Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High left the door open for an upset.

Clinging to a 17-14 halftime lead, the Lightning – the top seed in the Class 5A prep football playoffs – turned the ball over twice in the third quarter, which gave No. 16 seed Waukee the opportunity to bust through with a late lead.

The Liberty defense slammed the scoreboard shut both times.

“Two big turnovers by us and our defense just stands up right then,” first-year Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said after the Lightning overwhelmed Waukee, 31-14, in the opening round of the 5A playoffs Friday night at Liberty High School. “I’m excited for our defense. They’ve been coming on here at the end of the year. I’m really happy that they were able to have that performance.”

After the first turnover, the Waukee offense took over at the Liberty 22-yard line and was held to a field goal attempt, which was missed.

Waukee turned the ball over on downs after the second Liberty turnover of the third frame.

“We had a ton of positivity coming into that defensive side,” Liberty sophomore defensive back Pryor Reiners. “We were like, ‘All right boys, just calm down. We have just got to take this. Keep playing how we have been playing all game.’ We just came out and we knew our offense got our back after we stop them.”

Liberty (9-1) held Waukee – which played without starting quarterback Beckett Bakker due to injury and lost standout tailback Grant Gammell to an injury in the first quarter – to 209 total yards and no points after halftime.

“Our defense stepped up big time,” Liberty High junior quarterback Reece Rettig said. “Our offense struggled a little bit coming out of the half, but we put our trust in our defense. That is what a good team does. We trusted our defense and our offense stepped it up at the end.”

Rettig directed a pair of scoring drives in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

He finished with 139 passing yards, 97 on the ground and three total touchdowns.

“I guess I wasn’t surprised,” Chandler said. “That’s the way the kid is. There is nothing too big for him.”

Senior Dallas Miller collected a touchdown reception, senior tailback Owen Drapeaux ran for a score and senior receiver Collin Decker finished the game with seven receptions for 69 yards.

Waukee – coached by former Clear Creek Amana coach Gabe Bakker – ends the season at 6-4.

Liberty High will host Ankeny (6-4) in the 5A quarterfinal round next Friday.

The Lightning defeated Ankeny at home, 28-20, last month.

“If we go out and execute, we’re going to be tough to beat,” Chandler said.

WAU              ICL

First Downs               10                    21

Rushes-yards             34-122             36-204

Comp-Att-Int            10-18-1           17-24-1

Passing yards             87                    164

Total yards                209                  368

Punts-avg.                  1-60.0              1-21.0

Fumbles-lost              0-0                    1-1

Penalties-yards          7-65                 2-10

Waukee                     7  7  0  0  –  14

Liberty High             7 10 0 14  – 31

WAU – Ben Case Haub 5 run (Magnus Bruening kick)

ICL – Owen Drapeaux 2 run (Collin Weis kick)

ICL – Reece Rettig 1 run (Weis kick)

WAU – Drake Lambertsen 4 run (Bruening kick)

ICL – Weis 31 field goal

ICL – Rettig 2 run (Collin Weis kick)

ICL – Dallas Miller 26 pass from Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Waukee: Grant Gammell 8-41, Carter Johnson 2-5, Ben Case Haub 13-62, Drake Lambertsen 10-17, Maverick Inman 1-(-3). Liberty High : Sutton Koller 7-56, Owen Drapeaux 13-34, Reece Rettig 14-97, Dallas Miller 1-15, Charles Roberts 1-2.

PASSING – Waukee: Grant Gammell 1-1-0 8, Carter Johnson 8-16-1 72, Will Rivenburgh 1-1-0 7. Liberty High: Reece Rettig 14-21-1 139, Sutton Koller 2-2-0 (-2), Dallas Miller 1-1-0 27.

RECEIVING – Waukee: Maverick Inman 7-65, Evan Jacobson 1-8, Xavyer Gutierrez 2-14. Liberty High: Collin Decker 7-69, Dallas Miller 4-48, Sutton Koller 2-13, Jordan Schroeder 1-9, Logan Laubenthal 1-27, Reece Rettig 2-(-2).

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