Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High stayed within striking distance of Cedar Falls for more than three quarters on Friday evening.

Then Carsen Gary struck twice.

Gary caught a pair of long touchdown passes in the final 10 minutes as Cedar Falls held off City High 26-13 at Banks Field in Iowa City.

“This feels amazing,” Gary said. “We knew their record didn’t mean anything, they played three phenomenal teams so we knew that didn’t mean anything coming in. We just had to play our game.”

Cedar Falls quarterback Baylor Petrie threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns, adding a pair of scoring strikes to senior Stratton Range, as the Tigers improved to 3-1 on the season with its third consecutive win.

Gary had touchdown receptions of 70 and 74 yards in the fourth quarter as Cedar Falls kept City High at bay.

“They have a heck of an offense so we maybe expected a few more points but we knew it was going to be a gritty game,” Gary said. “I am just proud of how our guys played.”

Cedar Falls broke a scoreless tie when Petrie hit a sliding Range for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 26 seconds remaining in the first half.

The Tigers took a 12-0 lead when Petrie hit Range on a pump and go for a 59-yard touchdown pass with 7:13 remaining in the third quarter.

City High fought back.

The Little Hawks converted four times on fourth down during a 17-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.

The final fourth-down conversion was a 5-yard touchdown strike from Jackson Grabinski to Braden Bickford that cut the lead to 12-7 with 2:32 left in the third quarter.

It was still 12-7 when Gary struck for his first long touchdown.

The junior receiver caught a slant on a second-and-short play and turned it up field for a 70-yard touchdown that gave the Tigers a 18-7 lead with 9:56 to play.

“It was an audible,” Gary said. “My quarterback and I, we looked and we saw single man coverage and we had a quick slant call and I took it to the house.”

City High answered again with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped by a 1-yard run by Savion Miller.

Gary came up with the play of the game on the ensuing drive.

With Cedar Falls facing a third-and-10 at its own 26 Gary hauled in a pass from Petrie near the first down marker and outraced the City High secondary.

The 74-yard scoring strike and a two-point conversion run by Anthony Pattee gave Cedar Falls a 26-13 lead with 3:57 remaining.

Gary finished with

“We had a play drew up to the other side, running a 10-yard dig and our quarterback saw me and there was nobody there,” Gary said. “Great throw by him.”

Gary finished with nine receptions for 187 yards and Range had three receptions for 77 yards and two scores.

Miller rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries and caught eight passes for 57 yards.

Bickford had 12 receptions for 107 yards and Chayse Newton had eight receptions for 42 yards.

Grabinski finished 26-of-38 for 185 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 37 yards.

                                          ICH                CF

First downs                22                    13

Rushes-yards             39-75               19-39

Comp-Att-Int            35-53-0           16-29-0

Passing yards             247                  312

Total yards                322                  351

Punts-Avg.                 3-35.7              3-36

Fumbles-lost              1-0                   1-1

Penalties-yard           7-65                 4-30                   

Cedar Falls                0  6  6  14  –  26

City High                   0  0  7   6   –  13

CF – Stratton Range 10 pass from Baylor Petrie (Kick blocked)

CF – Range 59 pass from Petrie (Kick blocked)

ICH – Braden Bickford 5 pass from Jackson Grabinski (Sully Bright kick)

CF – Carsen Gary 70 pass from Petrie (Kick blocked)

ICH – Savion Miller 1 run (Run failed)

CF – Carsen Gary 74 pass from Petrie (Anthony Pattee run)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICH: Savion Miller 19-48, Jackson Grabinski 16-37, Chris Kabaiza 3-2, Team 1-(-12). CF: Ayden Moersfelder 14-25, Baylor Petrie 3-13, Taylor Carter 1-3, Carsen Gary 1-(-2).

PASSING – ICH: Jackson Grabinski 26-38-0 185, Chris Kabaiza 9-15-0 62. CF: Baylor Petrie 16-29-0 312.

RECEIVING – ICH: Braden Bickford 12-107, Savion Miller 8-57, Chayse Newton 8-42, Delonte Major 5-34, Blancy Lungikama 1-5, Arrow Westerdahl 1-2. CF: Carsen Gary 9-187, Stratton Range 3-77, Taylor Carter 2-13, Anthony Pattee 1-19, Jude Hazell 1-16

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