Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – Liberty High had three-time defending champ Southeast Polk on the ropes early in its Class 5A semifinal showdown on Friday.

The Rams did what champions do, they fought back.

Southeast Polk overcame an early 14-0 deficit and outlasted Liberty High 38-35 in a back-and-forth semifinal slugfest at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

Holden Hansen threw four touchdown passes to Kaden Hills and also rushed for a touchdown as Southeast Polk (8-4) advanced to the state title game for the fifth consecutive season.

Liberty High (10-2), which was making its state semifinal debut, had an eight-game winning streak snapped with the loss.

“I thought we played our butts off,” Koller said. “We could have cleaned up a few things, we didn’t play our best game on defense. They have a great pass game, a great quarterback and great receivers and I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit.”

Liberty High got huge games from junior quarterback Reece Rettig and senior wide receiver Dallas Miller but couldn’t stop a 14-game postseason winning steak for Southeast Polk that dates back to 2021.

Rettig threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass from Miller who hauled in eight passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns.

Yet Southeast Polk had a counter for every Liberty High punch on Friday.

“We worked all season, all summer, last spring to get here,” Miller said. “Our coaches did an amazing great. You aren’t 10-2 without great coaching and we have some ballers. It hurts but I’m so proud of what we’ve done.”

Liberty High opened the game with a flurry.

The Lightning took the opening kick off and marched 85 yards in seven plays in less than four minutes.

Liberty High took a 7-0 lead on an 8 yard touchdown pass from Rettig to senior Collin Decker.

On Southeast Polk’s second offensive play Miller picked off a Hansen pass at the Lightning 47 yard line.

Five plays later Owen Drapeaux scored on a 2 yard touchdown run to give Liberty High a 14-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.

Southeast Polk responded, cutting the lead to 21-14 at the half.
The Rams then jabbed back to start the second half with a 11-play, 54-yard touchdown drive to open the half.

After a three-and-out for Liberty High the Rams took their first lead of the game on a Samer Arafa 24 yard field goal.

Southeast Polk ran 20 offensive plays in the third quarter compared to six for Liberty High.

“It was tough to get a break tonight,” Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said. “Sometimes that’s the way the game goes. You have to have the ball bounce your way some.”

The final 12 minutes went back and forth with big plays from both sides.

Liberty High took the lead back on a 62-yard touchdown strike from Rettig to Miller on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Southeast Polk responded with fourth-quarter touchdown strikes of 32 and 76 yards from Hansen to Hills.

Hansen finished 18-of-25 for 255 yards and four touchdowns with Hills making eight receptions for 168 yards and four touchdowns.

“The sprint out was effective for them, they were dinking and dunking a little bit and in the fourth quarter they were able to hit us up top a couple of times,” Chandler said.

Liberty High made one final surge.

Facing fourth-and-16 from the 49 the Lightning ran a throw back receiver screen that resulted in a 49-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Rettig with 2:58 remaining.

“We have only run that in practice, never in a game and we ran it in the semifinals on fourth and long and that’s what it shows about our coach,” Miller said, “He’s got guts,”

Southeast Polk picked up two first downs in its ensuing possession to put the game away.

Rettig finished 20-of-26 for 334 yards and three touchdowns while Koller had four catches for 40 yards, rushed for 21 yards and had a team-high six tackles.

Drapeaux rushed for 20 yards and had 5.5 tackles.

“Those guys, the Dallas Miller’s the Sutton Koller’s the Collin Decker’s the Owen Drapeaux our offensive line guys those guys brought an attitude to our workouts and to our team that wasn’t here before,” Chandler said. “They believed that they could get the job done and they played with a different intensity level than we’ve played with in the past.”

                                        SEP                 ICL

First downs                19                    17

Rushes-yards             33-104             23-66

Comp-Att-Int            18-25-1           21-27-0                                                                      

Passing yards            255                  383

Total yards                359                  449

Punts-Avg                  1-28                 2-29

Fumbles-lost              1-0                   2-1

Penalties yards          5-55                 8-64    

Southeast Polk                      0   14  10  14  –  38

Liberty High                         14   7    0   14  –  35

ICL – Collin Decker 8 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weiss kick)

ICL – Owen Drapeaux 2 run (Weiss kick)

SEP – Holden Hansen 1 run (Samer Arafa kick)

ICL – Dallas Miller 62 pass from Rettig (Weiss kick)

SEP – Kaden Hills 8 pass from Hansen (Arafa kick)

SEP – Hills 10 pass from Hansen (Arafa kick)

SEP – Arafa 24 field goal

ICL – Miller 62 pass from Rettig (Weiss kick)

SEP – Hills 32 pass from Hansen (Arafa kick)

SEP – Hills 76 pass from Hansen (Arafa kick)

ICL – Rettig 49 pass from Miller (Weiss kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Southeast Polk: Holden Hansen 12-56, Drew Thompson 13-43, Landon Vander Werff 6-10, Team 2-(-5). Liberty High: Sutton Koller 8-21, Owen Drapeaux 6-21, Reece Rettig 8-17, Dallas Miller 1-7.

PASSING – Southeast Polk: Holden Hansen 18-25-1 255. Liberty High: Reece Rettig 20-26-0 334, Dallas Miller 1-1-0 49.

RECEVING – Southeast Polk: Kaden Hills 8-168, Teague Cantrall 3-32, Gabe Wheeler 3-25, Drew Thompson 3-18, Bryan Butler 1-12. Liberty High: Dallas Miller 8-245, Sutton Koller 4-40, Logan Laubenthal 3-23, Collin Decker 2-20, Landon Bell 2-14, Reece Rettig 1-49, Owen Drapeaux 1-(-8).

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