City High smashes Cedar Falls, 49-28

IOWA CITY - Dan Sabers' postgame words to his Iowa City High football team said everything.“You are the best team in the MVC,” Sabers said in typical raspy voice to a bunch of whoops and hollers. “There's no question about that.”No question at all. A lightning-quick start and absolutely devastating ground game lifted the No. 2 Little Hawks to a 49-28 victory over No. 3 Cedar Falls in a Class 4A playoff quarterfinal last night at Bates Field.A lot of people were looking forward to this battle of Mississippi Valley Conference divisional champions, but it didn't turn out to be much of a battle. City High (12-0) scored two touchdowns in the first 29 seconds, and it was ballgame.“Oh, yeah. Definitely,” said City High quarterback Andrew McNulty. “We came out of the locker room surging. We had those quick 14 points, and that was huge. Jumping on them early like that. We never let off the gas from there.”Cedric Readus fielded a bouncing opening kickoff and returned it 67 yards to the CF 28. On the first play from scrimmage, McNulty dropped back and threw a post pattern to Jeremy Johnson, who juggled but hauled in the pass for a touchdown.Cedar Falls fumbled the ensuing kickoff at the City High 33. Ronald Thompson broke free for a TD run on the next play.“When you get up two scores, you've got a powerful offense and your defense isn't quite what you want it to be, you like to get up (ahead),” said Sabers, whose team won its 26th consecutive game. “So, yeah, that was huge. A big ballgame like this, to get up, that was a big factor in deciding it.”As was City High's ground game, which produced 396 yards: 151 and a touchdown from Readus, 100 and two touchdowns from Thompson and 96 and two TDs from McNulty. After a Barkley Hill fumble at the City High 4, the Little Hawks went on the mother of all drives to go up 21-0 and eliminate any doubt: 20 plays (all runs) that took 9:47 off the clock.Readus finished it from 3 yards out. A cut-on-a-dime, fast and sometimes whirling dervish of a back, he's the perfect complement to the power-running Thompson.“That's a lot of fun right now,” Readus said. “We make a big threat for the defense, both of us in the backfield.”“I think it's a little bit of everything,” McNulty said. “We've got the right scheme in there, we've got backs running hard, we've got linemen doing everything perfectly. On top of it all, we just want that extra yard. Just keep going hard.”The teams combined for seven touchdowns on as many possessions in the second half, with Hill running for a pair of TDs for Cedar Falls (11-1). But that was way too little and way too late.City High plays Bettendorf (12-0) in a 4A semifinal next Friday afternoon at 4:30 at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.“That second half was more the game we were expecting,” Sabers said. “A shootout.”Here's the game boxscore:

Iowa City High 49 Cedar Falls 28

AT BATES FIELD

CF ICHFirst downs 18 23 Rushes-yards 32-204 59-396 Passing yards 159 40 Comp-att-int. 11-19-0 2-3-0 Punts-avg. 1-34.0 0-0 Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0 Penalties-yards 1-5 1-5

Cedar Falls 0 0 14 14-28 Iowa City High 14 14 14 7-49ICH-Jeremy Johnson 28 pass from Andrew McNulty (Drew Cornwell kick) ICH-Ronald Thompson 33 run (Cornwell kick) ICH-Cedric Readus 3 run (Cornwell kick) ICH-McNulty 30 run (Cornwell kick) CF-Barkley Hill 15 run (Jacob Fagersten kick) ICH-Thompson 10 run (Cornwell kick) CF-Hill 2 run (Fagersten kick) ICH-Amos Lavela 3 run (Cornwell kick) CF-Jordan Doyle 14 run (Fagersten kick) ICH-McNulty 10 run (Cornwell kick) CF-Andrew Stone 21 pass from Kyle Denning (Fagersten kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Cedar Falls: Barkley Hill 23-123, Jordan Doyle 6-47, Bobby Brummel 2-25, Jacob Seehase 1-9.

Iowa City High: Cedric Readus 21-151, Ronald Thompson 12-100, Andrew McNulty 13-96, Amos Lavela 6-30, Todd Turner 2-9, Zach Capron 1-5, Isaiah Washpun 1-4, Bobby Millard 3-1.

PASSING-Cedar Falls: Jordan Doyle 9-16-0-101, Kyle Denning 2-3-0-48.

Iowa City High: 2-3-0-40.

RECEIVING-Cedar Falls: James Harrington 5-76, Andrew Stone 3-61, Ben Challgren 1-15, Bobby Brummel 1-6, Barkley Hill 1-1.

Iowa City High: Jeremy Johnson 1-28, Thomas Zoeckler 1-12.