Sutton Koller scores 5 touchdowns as Iowa City Liberty races past City High

IOWA CITY — Sutton Koller may still be running free with a football in his hands.

Iowa City Liberty (2-0), powered by Koller’s five touchdowns, kept possession of the Battle for Zeus Trophy following a 49-20 win over Iowa City High (0-2) at Bates Field on Friday in a Class 5A high school football game.

“I think what you see is Sutton’s a guy that can play all over the field,” first-year Liberty Coach Scott Chandler said. “I can put him in just about any position on our offense and he knows what to do. And on defense, he’s a ball hawk.”

Koller was the second Bolt to score Friday.

Owen Drapeaux found paydirt first, capping an opening 85-yard drive with a 3-yard TD at the 6:19 mark in the first quarter.

Three minutes later, Koller took a Reece Rettig screen pass 65 yards to the house to give Liberty an early 14-0 lead.

“It’s (the screen play) always deadly because we have great running backs like Owen Drapeaux who can threaten them in the run game,” Koller said. “Then we throw them off and pull out a screen pass like that … it just always works.”

City High answered early in the second on a gutsy fourth-down call as quarterback Bobby Bacon handed it to Chayse Newton on a reverse. Newton then found Parker Sutherland open in the end zone for a 10-yard score.

The momentum went back to Liberty shortly after as Koller took his second screen pass from Rettig for a TD, this one from 34 yards out.

“Rettig did a great job taking care of the ball and making plays with his legs and his arm,” Chandler said. “I think the thing you don’t see is how smart he is, how many things he does before the snap that are things we’ve been talking about for three years to him. He understands what we want.”

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Photos: Iowa City Liberty at Iowa City High football

With two minutes remaining in the second quarter, Bacon found Blaine Heick for a 5-yard score to get the Little Hawks back with a touchdown.

Two minutes proved far too long for Liberty. Koller scored his third TD on a 38-yard screen pass from Rettig.

“I’d say the third one was my favorite because it was actually designed to go the opposite way,” Koller said. “I saw a cutback lane and my teammate had an amazing block … it wasn’t where it was supposed to go, but that’s where it went.”

Koller had all 150 of his receiving yards in the first half.

“The feel he has for screens is something you can’t really teach,” Chandler said. “He just gets out at the perfect time. He hides well. And then in the open field, he’s electric.”

Early in the fourth, Koller tallied his first rushing TD of the ballgame from 13 yards out.

City High responded with 9:42 left as Dominic Salibi scored a 1-yard touchdown to make it a 35-20 game.

It was all Lightning from there.

Rettig connected with Landon Bell for a 10-yard score with 5:12 left. Shortly after, Koller added his fifth score — a pick-6 he returned 70 yards.

The win was Liberty’s third straight in the series. It also was Chandler’s second consecutive win against an Iowa City opponent to begin his head coaching tenure at Liberty after opening the season with a 56-45 victory over West.

“You know, it feels good,” Chandler said. “You don’t have to do much to get these kids up for these games. I couldn’t be prouder of our guys coming out here and executing.”

“I love that all his work pays off, the things he does for this program,” Koller said. “The things he’s brought in, it’s unbelievable. He’s the best coach in the state. He could be up in the pros doing something else, but he chose to be here. He loves these guys.”

The Lightning will travel to Pleasant Valley (1-1) next Friday. City High will host Ames (0-2).

Iowa City Liberty 49, Iowa City High 20

AT BATES FOOTBALL FIELD

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: LIB 24, ICH 19

Passing yards: LIB 268, ICH 201

Rushing yards: LIB 184, ICH 125

Comp-att-int: LIB 14-19-0, ICH 17-26-1

Fumbles-lost: LIB 0-0, ICH 0-0

Total yards: LIB 452, ICH 326

Punts-average: LIB 1-33, ICH 3-34.3

Penalties-yards: LIB 3-30, ICH 8-52

SCORING SUMMARY

Liberty 14 14 0 21 — 49

Iowa City High 0 14 0 6 — 20

Liberty — Owen Drapeaux 3 run (Collin Weis kick)

Liberty — Sutton Koller 65 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

Iowa City High — Parker Sutherland 5 pass from Chayse Newton (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

Liberty — Sutton Koller 34 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

Iowa City High — Blaine Heick 5 pass from Bobby Bacon (Nichols-Lindsey kick)

Liberty — Sutton Koller 38 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

Liberty — Sutton Koller 13 run (Collin Weis kick)

Iowa City High — Dominic Salibi (Nichols-Lindsey kick blocked)

Liberty — Landon Bell 10 pass from Reece Rettig (Collin Weis kick)

Liberty — Sutton Koller 70 interception (Collin Weis kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Liberty: Owen Drapeaux 20-93, Sutton Koller 5-10, Reece Rettig 8-69, Dallas Miller 3-12. Iowa City High: Dominic Salibi 22-96, Gabe Egeland 6-25, Chayse Newton 1-2, Bobby Bacon 2-5, Misc. 1-(minus 3).

Passing – Liberty Reece Rettig 14-19-268-0. Iowa City High: Bobby Bacon 16-25-191-1.

Receiving – Liberty: Sutton Koller 4-150, Dallas Miller 6-74, Landon Bell 3-31. Iowa City High: Dominic Salibi 2-11, Chayse Newton 2-28, Iyon Harris 1-6, Parker Sutherland 5-89, Adan Carbajal 5-52, Blaine Heick 2-15.