Pleasant Valley spoils Iowa City High’s home opener, 35-0

IOWA CITY — Pleasant Valley's offense has never been much of a secret.

The Spartans run a tight formation and like to run the ball off several options sets to control the clock.

They did just that against Iowa City High in a Class 4A non-district game Friday night at Bates Field.

Senior tailback Arthur Braden rushed for 135 yards on 18 carries and scored three touchdowns as Pleasant Valley moved to 2-0 with an impressive 35-0 win over the Little Hawks.

City High was impressive in its season-opening win last Friday against Linn-Mar. Coach Dan Sabers' team was dealt a blow late in the first quarter when standout running back Davonte Foster came out after injuring an ankle on his fourth carry of the game.

'Obviously Davonte is a big part of our offense,' Sabers said. 'That said, I don't think it was going to make that much of a difference. Pleasant Valley came out and really played well. They were the better team, no question.'

With Foster out, that placed a heavy load on senior quarterback Bryce Hunger, who spent much of the game trying to avoid an aggressive Spartans defense, led by senior linebacker David Mathews.

PV's defense made two key fourth down stops in the second quarter with the Little Hawks driving for points. Both times after the stops, the Spartan offense responded with scores, the final one coming with seven seconds left in the half on Braden's third TD run of the game, a 2-yard plunge.

The Spartans scored on their first possession of the third quarter and converted a two-point pass to push the game to a continuous clock status.

Sabers believes his team will bounce back from the loss.

'This game will get you,' he said. 'We have to sharpen up everything we do. We had a nice win last week (at Linn-Mar) but we came up against an option team that runs it very well.

'I hope they listen when we talk about all the little things,' Sabers continued. 'They figured out tonight that some of those really make a difference.'

City High goes on the road next week for another non-district game against Ames while the 2-0 Spartans return home to host Muscatine.