Top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling Downs Liberty High In Class 5A Title Game
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
CEDAR FALLS – With back-to-back 10-win seasons and UNI-Dome trips Liberty High is quickly climbing the Class 5A football mountain.
For the second consecutive season it took one of the teams that have hit that summit to stop the Liberty High ascent.
Last season it was Southeast Polk that stopped Liberty High in its first ever semifinal appearance on its way to a fourth consecutive 5A title.
On Friday it was perennial power West Des Moines Dowling that denied the Lightning in their first every title game appearance.
Top-ranked West Des Moines (12-1) racked up 246 rushing yards on its way to a 27-10 win over Liberty High in the 5A state title game in front of a big crowd at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
“This program is going the right way, we made big strides last year getting here and then bigger strides this year getting to the state championship,” Liberty High senior Landon Bell said. “Obviously we wanted to finish it this year but I think there is a lot of talent still on this team and we have the best coaching staff in the state so they will be around for a while.”
Ian Middleton rumbled for 206 yards and two touchdowns as West Des Moines Dowling won the 11th title in program history and first since claiming the final of its state record seven consecutive titles in 2019.
Liberty High (11-2) is 21-4 over the past two seasons with losses in the semifinals and state title game to teams that have combined to win 12 of the last 13 big school titles.
“Obviously we came up short but the goal is to leave it better than you found it and I feel like all of us have,” Rettig said. “It hurts even more to make it all the way, we tried to take everything out of the season we could, we just wanted to leave it in a better place and I feel like we have guys coming next year and hopefully they do the same thing.”
Liberty High hung with top-ranked Dowling all the way.
Ultimately it was too much Middleton and too much Maroons.
The 215-pound Middleton had touchdown runs of 25 and 28 yards as West Des Moines Dowling averaged 6.3 yards per carry.
“We knew they were going to try to run it down our throats and it was a fun game getting out there, getting bloody and dirty and getting in a fight, that’s what is fun in a football game,” Bell said. “Obviously they executed their stuff.”
Liberty High executed its ball-control plan in a first half that ended with West Des Moines Dowling leading 10-3.
The Lightning completed 15-of-19 first half passes and outgained Dowling 119-113 while running twice as many offensive plays (34 to 17) as the Maroons.
Liberty High held the ball for 15:56 in the opening half and trailed just 10-3 when Collin Weis capped a nine-play drive with a 39-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
“I’m just so proud of our guys fighting the way they did,” Liberty High coach Scott Chandler said. “An undersized group, scrappy is a good way to describe them and we scraped our way all the way to the state championship.”
West Des Moines Dowling took control of the game early in the third quarter.
The Maroons opened the third quarter with a 6-play, 65-yard touchdown drive capped by a 28-yard run by Middleton.
West Des Moines Dowling pushed the lead to 24-3 when Jeffrey Roberts caught a quick slant from senior quarterback Joey Nahas, slipped a tackle and raced 67 yards for a touchdown with 5:21 remaining in the third quarter.
“They got after us. They had a powerful offensive line and a powerful back and they took advantage of that and we were basically having to play cover zero to try to get enough guys in the box and they hit one to (Roberts).”
Liberty High wouldn’t go quietly.
Rettig led Liberty High on a six-play, 59-yard drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown pass to Adrian Clerry that trimmed the lead to 24-10 with 56 seconds left in the third quarter.
The West Des Moines Dowling defense wouldn’t let the Lightning get closer.
West Des Moines Dowling had four sacks, 2.5 from senior defensive end Ryan Bobo, and limited Liberty High to 228 total yards.
“They are big, they tackle well, their defensive coordinator put them in great spots, he called a great game against us,” Rettig said. “We’d have an answer for what they called and they’d have an answer for us and it was back and forth.”
Rettig finished 18-of-25 pass for 139 yards and a touchdown with Clerry leading the Lightning with six receptions for 66 yards.
Brody Beaver rushed for 60 yards and caught seven passes for 42 yards.
Bell led the Liberty High defensive effort with 10 tackles, including one for loss and recovered a fumble.
Clerry, Alex Strunk and Jackson Williams all had eight tackles for the Lightning.
“It was pretty awesome coming out here and seeing the whole town out here,” Bell said. “We are going to keep our heads high and this one is going sting a little bit but it’s been a great ride.”
ICL WDD
First downs 17 14
Rushes-yards 23-33 39-246
Comp-Att-Int 27-38-1 3-5-0
Passing yards 195 81
Total yards 228 327
Punts-Avg. 2-41.5 1-21
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 6-55 5-40
Liberty High 0 3 7 0 – 10
West Des Moines Dowling 7 3 14 3 – 27
WDD – Ian Middleton 25 run (Ryan Kuhn kick)
WDD – Kuhn 22 field goal
ICL – Collin Weis 39 field goal
WDD – Middleton 28 run (Kuhn kick)
WDD – Jeffrey Roberts 67 pass from Joey Nahas (Kuhn kick)
ICL – Adrian Clerry 5 pass from Rettig (Weis kick)
WDD – Kuhn 26 field goal
Individual Statistics
RUSHING – ICL: Brody Beaver 9-60, Jordan Schroeder 2-6, Cooper Lester 1-1, Reece Rettig 11-(-34). WDD: Ian Middleton 34-206, Joey Nahas 2-22, Grayson Penning 3-18.
PASSING – ICL: Reece Rettig 18-25-1 139, Emerson Berner 8-12-0 54, Pryor Reiners 1-1-0 2. WDD: Joey Nahas 3-5-0 81.
RECEIVING – ICL: Adrian Clerry 6-66, Brody Beaver 7-42, Jordan Schroeder 5-30, Cooper Lester 4-21, Pryor Reiners 3-18, Tate Rettig 2-18. WDD: Jeffrey Roberts 1-67, Sam Drexler 1-11, Ian Middleton 1-3.
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