Metro Sports Report

History points to Hawkeyes win

I was shocked on Monday morning when the Las Vegas betting line came out and put Penn State as a slight favorite over Iowa.

And during the week, since the line began at 2 1/2 points, it has gone up to four points. I would beg to differ with the oddsmakers. If you look at recent history in this series, Iowa has been the dominant team.

There was the blowout of the Lions in Iowa City last year, eight out of nine Iowa wins in the last decade and four out of five wins at Beaver Stadium, and yet the Hawks go in as underdogs against a Penn State team that still doesn't have a quarterback and a Paterno team that went way over 400 yards against Indiana on the road and still could score only 16 points.

That tells me that Penn State has half a football team. Good defense, no offense. So I think that if the Hawks play up to par, they should win it by a couple of touchdowns.

With that in mind, let's note the rest of October for Kirk Ferentz's team. This game is the first for Vandenberg & Company in the Legends Division of the Big Ten. After Saturday, it's Northwestern for a 6 o'clock kick in Kinnick, Indiana the next week in the Hawks' homecoming, and a trip to Minnesota to take on the woebegone Gophers.

Lizarraga nearly perfect in Kennedy loss

Chico Lizarraga was given the keys to the Kennedy offense Thursday night at Kingston Stadium and he played a near perfect football game.

Because of the defensive adjustments Iowa City West was making, Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis told Lizarraga, the Cougars' senior quarterback, to survey the set and call the play at the line of scrimmage.

Lizarraga responded with a career-best 347 passing yards and two touchdowns.

But the only blemish in his breakout performance proved to be fatal. A second-quarter fumbled pitch resulted in an Iowa City West touchdown that gave the Trojans a two-touchdown advantage. Kennedy never got closer than seven points the rest of the game and the No. 9 Trojans won, 35-28.

"We had a couple of big plays that were called back in the first half and in big games you can't do that," Lewis said. Kennedy had a kickoff return to the Iowa City West 36 and a 34-yard pass play that would have put the ball at the West 35 nullified by penalties.

And then came the fumble.

Kennedy trailed 14-7 late in the second quarter when Lizarraga fumbled the snap then pushed a pitch over the head of Alex Hillyer. West recovered at the Kennedy 20 and five plays later the Trojans' Anthony Brown punched into the end zone from the 2-yard line for a 21-7 lead with 1:14 left in the half.

"That was a big mistake," Lizarraga said. "I lost the snap, then I tossed it high. It was an 'Oh, no' type of thing. I rushed it and it came back to get us at the end of the game."

"The bottom line is that we shot ourselves in the foot too many times and it came back to haunt us in the end," Lewis said.

Linn-Mar girls capture 1st MVC crown

The Linn-Mar High School girls cross country team is No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

The Lions captured their first MVC Super Meet title in school history Thursday with a strong performance at Noelridge Park by placing five girls in the top 11.

Linn-Mar finished 4-5-7-8-11 with Brooklyn Kascel, Carolyn Newhouse, Rachel Perry, Morgan Uridil and Maddie Saville tightly bunched within 21 seconds.

Newhouse has been Linn-Mar's top runner all season, but Kascel nudged her by three seconds with a strong finish.

Josh Evans claims MVC Super Meet crown

Linn-Mar sophomore Josh Evans added another title to his growing list of accomplishments Thursday in cross country.

Evans won the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet by 12 seconds at Noelridge Park in 15:52, keeping him undefeated against in-state competition this season.

Evans is ranked No.1 in the state and has won all of his races this season except the Heartland Classic, where he placed second behind a runner from Minnesota.

Cedar Falls emerged as the team champion with 86 points. Washington and Linn-Mar both finished with 93 points.