Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

After nine weeks of football the playoffs are here.

Four teams from the Your Prep Sports area have qualified for the postseason which gets underway on Friday with opening round contests in all six classes.

Before focusing on the playoffs here is a look back at some of the best plays, moments and performances from the area teams and players during the regular season.

Best Individual offensive performance: Marcus Morgan against Southeast Polk. Facing a top-10 team on the road Morgan had perhaps the best game of his career throwing for 348 yards and rushing for a touchdown. Morgan completed 29-of-43 passes and directed a late Trojan touchdown drive that ended with a touchdown that gave West High a chance to tie the game on a two-point conversion with no time left.  

Best individual offensive performance part II: Ashton Cook against Anamosa. Cook wasn’t perfect in week two against Anamosa but the Regina junior didn’t miss by much. Cook completed 20-of-21 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for 15 yards and two scores in a 56-25 win.  

Best individual defensive performance: Kaleb Williams against Davenport Assumption. In a slugfest that featured just four combined pass attempts between the two teams Williams came up big making 8.5 tackles including seven solo stops in a 14-7 Liberty High win. The senior linebacker set up the game-winning score with a fumble recovery and also picked off a pass.  

Best individual defensive performance part II: Jax Flynn against Davenport Assumption. The Solon senior linebacker filled up the stat sheet with nine tackles, two interceptions and a fumble recovery but it was the timing of his big plays that proved the difference in a 17-13 Spartan win. Flynn picked off a pass in the endzone to stop an Assumption drive and came up with the game-clinching interception with 51 seconds left deep in Solon territory.

Best team offensive performance: Regina against Williamsburg. Regina did a little bit of everything in its 42-35 win over the Raiders and it all seemed to work. Regina passed for 257 yards and rushed for 252 yards while averaging six yards per play on an eye-popping 85 offensive snaps.

Best team defensive performance: Liberty High vs. Davenport Assumption. Needing a win to keep its playoff hopes alive the Lightning defense delivered its best performance in program history holding the Knights to 141 yards and seven points and forcing two turnovers in a 14-7 win.

Most versatile performance: Tanner Lukavsky against Bellevue. Lukavsky can stake claim to a feat few players in state history can after scoring touchdowns in four different ways in a 52-28 win over the Comets. The senior running back/linebacker ran for a 20-yard touchdown, caught a 43-yard pass for a score, threw a 13-yard touchdown strike and returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown.

Best Clutch Performance: Max Tafolla against Davenport Assumption. With its playoff hopes on the line Liberty High turned to its junior workhorse against Davenport Assumption and Tafolla delivered as he had all season. In his first game back from an injury that forced the junior tailback to miss a game Tafolla accounted for better than 56 percent of his team’s total yardage and both touchdowns rushing for 149 yards and two scores on 34 carries in a 14-7 win.

Best game: City High against West High.  What else would it be but the Battle for the Boot. The annual cross-town showdown didn’t feature a playoff team for the first time in recent history but had just about everything else including five lead changes, trick plays, a kick return for a touchdown and late game drama. West High made the plays late to earn a 36-32 win in a game in which the teams combined for 10 touchdowns and three punts. 

Best game part II: Liberty High against City High. Liberty High won a back-and-forth season opener 23-20 when Ryan Nugent connected on a 19-yard field goal with three seconds left.

Best Finish: Regina against Williamsburg. Regina erased a 35-26 deficit with 16 unanswered points in the final five minutes of a 42-35 come-from-behind win. The Regals recovered a fumble with 34 seconds left in a tie game and Ashton Cook found Alec Wick with a 3-yard touchdown pass with 6.3 seconds left to secure the win.

Comeback player of the year: West High senior Will Hoeft. Hoeft didn’t just return from ACL surgery to play his senior season he was back on the field just seven months after surgery. Despite missing the first three games of the season Hoeft finished second on the team with 43.5 tackles including three tackles for loss and an interception.

Most improved player: Liberty High senior Brian Lively. After making 15.5 tackles as a 189-pound safety last season Lively packed on 15 pounds and made the switch to defensive end where he led the Lightning with 12.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks.

Breakthrough performer: West Branch junior defensive end Jeff Bowie. Bowie was a handful last season making 11.5 tackles for loss in 11 games but the 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive end become almost unblockable this season ranking fourth on the team with 36.5 tackles including 19.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.  

Coach of the year: In just the second year of varsity football Jeff Gordon led Liberty High to the first postseason berth in history earning a spot in the Class 3A playoffs. After going 3-6 and 1-4 in district play in its debut season last fall the Lightning went 7-2 in year two finishing with a 4-1 district mark.

Most consistent: Regina junior Alec Wick. Wick was a model of consistency while ranking second in Class 1A in receptions (71), receiving yards (1,077) and touchdown catches (13). The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Wick had at least five receptions and 65 yards in every game this season, notching six 100-yard games while catching a touchdown pass in seven of nine games.

Newcomer of the year: Solon senior Jace Andregg. Andregg had an impact all over the field in his first season in a Solon uniform scoring 14 touchdowns and ranking third on the team with 25.5 tackles. Andregg rushed for 185 yards and eight scores and caught 32 passes for 404 yards and six touchdowns.

Best individual offensive play: Trey Eagle against Bellevue. Eagle had plenty of big plays while setting a single-season school record for touchdown receptions but none were bigger than his 80-yard touchdown reception against the Comets. The 6-foot-4 senior out jumped a Bellevue defender to make a catch near midfield, broke a tackle and went untouched to the endzone for an 80-yard touchdown that was part of a seven-catch, 213-yard, three-score performance against the Comets.

Best individual defensive play: Clear Creek Amana junior TJ Bollers against Marion. Bollers bullied his way into the Marion backfield, disrupted an option pitch and recovered the fumble in the endzone for a touchdown.

Best individual defensive play II: Solon junior Lucas TePoel against West Liberty. TePoel made a one-handed interception that ranks among the individual efforts you will ever see leaping near the sideline to snag a pass over his head with one hand.

Unsung hero: Clear Creek Amana senior linebacker JJ Denny. At 5-foot-6 and 155 pounds Denny doesn’t stand out physically but that didn’t stop him from filling the state sheet like few other tacklers in CCA history. Denny led Clear Creek Amana in tackles for the third consecutive season finishing with 47 tackles giving him 156 over the past three seasons.

Most durable: City High senior Tonka Hickman. Plenty of prep players play both ways but few at the 4A level came off the field fewer times than Hickman. Hickman did his best work on offense rushing for 883 yards and 12 touchdowns on 189 carries but also ranked seventh on the team in tackles, picked off a pass and served as the Little Hawks premier kick off returner.

Special teams MVP: West Branch junior Cael Fiderlein. A kicker can’t be any more accurate than Fiderlein this season who has converted on all 46 of his attempts in his first season handling the placekicking duties. Fiderlein is 6-of-6 on field goal attempts with a 33-yarder and has made all 40 of his PAT attempts.

Offensive MVP: Solon senior quarterback Cam Miller. Miller led Solon to a third consecutive unbeaten regular season with the best season of his career. Miller completed a career-best 67 percent of his passes for 1,805 yards and 22 touchdowns while cutting his interceptions from last season in half to three. Miller also added another element to his game this fall rushing for a career-high 461 yards and seven touchdowns.

Defensive MVP: West Branch senior linebacker Tanner Lukavsky. Others may have better stats but Lukavsky is the heartbeat of a Bear defense that has held five opponents under 180 yards of offense on the season. Lukavsky has 38.5 tackles including five for loss and has returned all three of his interceptions for touchdowns as West Branch has scored on seven of its 21 forced turnovers.

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