Late TD allows Washington 'Gladiators' to stun City High, 27-24 (w/video)

IOWA CITY - The Mississippi Valley Conference's dragon has been slain for the first time in four years. You might be surprised by the dudes carrying the sword.

Ryan Cain's diving 5-yard touchdown catch with 10.8 seconds left gave Cedar Rapids Washington a shocking 27-24 win over Class 4A second-ranked City High last night at Bates Field. The Little Hawks' 33-game regular-season win streak is kaput thanks to a gritty, gutty group of Warriors.

Or gladiators, as they preferred to call themselves postgame.

“We went into the week with a gladiator mindset,” said Cain, playing just his second game of the season because of a broken collarbone incurred in preseason practice. “The game of football is like chess, but you've got to play it like gladiators. Stick it out, tough it out as a team. Tonight we did.”

With the game on the line, Washington (4-2) went on a methodical, 19-play, 69-yard drive that took 6:39 and looked an awful lot like what City High (5-1) does routinely to opponents. It was a plethora of short runs by Will Griffin (playing his first game because of injury), Mitch Bredeson and Flynn Heald that matriculated the ball downfield in short increments.

The Warriors converted five third downs and a 4th-and-7 on the march. On 3rd-and-2 at the City High 5, quarterback Braedon Tovey dropped back and threw a pass in the end zone to right-slot Cain, who made a quick out move, diving to his left and cradling the ball into his arms for the game winner.

“I've been working on that play for the past two weeks,” said Tovey, who completed 13 of 20 passes for 118 yards. “It's just read the wide defender. I hit the spot, Ryan got open and made a fantastic catch. I can't believe it.”

“I knew what we wanted to do there,” said Wash Coach Tony Lombardi. “We wanted to eat up all the clock and maintain our composure. Not try and go overboard. When we needed to make a play, I knew we had some playmakers that could make plays.”

Washington hogged the ball offensively, riding its big offensive line, and made City High earn its rushing yards by stacking eight and sometimes nine defenders in the box. It was daring the Little Hawks to pass the football, which they'd done only 23 times coming into the game.

Ronald Thompson ran 21 times for 152 yards, including a 47-yard TD run with 1:24 left in the first half that gave his team a 14-7 lead. But Wash came right back to tie it on the final play, a 1-yard QB sneak from Heald. That was huge.

“We were trying to keep the ball away from them because their offense can score at will,” Tovey said. “The longer you keep the ball away from them, the less time they have to score.”

City High took the opening kickoff and drove for a touchdown that gave it an immediate 7-0 lead. Jeremy Johnson scored on an 11-yard reverse.

But while a fourth-down conversion off a Jasper Washington run on a punt formation was big on that drive, his being stopped on an alike play at the City High 18 set up Wash's tying points: a 5-yard Tovey bootleg touchdown and Michael Daughtery extra point.

A 37-yard TD pass from Washington to Johnson put City High back up at the beginning of the third quarter, 21-14, but Washington drove right back down for an ensuing touchdown: a 13-yard David Tann run off a fullback trap.

Daughtery's extra point was hooked left. Washington stopped a City High drive late in the third quarter, as the Little Hawks settled for a 29-yard Drew Cornwell field goal that gave them a 24-20 lead.

“I still think we're a great team,” said City High Coach Dan Sabers. “Washington really played well, and they have some good players. We'll be OK.”

Here's the game boxscore:

TEAM STATISTICS

CR Wash.

IC City High

First downs

21

11

Rushes-yards

57 - 237

35 - 238

Passing yards

118

63

Comp-Att-Int

13 - 20 - 1

2 - 5 - 0

Total yards

355

301

Fumbles-lost

0 - 0

0 - 0

Punts-average

0 - 0.0

0 - 0.0

Penalties-yards

5 - 42

5 - 31

Rushing:

 CR Wash. –

David Tann 12-81 ,

Braedon Tovey 6-53 ,

Will Griffin 19-52 ,

Mitch Bredeson 15-41 ,

Flynn Heald 5-11

 IC City High –

Ronald Thompson 21-152 ,

Jasper Washington 11-60 ,

Jeremy Johnson 2-26 ,

Kody Dailey 1-1

Passing:

 CR Wash. –

Braedon Tovey 13-20-1-118

 IC City High –

Jasper Washington 2-5-0-63

Receiving:

 CR Wash. –

Flynn Heald 9-80 ,

Ryan Cain 3-24 ,

Jason Oney 1-14

 IC City High –

Jeremy Johnson 1-37 ,

Steve Ferentz 1-26

CR Wash.

14

6

7

–

27

IC City High

7

7

10

–

24

ICH-Jeremy Johnson 11 run (Drew Cornwell kick)

CRW-Braedon Tovey 5 run (Michael Daughtery kick)

ICH-Ronald Thompson 47 run (Cornwell kick)

CRW-Flynn Heald 1 run (Daughtery kick)

ICH-Johnson 37 pass from Jasper Washington (Cornwell kick)

CRW-David Tann 13 run (kick failed)

ICH-Cornwell 29 FG

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CRW-Ryan Cain 5 pass from Tovey (Daughtery kick)