along with West High.

Conversely, City High (2-4, 0-2) squandered one of its better chances for a win.

City High appeared to be in great shape when, with 4:04 left in the fourth quarter, its defense stopped North on a fourth-and-7 at the City 38-yard line.

The Little Hawks led 21-14 and took possession hoping to run out the clock. But on the second play from scrimmage Tonka Hickman fumbled while fighting for extra yardage.

The Wildcats recovered on the City 41 with 3:15 left to go.

“That’s kind of been a little bit of our story this year,” City High coach Dan Sabers said. “We’ve done too many things to hurt ourselves. It’s just hard to win football games that way.”

City’s defense forced the Wildcats into a fourth-and-10. But on a wild fourth- down play, quarterback Jack West eluded the rush and lofted a pass deep toward the sideline that was caught by Priest Sheedy just before going out of bounds at the 19.

Another pass to Sheedy, who finished with nine catches for 206 yards, set North up at the 1-yard line, and Elisjsha Wiseman scored on a short run.

The PAT tied the game with 1:06 to play.

North turned a third-quarter City fumble into a touchdown and a 14-7 lead. But City responded with a good kickoff return to get near midfield.

City then sprang Hickman for his longest run of the night, 46 yards to the North 1. Liam McComas scored from there, but the PAT kick was blocked, leaving City behind 14-13.

A North pass tipped by Hickman and intercepted by City’s Jacob Means gave the Little Hawks a chance to take the lead.

City drove 40 yards in eight plays for a TD. Raph Hamilton’s pass to McComas for the 2-point conversion gave City a 21-14 lead with just more than 7 minutes to play.

“We did some things well there, and then we didn’t have ball security and that always gets you in trouble,” Sabers said.

North committed seven penalties for 75 yards in the first half alone.

One penalty wiped out a punt return for a touchdown. Two penalties on punts extended City High drives but the Little Hawks were unable to take advantage.

 “Really you go back to the first half is when we had all those opportunities and we couldn’t capitalize,” Sabers said. “It’s one of those games you’re going to look back at and it’ll make you sick because you had opportunities and you didn’t get it done.”

City’s first-half touchdown came after recovering a fumble on an errant snap. City took over on North’s 15-yard line after McComas recovered the ball, and four plays later Hickman scored on a 5-yard run.

But City returned the favor when Sheedy intercepted a pass with 1:23 left in the half. North was able to drive 50 yards for a tying TD with Sheedy catching a 31-yard pass from West for the score.

City was held to 95 rushing yards, after having averaged 189 through five games.

Hamilton did throw for 140 yards, all but 27 coming in the second half. But City had no deep threat and was largely limited to play-action passes to McComas or Hickman.

“They were handling us up front, there’s no question,” Sabers said. “We were able to hurt them with the play-action pass, but again if we take care of the ball we’re in pretty good shape.”

North had trouble running the ball but threw it well, particularly when it was most needed. West completed 16-of-27 passes for 263 yards despite injuring his ankle last week.

“Their quarterback had a brace on his ankle and he played tough,” Sabers said.

                                    DN                  ICH

First downs                13                    13

Rushing-yards           37-(-9)             36-95           

Comp-att-int              18-30-1            10-20-1           

Passing-yards             276                  140           

Punts-avg.                  5-37.2              5-26           

Fumbles-lost               4-1                   2-2           

Penalties-yards          10-91               0          

Davenport North      0  7  7   7   3  –  24

City High                    7  0  0  14  0  –  21

ICH – Tonka Hickman 5 run (Ben Steve kick)

DN – Priest Sheedy 31 pass from Jack West (Kyp Ridenhour kick)

DN – Sheedy 38 pass from West (Ridenhour kick)

ICH – Liam McComas 1 run (kick blocked)

ICH – Hickman 7 run (McComas pass from Raph Hamilton)

DN – Elisjsha Wiseman 1 run (Ridenour kick)

DN – Ridenhour 32 field goal

Individual statistics

RUSHING – DN: Kade Schultz 21-49, Elisjsha Wiseman 8-13, Trevor Collins 1-(-4), Jack West 5-(-24). ICH: Tonka Hickman 20-100, Liam McComas 7-16, Cordero Estremera 1-(-2), Raph Hamilton 8-(-19).

PASSING – DN: Jack West 16-27-1 263; Zane Beebe 2-3-0 13. ICH: Raph Hamilton 10-20-1-140.

RECEIVING – DN: Priest Sheedy 9-206, Trevor Collins 2-35, Teryn Wilmington 3-26, Michael Murphy 1-5, Zack Caddell 1-5, Kade Schultz 2-(-1). ICH: Liam McComas 5-80, Tonka Hickman 3-36, Jacob Means 1-16, Cordero Estremera 1-8.

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