Iowa City Liberty powers its way past Waukee in Class 5A football playoff first rounder

IOWA CITY - Iowa City Liberty’s football team had a 10-0 lead in the second quarter and was driving for more points.

Reece Rettig faked a handoff to a teammate and ran the right side for 18 yards and a first down to the Waukee 17-yard line. He got up after being tackled low, albeit gingerly, eventually limping his way to the sideline.

Uh, oh.

The last guy the Lightning need to get injured is their star senior quarterback. He’s the motor that runs their powerful offense, the straw that stirs the drink, whatever cliche you want to use.

“They attacked us low,” Rettig said after third-ranked Liberty beat Waukee, 34-20 Friday night in a Class 5A prep football playoff opener. “I mean, nothing dirty, it was clean. They were just tackling low, and that will get you sometimes. It shook me up a little bit.”

Rettig missed Liberty’s next offensive series but returned for its final one of the first half, leading the Lightning to an important 32-yard Collin Weis field goal that made it a 20-6 game at halftime. And he played the entire second half, running and throwing with zero problems as Liberty moved on to next week’s 5A quarterfinals.

The opponent will be four-time defending champion Southeast Polk (6-4), which upset No. 4 Ankeny in another Friday night first-rounder.

“I was worried for a second when I saw him get hurt, but then I thought ‘It’s Reece. He’s a tough guy,’” said Liberty’s Logan Laubenthal, who had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs in the game. “He wants to play more than anyone around.”

“His little brother told him to suck it up and get back in there, so I knew he was going to be all right,” said Liberty Coach Scott Chandler, referring to Tate Rettig, a sophomore wide receiver who plays on the varsity. “If his mom would have come down, she would have really told him to get back out there.”

Liberty rushed a whopping 53 times for 255 yards. There were eight different ballcarriers, too, led by sophomore Brody Beaver (who had 105 yards on 16 carries).

Rettig rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown and completed 13 of 14 passes for 125 yards. Wide receiver Leo Rozz didn’t get a touch in the game until the fourth quarter but scored on a 7-yard motion run to the right side, capping off a long drive at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth that extended a precarious 20-13 lead to a more comfortable 27-13.

Six different players caught passes from Rettig. Liberty uses a ton of guys at the skill positions.

“Our line played great, getting a push,” Laubenthal said. “We probably ran for a ton of yards. They were just getting the gaps open.”

“O-line did a great job tonight,” Rettig agreed. “The run game was where it needed to be, and that’s nice. That’s what we need to keep leaning on is the run game, because it opens up everything else.”

Liberty’s defense did a nice job against Waukee, getting beat on two long touchdown plays: a 78-yard run from Jai White in the second quarter and a 71-yard pass from Beckett Bakker to Jayden Jeter in the final minute when the game had been decided.

“I thought we played well,” Chandler said. “We came out in the first half and executed well on offense. They got that big run, (White) is a horse, and he got going. They had that big play. But getting the field goal right before half was big, I thought. The third quarter, they put us in some tough field position and then went and scored. But, really, our offense took over after that. We were able to bleed the clock, run consistently, and hit big passes when we needed to.”

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Iowa City Liberty 34, Waukee 20

(At Iowa City)

Waukee 0 6 7 7-20

Iowa City Liberty 10 10 0 14-34

Team Statistics

First Downs - Waukee 10, Iowa City Liberty 26. Rushes-Yards - Waukee 26-207, Iowa City Liberty 53-255. Passing - Waukee 4-12-0-76, Iowa City Liberty 13-16-0-125. Total Yards - Waukee 283, Iowa City Liberty 380. Punts-Average - Waukee 4-40.5, Iowa City Liberty 2-41.5. Penalties-Yards - Waukee 4-42, Iowa City Liberty 3-30. Fumbles-Lost - Waukee 0-0, Iowa City Liberty 2-0.

Individual Statistics

Waukee - Rushing: Ben Case Haub 13-109, Jai White 3-87, Beckett Bakker 10-11. Passing: Beckett Bakker 4-12-0-76. Receiving: Jayden Jeter 2-76, Myles O’Connor 1-3, Ben Case Haub 1-(minus) 3.

Iowa City Liberty - Rushing: Brody Beaver 16-105, Reece Rettig 16-85, Logan Laubenthal 7-30, Pryor Reiners 4-23, Cooper Lester 3-16, Leo Rozz 2-7, Tate Rettig 1-(minus) 2, Emerson Berner 1-(minus) 4, Team 3-(minus) 5. Passing: Reece Rettig 13-14-0-125, Emerson Berner 0-2-0-0. Receiving: Jordan Schroeder 6-73, Leo Rozz 1-24, Pryor Reiners 2-21, Adrian Clerry 3-17, Landon Bell 1-9, Cooper Lester 1-1.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com