Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – Against an opponent the level of Southeast Polk there is very little room for error.

Possibly and probably more accurately for City High there was no room for errors against the Rams.

In its Class 5A state semifinal meeting with Southeast Polk on Friday fourth-ranked City High simply made too many mistakes.

Second-ranked Southeast Polk (11-1) took advantage of a second quarter filled with City High miscues on its way to a 33-7 win over the Little Hawks at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

“When you get in this game your Xs and Os and your details and the margins, just winning in the margins is really important and we didn’t do that tonight,” first-year City High coach Mitch Moore said. “We had some details that just didn’t go our way.”

City High (10-2) actually finished with 75 more yards of total offense and six more first downs than the Rams.

However, mistakes in a variety of areas proved too much for City High to overcome while Southeast Polk returned to the 5A title game for the second consecutive season.

Southeast Polk will face defending state champion Ankeny (10-2) in a rematch of the Class 4A state championship from last season in the 5A title game on Friday at 7 p.m.

“Our detail tonight lacked a little bit,” Moore said. “That is a program that has been here three, four years in a row and they didn’t lack that detail.”

Southeast Polk started first-half drives at the City High 30, 13, 15 and 18 turning all four possessions into points while taking a 23-0 halftime lead.

The City High defense did its best to limit the damage, forcing field goals by Southeast Polk junior Josh Wilson on two drives that started inside the Little Hawk red zone.

Ultimately, the mounting mistakes proved too much.

“There were too many mistakes, we got in our own way,” City High senior linebacker John Klosterman said. “The defense made a lot of stops but when you are on the field all the time obviously the score isn’t going to reflect that.”

City High was called for offensive pass interference on the first play from scrimmage and subsequently went three-and-out on its opening possession.

A 16-yard punt return by Abu Sama set Southeast Polk up at the City High 30 and five plays later Jaxon Dailey hit Xavier Nwankpa for a 17-yard touchdown that put the Rams up 7-0 less than four minutes into the game.

Nwankpa set up a field goal with a 75-yard punt return and an interception of a tipped pass by Obald Niyonkuru gave the Rams the ball at the City High 15 and set up another Wilson field goal that made the score 13-0.

“They are big and physical and definitely made it hard for us to run the ball but there were many times where we put ourselves in bad field position,” City High senior Gable Mitchell said. “A lot of those times we made stops or gave up a field goal. Our defense played unbelievable tonight.”

After a 38 yard field goal by Wilson put Southeast Polk 16-0 with 3:15 left in the first half. City High failed to field a well-placed Southeast Polk kick off and the Rams’ Stephen Saywahn jumped on the ball at the City High 18.

Titus Christiansen scored on a 13-yard run two plays later and Southeast Polk led 23-0 at the half despite gaining just 79 yards on 22 offensive plays.

City High had just 93 yards in the first half despite running 33 plays and holding onto the ball for more than 14 minutes.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot,” City High junior Ben Kueter said. “Our defense held them inside the 10 four times but we just couldn’t get anything figured out on offense.”

Nwankpa all but put the game out of reach when he returned the second half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.

“Tonight we got our butt kicked by a team that was better than us,” Moore said. “Could the game have been closer? I think so, I think if we would have played with better detail and maybe had a little momentum at times but that’s a good football team.”

City High finished with a 233 to 158 edge in total offense and had 15 first downs to nine for the Rams.

However, Moore was quick to credit Southeast Polk for controlling the game from the opening kick.

“As many things as we did to beat ourselves I think that team still won the game,” Moore said. “Let’s not put that in a way where I feel like it was us. They beat us and hats off to that program. I have a lot of respect for them and what they have done.”

Drew Larson threw for 138 yards and a touchdown, a 1-yarder to Kueter in the third quarter.

Darren Richardson gained a team-high 44 yards on the ground as City High managed just 77 yards rushing on 33 carries.

Kueter had a team-high seven tackles, including two for loss and Klosterman had 1.5 tackles for loss among his five stops.

The 10-wins for City High were the most since 2010 and snapped a streak of four consecutive two-win seasons.

“Obviously this isn’t how we wanted to end it but we brought back our program to what it should be,” Klosterman said. “We should be expecting to make trips to the Dome and so this was important.”

                                    ICH                SEP

First downs                 15                    9

Rushes-yards              39-77               28-87

Comp-Att-Int              20-34-1           6-13-0

Passing yards              156                  71

Total yards                  233                  158

Punts-avg.                   4-33.5              2-28

Fumbles-lost               1-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards           8-55                 2-10

City High                                 0  0   7  0  –   7

Southeast Polk                      7  16 7  3  –  33

SEP – Xavier Nwankpa 17 pass from Jaxon Dailey (Josh Wilson kick)

SEP – Wilson 23 field goal

SEP – Wilson 22 field goal

SEP – Wilson 38 field goal

SEP – Titus Christensen 13 run (Wilson kick)

SEP – Nwankpa 94 kick off return (Wilson kick)

ICH – Ben Kueter 1 pass from Drew Larson (Kongolo Mwenemkamba kick)

SEP – Wilson 25 field goal

Individual statistics

RUSHING – City High: Darren Richardson 16-44, Joey Bouska 5-25, Ronnie Major 3-14, Drew Larson 7-9, Gable Mitchell 5-(-1), Quinton Tran 1-(-7), Team 2-(-7). Southeast Polk: Abu Sama 12-51, Titus Christiansen 14-46, Jaxon Dailey 2-(-10).

PASSING –City High: Drew Larson 19-31-1 138, Quinton Tran 1-3-0 18. Southeast Polk: Jaxon Dailey 6-13-0 71.

RECEIVING – City High: Gable Mitchell 6-46, Darren Richardson 5-47, Ben Kueter 4-22, Jamari Newson 3-22, Ronnie Major 1-18, Jovan Harris 1-1. Southeast Polk: Xavier Nwankpa 2-22, Quent Christensen 1-18, Cole Filloon 1-14, Sam Goode 1-11, Abu Sama 1-6.

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