West, City High meet Friday after brutal early-season schedules

IOWA CITY - The annual Battle for the Boot Friday at Frank Bates Field may have lost some of the statewide spotlight with City High and Iowa City West sporting a combined 1-5 record, but it will never lose its luster here.

And frankly, both of these teams need a victory in the worst way, which should only make the mayhem more entertaining.

West (0-3) has to be tired of playing Top 10 teams. The Trojans have lost to teams currently ranked No. 1 (West Des Moines Valley), No. 5 (C.R. Kennedy) and No. 7 (C.R. Washington). No team has played a tougher schedule.

'You always need a win, for a lot of reasons, to validate what you do,” West Coach Garrett Hartwig said. 'We work very hard; we've played incredibly tough teams, and we haven't played up to our potential. That's on us as coaches.”

City's schedule hasn't been a lot easier. The Little Hawks lost the opener at No. 4 Cedar Falls and the home opener to No. 2 Bettendorf. The Little Hawks (1-2) won their first game, 26-10, last Friday at Ames.

Quarterback Nate Wieland and linebacker Erick Fletcher, both captains, return to the lineup after missing most of all three games the team played because of injury. Wieland, a junior, is a mobile, multi-talented quarterback who is being recruited by Division I schools. But he played just a handful of snaps before going out in the first game.

'I feel very good about our progress,” City High Coach Dan Sabers said. 'Going from ‘this is going to be our team' and then five minutes later our team changes quite a bit, it was whoa, OK. We've had some other injuries since, and I just love how they've hung in there.”

The quarterbacks are similarly talented with West's Alex Henderson a dual threat like Wieland. Both teams have a wealth of talent at receiver with Oliver Martin and Devontae Lane (32 catches, 574 yards combined) leading West and Jason Jones (18-311) leading City.

But the game is likely to be won on the line of scrimmage. West has struggled to run the ball or stop the run this season, albeit against top-tier competition. It will have to be better in both areas.

'Everybody understands that it's the eight to 10 guys in the box that are going to win the game for you,” Hartwig said. 'We're a work in progress as most teams are this time of year.”

City believes it's ready.

'Last game we had a really successful night of defense,” City defensive lineman Kyle Swenning said.

'In terms of running the ball, just try to be more physical,” City safety Tom Pugh said. 'That's really what it comes down to in the run game. I think we feel pretty confident we can do that.”