Linn-Mar Football

Schmidt tops All-Metro football team

Linn-Mar quarterback Ryan Schmidt has been named the Player of the Year on the All-Metro football team.

Schmidt topped all Metro players in scoring with 21 touchdowns and led the Lions to a division title in the Mississippi Valley Conference. He passed for 1,541 yards and 14 touchdowns and he ran for 658 yards and 21 TDs.

Washington Coach Paul James and his staff were named the Metro Coach of the Year. The Warriors won 13 straight games and reached the championship game of the Class 4A playoffs before falling to Dowling Catholic.

The All-Metro team was selected by the coaches.

Five Washington players received first-team honors on the 22-man squad. Linn-Mar and Xavier had four first-team picks. Prairie and Jefferson had three first-team berths, Kennedy had two and Marion had one.

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Schmidt honored in District 5

Linn-Mar quarterback Ryan Schmidt has been named the Offensive Player of the Year for Class 4A District 5, as selected by the district coaches.

Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth and his assistants were named the Staff of the Year. Rayce Willett of Cedar Falls was named the Defensive Player of the Year.

Seven Linn-Mar Lions were named first team all-district. Schmidt, Perrion Scott and Trevor Noble were honored on offense. Logan Nelsen, Trevor Long, Andrew Gassmann and Zach Huffman were saluted on defense.

The Jefferson J-Hawks and Kennedy Cougars had four first-team picks.

Jesse Furrow and Dalton Kuehl of Jefferson were named to the first team on offense. Alex Fernandez and Dakota Tomkins of Jefferson were honored on defense Shaun Beyer and Tyler Dralle of Kennedy made the first team on offense. Jay Blank and Parker Steffen from the Cougars were honored on defense.

Second Team Offense

Metro Only

Cameron McInerney (CRJ), Mason Furnish (CRJ), Lotukalafi Ahomana (LM), Daniel Gorsich (LM), Tylor Newhouse (LM), Mason Jacobs (CRK), Sammy Lizarraga (CRK).

Second Team Defense

Metro Only

Kelly May (CRJ), Tavian Rashed (CRJ), Garett Evans (LM), Logan Benter (LM), Dalles Jacobus (CRK), Logan Wedo (CRK).

Honorable Mention

Metro Only

Jefferson - Bryce Lund, Ben Baxter, Luke Sedlacek, Mason Short

Linn-Mar - Austin McCulloh, Dallas McFarland, Ryan Holub, Zach Garnett

Kennedy - Drake Brewster, Terrance Hall, Jacob Hauschild, Jonah Moes

All-Academic

Metro Only

Jefferson - Mason Furnish, Cameron Frazier

Kennedy - Jacob Grovert, Kyle Brewer

Linn-Mar - Michael Ho, Tylor Newhouse

Linn-Mar bumped off by IC West

One stop.

That's all the Linn-Mar Lions needed in the final two minutes with Iowa City West sitting 93 yards from the winning score.

That stop never came.

Iowa City West drove the length of the field and scored the winning touchdown on a 9-yard run by Yeshuwa Hicks with 25 seconds left for a 38-34 victory win in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs Monday night at rainy Linn-Mar Stadium.

The victory sends Coach Garrett Hartwig's 7-4 Trojans into a Friday night quarterfinal game against top-ranked Cedar Rapids Washington at Kingston Stadium. The Warriors advanced with a win over Cedar Falls.

Linn-Mar closes its season at 9-2.

Having to play catch-up against good football teams is nothing new for Iowa City West. Linn-Mar was the fifth No. 1 playoff seed the Trojans have faced this year.

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No.6 Lions shrug off Davenport Central

It wasn't exactly a playoff atmosphere Wednesday night at Linn-Mar Stadium as the Lions played host to Davenport Central in a Class 4A first-round contest.

That had Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth concerned.

"It's just a different environment when you come out here for that first Wednesday night playoff game," he said. "The band's not here. The crowd's not where you want, but I thought our kids did a good job of working around that."

The Lions shrugged things off and defeated Davenport Central, 34-14.

Linn-Mar took control with a 24-point second quarter, relying again on big plays from quarterback Ryan Schmidt and Trevor Noble to get in scoring position. Neither of the dynamic seniors were able to get into the end zone, but a couple big runs from Schmidt and three more long passes to Noble set the table for others.

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