Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Brody Fishman and his teammates on the Liberty High defense were prepared for a hard-fought, low-scoring scrap with Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

That’s nothing new for Liberty High.

“We always prepare with a hard-nosed roughneck mentality knowing it’s going to be a battle,” Fishman said.
Fishman was ready for a defensive battle but 10 total points?

The senior cornerback didn’t see that type of scene unfolding at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids but no one in purple and black was complaining.

Liberty High (1-1) forced four turnovers and held Jefferson (0-2) scoreless after halftime holding on for 7-3 win over the J-Hawks in a defensive slugfest on Thursday in Cedar Rapids.

“I wasn’t expecting this type of game, this low scoring,” Fishman said. “But hey when you come out with a win you can’t really complain.”

Quarterback James McKinney rushed for 109 yards and the only touchdown of the game as Liberty High won for the first time as a Class 4A program.

McKinney had all but four of his 109 yards after starting tailback Max Tafolla left the game with a leg injury with 1:57 left in the opening quarter.

Behind McKinney the Lightning chugged and churned their way to 163 rushing yards on 43 carries.

“Max went out early and he is a big playmaker and we need him in the game,” McKinney said. “I had to step it up on my part, I told the boys we had to get fired up and put it in the end zone and that’s what we did.”

Liberty High didn’t complete a pass for the second consecutive week and was outgained 227-163 in total yards but forced four turnovers including a game-clinching pick by Fishman with 2:33 left.

“That’s what we built it on and when you play defense you always give yourselves a chance,” Liberty High coach Jeff Gordon said. “I was really proud of the boys tonight.”

After being blanked by rival West High 27-0 in the opener last week Liberty High scored its first points of the season with 1:31 left in the first half.

McKinney kept on a read option and went straight up the middle 26 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Liberty High lead.
“Last week we had our ups and downs, we didn’t get what we wanted but this week we came out and fought,” McKinney said. “We got one in the end zone. We punched it in.”

Jefferson got on the board before the half on a 23 yard field goal by Jacob Cross.

The J-Hawks had a first and goal at the 6 with under a minute to play but the Liberty High defense forced the field goal as Fishman broke up a pass in the corner of the end zone on third down.

“I’m just happy to get our first victory of the season,” Fishman said. “After last week we really needed a bounce back and this was the bounce back that we needed hopefully we can just keep rolling.”

The touchdown run by McKinney proved to be enough offense as Liberty High held Jefferson to just three second half first downs.

Jefferson’s best scoring opportunity came in the third quarter when it marched from its own 5 yard line to the Liberty High 25 but it ended with a fumble.

Liberty High recovered two fumbles with middle linebacker Griffin Kraft scooping up a loose ball in the first half and Fishman and Beau Miller each had interceptions.

“We work on creating turnovers every day,” Kraft said. “We practice ripping out the ball on our tackling circuit and catching balls on interceptions and that worked out tonight.”

Jefferson had one final chance to take the lead after forcing a Liberty High punt with 2:33 left.

However on the first play of the J-Hawk possession Fishman picked off an overthrown pass by sophomore quarterback Carson Blietz to all but secure the win.
“They had one wide receiver that they always took deep shots to him so they put him outside and I knew the deep shot was going to come,” Fishman said.

Liberty High will now wait to see if it will continue playing.

The Lightning are scheduled to host Linn-Mar next Friday but because the Iowa City School District has elected to start the school year with two weeks of online classes over COVID-19 concerns athletic activities are schedule to be shutdown beginning next Tuesday.

So, the Lightning will celebrate Thursday’s win while awaiting word on their future.

“We are doing all the safety protocol, wearing masks everywhere,” McKinney said. “We all want to play football.”

                                   ICL                 CRJ

First downs                 12                    9

Rushes-yards              46-163             32-127

Comp-Att-Int              0-6-1               7-15-2

Passing yards              0                      100

Total yards                  163                  227

Punts-avg.                   7-41.7              6-34.3

Fumbles-lost               1-0                   3-2

Penalties-yards           5-35                 7-65

Liberty High              0  7  0  0  –  7

CR Jefferson             0  3  0  0  –  3

ICL – James McKinney 26 run (Emerson Bennett kick)

CRJ – Jacob Cross 23 field goal

Individual statistics

RUSHING – Liberty High: James McKinney 18-109, Max Tafolla 8-26, Michael Miller 2-22, Darrius Willis-Newell 11-5, Tye Hughes 4-1, Beau Miller 2-(-2), Team 1-(-2). CR Jefferson: Brayden Kindhart 3-111, Dkhai Pope 10-34, Prosper Kapongo, 1-4, Justin Burnett 2-1, Dylan Markham 1-0, Carson Blietz 13-(-18), Team 2-(-5).

PASSING – Liberty High: James McKinney 0-4-1 0, Tye Huges 0-2-0 0. CR Jefferson: Carson Blietz 7-15-2 100.

RECEIVING – CR Jefferson: Brayden Kindhart 3-38, Prosper Kapongo 1-24, Lonny Melvin 1-18, Dkhai Pope 1-16, Andreas Williams 1-4.

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