Liberty strikes like 'Lightning' in final minute, stuns Burlington to win district
BURLINGTON − The Iowa City Liberty High School football team had its back to the wall, seemingly cornered with no way out.
With the Class 4A District 3 championship within their grasp, the Lightning faced a seven-point deficit with just 84 ticks left on the clock against Burlington.
The Lightning were 65 yards away from the end zone and starting quarterback Graham Beckman, who has put up all-state numbers this year, was on the bench with a thigh bruise.
Junior Cody Nichols, who had touched the football just twice in the Lightning's first seven games, was asked to guide his team to victory.
No problem.
Nichols made three big plays to lead the fifth-ranked Lightning to a thrilling 29-28 victory over the Grayhounds on a cold, damp Friday night at Bracewell Stadium.
Nichols played like a seasoned veteran, helping Liberty win the first district football championship in school history.
As his teammates mobbed him after the game, Nichols was cool as a cucumber.
"This is huge. We are district champs for the first time in our history," said Nichols, who rushed for 80 yards and threw for 69 yards in the second half in relief of Beckman. "As soon as our QB went out I was like, 'Well, here we go.' I was kind of nervous to start, but I settled in."
"It was huge. Now we're the first time ever district champs in Liberty football history. It means a lot to us," said Liberty senior receiver Wyatt Williams, who hauled in a 52-yard scoring pass from Nichols with 26 seconds remaining.
"I'm just proud of our guys. That was a hell of a fight," Liberty head coach James Harris said.
Burlington head coach Jim Krekel, whose team fell to 5-3, could do nothing but tip his cap to the Lightning, who found a way to win in adverse conditions.
"They had a nice play designed there and they found a kid wide open," Krekel said. "That's the way it goes. Tip of my hat to their coaches. They do a great job with their kids."
Sixty-five yards and 84 seconds from a title
After Burlington senior Nolan Simpson scored from three yards out to give the Grayhounds a 28-21 lead with 1 minute, 24 seconds left, Liberty took possession at its own 35 with just one timeout left.
Nichols scrambled for five yards, then threw two incomplete passes, to bring up fourth-and-five from the Liberty 40 with 57 seconds to play.
Nichols then made the play that broke the Grayhounds' back.
Nichols appeared to be sacked in the backfield, which would have ended the game for all intents and purposes. But Nichols spun around and somehow flipped the ball to Garrett Gregoire, who hauled in the ball for an eight-yard completion and a first down at the Liberty 48.
The Lightning had new life.
"He made two plays. On the fourth-down play he got Garrett and got the first down. That was huge," Harris said. "What composure coming in as the backup."
"At the very end it would have taken a miraculous play when the quarterback, we were sacking him and spun him around, he just threw the ball and the kid happened to be there," Krekel said. "To me you're wearing a rabbit's foot at that point at the end of the game."
A wing, and a prayer answered
Given new life, Nichols and the Lightning went for broke.
After two incompletions, Liberty faced a third-and-10 at its own 48 with 36 seconds left.
No problem.
Once again, Nichols dropped back to pass. Once again, he escaped a heavy rush, stepping up in the pocket. That caused the BHS secondary to pause momentarily, thinking Nichols was going to run. That was all the room Williams needed to get open. Nichols threw a perfect pass, which Williams hauled in at the 15 and waltzed into the end zone.
"I was like, 'We still have time to make our plays. We've got time. We've got a timeout. Just make plays, move it down the field and score," Nichols said. "I got hit there, but he didn't wrap me up at all so I was like, 'OK, here we go.' I just threw it down the field and he was there."
"It was just broken coverage. I was just running and Cody threw a perfect ball. Props to him. Way to step up. I was wide open and it was a dime. Touchdown," Williams said.
"When you lose Graham, you're talking about losing a guy that is potentially an all-state player," Harris said. "You're not loving it, but Cody is an incredible athlete. You guys saw it tonight. He can run. That's what he did for us. We lean on the Q run game right there. He made some big plays when we needed him to."
Krekel looked back to the previous play, which could have ended the game.
"The next play, there again we have him wrapped up. We don't make that play," Krekel said. "No excuse to leave somebody wide open way down the field like that. We did. That's on us. That one before that really hurt."
Still, Liberty trailed, 28-27, and Harris was left to make a decision.
You play to win the game
Harris originally sent kicker Hayden Saul onto the field to kick the extra point and force overtime.
After further thought, Harris called a timeout and sent Nichols and the offense back onto the field to go for two points and the win.
Once again, Nichols came through in the clutch on a perfectly designed play. Nichols rolled out to his right to draw the secondary up to play the run, then hit a wide-open Christian Barney with a pass to give the Lightning the lead with 26 seconds left.
"That was a great play call there," Nichols said. "I was running the whole second half, so the defense was like, 'He's probably going to run.' So I just dumped it over his head. It was a good play call."
"You have to think they are stacking it up for our run and he got over the top. On the two-yard line, it's a hard call for a defensive coordinator. You have to take away the easy and do the challenging. We did the play-action and he rolled out and found him," Harris said. "I'm just so proud of our guys, just that never-say-die attitude, just that ability to show up. It would have been easy to pack it up with 90 seconds left. They showed a lot of guts right there."
By the numbers
ICL. BHS
First downs. 18. 16
Rushes-yards 27-160. 58-244
Passing yards 143. 25
Comp-Att-Int. 12-26-1. 2-7-0
Total offense. 303. 269
Fumbles-lost. 0-0. 2-1
Punts-average. . 1-32.0. 3-24.7
Penalties-yards. 4-30. 7-40
3rd Down Efficiency. 5-7. 3-10
4th Down Efficiency. 1-2. 3-5
Time of possession. 20:13. 27:47
Scoring by quarters
Liberty 7 0 14 8— 29
Burlington 7 7 0 14 — 28
Scoring
B—Gabe Robinson 1 run (Brennen Winke kick)
L—Wyatt Williams 14 pass from Graham Beckman (Hayden Saul kick)
B—Caden Schisel 4 run (Christian Snyder kick)
L—Trey Gregoire 1 run (Saul kick)
L—Gregoire 5 run (Saul kick)
B—Noah Nixon 17 pass from Robinson (Winke kick)
B—Nolan Simpson 3 run (Snyder kick)
L—Williams 52 pass from Cody Nichols (Nichols pass to Christian Barney)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Liberty — Nichols 10-80, Gregoire 11-42, Beckman 4-32, Owen Drapeaux 2-6. Burlington — Schisel 22-119, Robinson 17-61, Simpson 13-58 Dimitri Donald 2-9, Nixon 1-1, Team 2-(-4).
PASSING: Liberty — Beckman 9-19-1-74, Nichols 3-7-0-69. Burlington — Robinson 2-6-0-25, Schisel 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: Liberty — Williams 5-89, Garrett Gregoire 4-37, Lucas Meyer 3-17. Burlington — Nixon 1-17, Simpson 1-8.
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City Liberty rallies in final minute to win district title
