Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Like any great rivalry the Battle for the Boot has a history of producing close games and memorable finishes.

The latest edition of the annual cross-town showdown between City High and West High may just go down as one of the best of all time.

City High (2-2) converted the go-ahead two-point conversion with 22 seconds remaining and West High (2-2) missed a 32-yard field goal with two seconds left as the Little Hawks won a wild, back-and-forth contest 40-39 at Trojan Field in Iowa City.

“This is the way it should be,” City High coach Mitch Moore said. “This is the way Friday night lights on the eastern side of the state should be.”

City High senior quarterback Bobby Bacon threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns and found Jack Lampe in the back of the end zone on a two-point conversion attempt with 22 seconds remaining.

West High had a chance to win the game 20 seconds later but Adam Salem’s 32 yarder was short.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a game like this,” Bacon said. “I might have to go back to my flag football days for the last one like this.”

The two teams combined for 878 yards, 44 first downs and just one punt in a game that went back-and-forth from the opening kickoff.

West High took a 39-32 lead when Jack Wallace hit Mason Woods on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 2:07 remaining.

Bacon responded by leading City High on the game-winning drive.

“We had to go out there and score,” City High senior offensive tackle Tyler Rindels said. “We knew we had to get a touchdown and we knew we had to get the two-point. We’d marched down all game and we knew we had to do it one more time.”

Bacon completed four consecutive passes for 65 yards on the game-winning drive.

His perfectly placed 32-yard over the shoulder strike to Connor Cross gave City High a first down at the West High 19 yard line.

Two plays later senior Dominic Salibi cut the lead to 39-38 with his second touchdown run of the game, a seven-yard burst up the middle with 22 seconds remaining.

“It was just Bobby being a playmaker,” City High senior running back Dom Salibi said. “That’s what got us the win honestly was Bobby just making plays.”

Bacon completed his final nine pass attempts on Friday and finished 16-of-17 for 256 yards.

On the game-winning drive Bacon hit Cross for gains of 11 and 32, found tight end Parker Sutherland for 14 yards and connected with Chayse Newton for eight yards.

“We work on two-minute drill at the end of every practice,” Bacon said. “I just trust these guys so much. This is my group that I’ve been with and I love those guys and they’ve got my back and I’ve got there’s.”

Bacon was at his best on the two-point conversion.

The Pittsburg State commit rolled to his right and lofted a pass just over the arms of a West High defender to Lampe in the back of the end zone.

“We called our bootleg and they did a great job of coming off the edge and containing that,” Bacon said. “I just set up and I knew I’d have a guy running along the back and their guy made a great effort to get up there but sometimes you’ve got to have a little luck.”

West High still had an opportunity to pull out a win.

Two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on City High following the two-point conversion forced the Little Hawks to kick off from the 13 yard line.

Woods returned the kick to the City High 42 and gained 27 yards on the next play on a strike from Wallace.

“Iowa City West is a great program, we knew it would be a shootout,” Bacon said. “All credit to their guys JuJu Manson and Mason Woods are great players and great kids and we just had the edge tonight a little bit but we knew it would be close.”

City High escaped when the final field goal came up short.

“I was nervous,” Rindels said. “I knew that one of the penalties was on me. It was stupid, I knew it was going to come down to that field goal so I was nervous.”

The game was entertaining and tight from the outset.

West High took a 22-17 lead into the locker room at halftime when Wallace found Ethan Headings for a 33-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds left in the first half.

The Trojans  led 25-17 after a field goal by Salem on the opening drive of the second half.

The game was tied at 25 and 32 before the final scores by both teams in the last 2:02.

“We planned for it, we worked for it and it wasn’t fake, we don’t have to muster something up fake at the end of the game that’s a program-wide win for us,” Moore said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team.”

Wallace was outstanding for West High completing 16-of-18 passes for 230 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for 92 yards.

Woods had four catches for 86 yards and two scores.

Three City High running backs combined for 190 yards as the Little Hawks rolled up 199 yards on the ground.

Salibi had 93 yards and two touchdowns and Gabe Egeland added 65 yards as City High won its fourth straight game in the series.

“It feels great,” Salibi said. “365 days a year we are looking forward to this game so to come out and beat them every year I’ve been a part of this team is just amazing.”                          

                                    ICH                ICW

First downs                21                    23

Rushes-yards             50-199             32-192

Comp-Att-Int            16-18-0           12-16-0

Passing yards             256                  230

Total yards                457                  421

Punts-Avg.                 1-41                 0-0

Fumbles-lost              2-0                   1-1

Penalties-yards          7-97                 3-30

City High                     7   10   8  15  –  40

West High                  7   15  10  7   –  39

ICH – Chayse Newton 11 pass from Bobby Bacon (Ben Klitgaard kick)

ICW – Julian Manson 16 pass from Jack Wallace (Adam Salem kick)

ICH – Parker Sutherland 15 pass from Bacon (Klitgaard kick)

ICW – Mason Woods 29 pass from Wallace (Butali Butali run)

ICH – Klitgaard 26 field goal

ICW – Ethan Headings 33 pass from Wallace (Salem kick)

ICW – Salem 34 field goal

ICH – Dominic Salibi 1 run (Sutherland pass from Bacon)

ICW – Campbell Janis 1 run (Salem kick)

ICH – Dawson Kahl 2 run (Klitgaard kick)

ICW – Woods 14 pass from Wallace (Salem kick)

ICH – Salibi 7 run (Jack Lampe pass from Bacon)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICW: Jack Wallace 11-92, Butali Butali 16-69, Mason Woods 1-19, Campbell Janis 3-11, Henry Elser 1-6. ICH: Dominic Salibi 19-93, Gabe Egeland 10-65, Dawson Kahl 11-32, Bobby Bacon 8-11, Team 2-(-4).

PASSING – ICW: Jack Wallace 12-16-0 230. ICH: Bobby Bacon 16-17-0 256, Chayse Newton 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – ICW: Mason Woods 4-86, Julian Manson 3-33, Henry Elser 2-12, Chase Bopp 1-47, Ethan Headings 1-33, Butali Butali 1-14. ICH: Connor Cross 6-78, Parker Sutherland 4-50, Chayse Newton 3-47, Gabe Egeland 1-45, Iyon Harris 1-32, Drew Nye 1-4.

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