City High’s Bryce Frantz celebrates a touchdown against Linn-Mar on Aug.26/ Tork Mason For Your Prep Sports Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

BETTENDORF – At halftime of Friday’s top-10 showdown with Pleasant Valley the City High offense was in need of a boost.

City High got one from Bryce Frantz with a little nudge from its defense.

Frantz scored a pair of second-half touchdowns and City High allowed just 27 yards in the third quarter in a 19-17 win over No. 6 Pleasant Valley (1-1) at Spartan Stadium.

“The third quarter, the whole second half we really stepped it,” Frantz said. “I feel like the defense really got us rolling to begin with and our offense just took over from there. Once we got going we just kept rolling.”

Frantz ran for 60 of his team-high 94 yards in the second half and his 23-yard touchdown run helped City High turn a 3-3 halftime tie into a 12-3 lead the Little Hawks would never give up.

After surrendering 179 rushing yards in the first half, City High held Pleasant Valley to 14 yards on the ground, 27 total yards and one first down in the third quarter while seizing control.

“They hung in there pretty well,” City High coach Dan Sabers said of his defense. “We put them in some tough spots again and they battled.”

City High had 206 of its 275 yards of total offense in the second half as they improved to 2-0 on the season.

Nate Wieland passed for 142 yards, 133 of which came in the second half, and City High scored on three of its first four second-half possessions.

“We are definitely going to be a grind it out team but we know that eventually our offense is going to put some serious points on the board,” City High senior Dillon Africa said. “Our offense has playmakers.”

The playmaking in the second half started with the City High defense.

City High forced back-to-back three-and-outs to open the second half allowing just 12 yards in the process.

The Little Hawks scored following each, taking a 12-3 lead when Frantz burst free up the middle for a 23-yard touchdown run with 2:26 left in the third quarter.

“If the defense is stepping up the offense wants to step it up right back,” Frantz said. “It’s kind of like a battle, if the defense is doing better than as an offense we have to step it up. It’s kind of a power struggle and we are trying to stay one step ahead.”

Pleasant Valley pulled to within 12-10 on a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Terry Saul with 8:45 left.

City High responded with its best drive of the game, an 11-play, 79-yard masterpiece that featured a fourth-and-two conversion on a 3-yard fullback dive by Brock Hunger.

Frantz capped the drive with his second touchdown of the game, a 3-yard burst off left guard to put City High up 19-10 with 3:09 left.

“We showed some toughness, we gave them opportunities and we they were going to keep battling and we found a way to win at the end,” Sabers said. “You have to do that too every now and then.”

Pleasant Valley had a chance late after Saul connected with Nick Acri on a 14-yard touchdown pass that made the score 19-17 with 1:33 left.

However, City High recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

“This is a good win but we have to keep building,” Africa said. “We feel like we beat a pretty good team today but we know we can get better.”

Pleasant Valley opened the scoring on a 19-yard field goal by Camden Glenn less than six minutes into the game.

Arthur Braden raced 41 yards on the first play from scrimmage and Pleasant Valley needed five plays to march to the City High 3 yard line.

City High stiffened, allowing just 1 yard on three running plays to hold Pleasant Valley to the Glenn Field goal.

“The first drive you could just tell we couldn’t replicate the way they run their offense,” Sabers said. “It took a while to get adjusted but then I think they did a pretty darn good job. I think we tackled well.”

City High took advantage of a Pleasant Valley muffed punt to tie the game.

Brock Hunger recovered a Pleasant Valley fumbled punt at the Spartan 34 yard line and seven plays later Miles Morrow connected on a 25 yard field goal even the score at 3-3.

It stayed 3-3 until the third quarter.

A 22-yard field goal by Morrow with 4:40 left in the third quarter capped an 11-play drive and gave City High a lead it would never give up.

“We came out in the second half fired up,” Africa said. “We knew if we shut them down our offense would get something going. We were just trying our best to get our offense back on the field.”

                                         City High             Pleasant Valley
First Downs                            15                             16
Rushes-Yards                          33-133                     46-271
Total Yards                              275                          334
Comp-Att-Int                          12-8-0                      9-19-1
Fumbles-Lost                          1-1                           2-1
Penalties-Yards                        4-45                        5-33

City High            3  0   9  7  –  19
Pleasant Valley   3   0  0  14 –  17

PV – Camden Glenn 19 field goal
ICH – Miles Morrow 25 field goal
ICH – Morrow 22 field goal 6-3
ICH – Bryce Frantz 23 run (kick failed) 12-3
PV – Terry Saul 1 run (Glenn kick) 12-10
ICH – Frantz 3 run (Morrow kick) 19-10
PV – Nick Acri 14 pass from Saul (Glenn kick)

Individual Stats
Rushing – ICH, Bryce Frantz 18-94, Nate Wieland 13-35, Brock Hunger 2-4. PV, Arthur Braden 22-150, Terry Saul 18-68, CJ Carter 6-53.

Passing – ICH, Nate Wieland 12-18-0 142. Terry Saul 9-19-1 63.

Receiving – ICH, Vance Dillon 4-45, Zach Jones 2-21, Bryce Frantz 2-14, Jared Taylor 1-24, Griffin Moore 1-18, Brock Hunger 1-15, Naeem Smith 1-5. PV, Carter Christisen 3-25, Dakota Snyde
r 2-19, Nick Acri 2-17, Michael Meyer 1-5, Caleb Carius 1-(-3).