Iowa high school football rewind: Prairie coach Mark Bliss savors 200th career win, and more from Week 2

Mark Bliss coaches. He lets his family do the counting.

“My wife and daughters are the ones who had been keeping up with the tally,” Bliss said after Class 5A fourth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie downed Dubuque Senior, 28-14, Friday night at Dalzell Field in Dubuque.

The victory was the 200th in his 26-year career.

An Oklahoma native, the 57-year-old Bliss coached at a number of schools in Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas and Florida before coming to Prairie in 2015.

His overall career record is 200-77, including 41-20 at Prairie.

The Hawks (2-0) broke it open with a pair of second-quarter touchdowns. With the game tied 7-7, Makelle Taylor put the Hawks in front for good with a 1-yard run. Brandon Vlcko’s 10-yard TD pass to Iowa State recruit Gabe Burkle made it 21-7 at halftime.

Taylor finished with two touchdowns, and Vlcko also scored on a 62-yard run.

Bliss had been keeping the impending milestone close to the chest during game week.

“The kids were a little in shock afterward,” he said. “This isn’t Mark Bliss’ win total. This is for my wife (Jill) and my four daughters, too. They’re all invested in the whole thing.”

Seven players, including five starters, are in the midst of a three-game good-conduct suspension. But the remaining Hawks have picked up the slack, and then some.

“What this has done, it has forced the other kids to step up, and it’s created depth and really solidified us,” Bliss said. “The way these kids are playing, some of (the regular starters) might have some trouble getting back on the field.”

Prairie hosts Cedar Falls next week.

North Linn is unbeaten, unscored upon

The folks at North Linn have been waiting for the combination of these upperclassmen for a while.

“This senior class, I’ve been working with since they were in kindergarten,” Lynx Coach Jared Collum said. “Put that with this junior class, and we thought this year could be solid.”

Solid, and stacked defensively.

North Linn posted its second straight shutout, 20-0 over East Buchanan on Friday. It was the Lynx’s first win over the Buccaneers since 2014.

That came on the heels of a 38-0 win over Alburnett in Week 1. The Class A ninth-ranked Lynx have allowed a total of 183 yards in the two victories.

“We game-planned to put nine in the box (against East Buchanan), and our D-line was outstanding,” Collum said.

Landen Paul had multiple stops for loss to anchor that line, which also consists of guys like McClane Rauch, Trey McEnany, Wyatt McMahon, Corbin Woods and Lane Sommerfelt.

Linebacker Landon Miller collected eight tackles.

Roosevelt wins one for DMPS

When Des Moines Roosevelt won at Waukee 19-3 Friday, it signified the end of a long, long streak in Central Iowa.

The Roughriders’ victory was the first for a Des Moines Public Schools team over a suburban Des Moines team since 2008, a streak of 128 games.

Roosevelt is 2-0.

Record night for City High

Iowa City High scored a school record for points in a game Friday in a 68-0 victory over Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

Eight different players scored touchdowns for the Little Hawks (2-0), who have outscored their first two opponents by a 109-0 margin.

A peek to Week 3

Five of the seven Metro teams are unbeaten through two games, and two of them — Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Cedar Rapids Washington — will collide next week at Kingston Stadium.

The Kennedy-Washington tussle is one of just three in the area next week that features unbeaten vs. unbeaten.

The other two are Dyersville Beckman at Monticello, and English Valleys at WACO.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com