No. 3 Iowa City Liberty survives No. 8 Cedar Falls, 15-14

NORTH LIBERTY - It was “ugly,” but it counts all the same.

Class 5A No. 3 Iowa City Liberty (1-0), powered by its defense and timely playmaking down the stretch, survived four turnovers to defeat No. 8 Cedar Falls (0-1), 15-14, Friday in North Liberty.

“Ugly … but an ugly win still counts as a win,” Liberty Coach Scott Chandler said. “We’ll learn a lot from this one and get on to next week.”

Trailing 14-7 with 4:31 to go, after just having thrown interceptions on back-to-back possessions, Bolts quarterback Reece Rettig made big plays when it mattered most.

Facing third-and-goal, Rettig rolled left and found Jordan Schroeder for a 6-yard touchdown with 1:01 remaining.

“The last drive was about guys really playing their heart out,” Chandler said. “The blocking on the edge was pretty phenomenal. We were able to just nickel-and-dime them down the field.”

Down one, Chandler had no plans of sending in the kicking unit.

“I trust our coaches there to go for two,” Rettig said. “We don’t want to play for a tie — we want to win.”

Rettig rolled out right and threw a strike to Leo Rozz, who made a sliding catch for the game-winning two-point conversion.

“I've been working with him (Rozz) all summer, and to see it translate to a game, that trust is just there now,” Rettig said. “We’ve got to thank the defense. They kept us in the game, and if they give us an opportunity to win, we'll find a way to get it done.”

“I'm pretty aggressive,” Chandler said. “I'm usually going to go for two in those situations. I don't want to keep playing — we’ve got a lot of two-way guys.”

Friday’s contest started slow.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Rettig rolled to his left and found Rozz for a 3-yard score with 3:55 remaining in the second quarter.

Rozz’s score capped 11-play, 67-yard drive.

“He's (Rozz) a kid who was a great player on the freshman team and JV team the last couple years, and really stepped up and made some big plays tonight,” Chandler said. “Obviously the touchdown in the first half, and then the two-point conversion was pretty big there.”

Cedar Falls responded quickly as Ayden Moersfelder capped 7-play, 74-yard drive taking a toss home for a 6-yard score.

The Tigers then took the lead on another Moersfelder 6-yard TD with 9:43 left in the third quarter.

From there, Liberty’s defense held strong.

“Our defense just did a great job in the second half,” Chandler said. “And then our punt return team did a great job setting us up with good field position. We struggled to move the ball, struggled to find consistent run game all night. But our guys have a lot of heart, they know how to win games. And we found a way to win tonight.”

Liberty will travel to play Class 5A No. 4 Southeast Polk Friday.

Iowa City Liberty 15, Cedar Falls 14

(At Liberty High School)

ICL – CF

First downs 21 – 12

Rushes-yards 34-119 – 22-74

Passing yards 222 – 88

Comp-Att-Int 25-34-3 – 12-18-0

Punts-Avg. 1-54 – 5-35.6

Fumbles-lost 1-1 – 0-0

Penalties-Yards 8-70 – 3-15

IC Liberty 0 7 0 8 — 15

Cedar Falls 0 7 7 0 — 14

ICL — Leo Rozz 3 pass from Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

CF — Ayden Moersfelder 6 run (Cael Harms kick)

CF — Ayden Moersfelder 6 run (Cael Harms kick)

ICL — Jordan Schroeder 6 pass from Rettig (Rozz pass from Rettig)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - IC Liberty: Reece Rettig 11-54, Pryor Reiners 13-28, Leo Rozz 3-14, Logan Laubenthal 6-18. Cedar Falls: Jeremiah Tamayo-Lopez 7-17, Leyton Wolf 2-28, Ayden Moersfelder 8-32, Carsen Gary 1-15, Team 4-(minus 18).

PASSING - IC Liberty: Reece Rettig 22-28-3-181, Pryor Reiners 1-1-0-20, Emerson Berner 2-4-0-21, Jordan Schroeder 0-1-0-0. Cedar Falls: Leyton Wolf 12-18-0-88.

RECEIVING - IC Liberty: Cale Baldwin 4-28, Pryor Reiners 5-46, Leo Rozz 5-75, Logan Laubenthal 5-31, Landon Bell 1-8, Adrian Clerry 1-13, Jordan Schroeder 4-21. Cedar Falls: Trey Reuter 3-22, Jeremiah Tamayo-Lopez 1-6, Will Remmert 4-16, Carsen Gary 2-23, Stratton Range 1-20, Ayden Moersfelder 1-1.