Hawks suffer losses at the hands of West Liberty

DONNELLSON — Central Lee’s football team has played just one district game, but it’s become a crucial point in the season for the Hawks.
Friday’s 41-14 home loss to West Liberty in the Class 2A District 6 opener was the second consecutive game in which the Hawks have fallen behind by a large deficit and couldn’t recover, and how they’re playing at the moment is something that coach Doug Dodds said needs to change.
“It just comes down to our guys having to make a decision pretty quickly about what kind of team we’re going to be,” Dodds said.
It was just two weeks ago that the Hawks (2-2) won 20-14 at Albia, taking the lead late in what was a physical game.
Since then, they lost 28-12 to Fort Madison after being down 28-0 after three quarters, and in this game West Liberty was up 41-0 in the second half before Central Lee tacked on two fourth-quarter touchdowns.
“I mean, there's glimpses where we've been pretty physical, we've been pretty good, and then there's times when it's like we're not even out there,” Dodds said. Like I said, the kids, they’ve got to make a decision. What do they want to do?”
West Liberty (3-1) went 55 yards on its opening drive, capping the possession with Briggs Collins’ 1-yard touchdown dive for a 7-0 lead. Central Lee opened its first possession inside the Comets’ territory after a 35-yard kickoff return by Kellen Weber, but lost five yards on three plays and had to punt. That set a tone for the rest of the game.

“They established themselves in the line of scrimmage from the start, and we didn't have an answer for it,” Dodds said. “We kind of had an idea that they were going to want to get downhill on us a little bit that way to open up their passing game, but we just didn't respond.”
Collins had two more touchdown runs to extend the lead to 21-0, then Enrique Michel-Toribio scored on a 6-yard run to put West Liberty up 28-0.
Then came the costliest touchdown of the night for the Hawks. Devin Mericle threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Shield with 30 seconds left in the first half, but on the play Central Lee’s Carson Morrison suffered a leg injury. Morrison was taken off the field on a stretcher and was taken by ambulance to Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center in Fort Madison.
“Carson's an awesome person, an awesome player for us,” Dodds said. “Going into halftime like that, it's on the kids' mind right away and it took a lot out of us. Our thoughts and prayers are with him.”
West Liberty had 246 yards of offense in the first half, compared to minus-3 for the Hawks.
Mericle threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Tully Griffith midway through the third quarter to start the running clock under the IHSAA’s 35-point rule, then Central Lee got two fourth-quarter touchdowns — a 27-yard pass from Weber to Brett Cook, and a 5-yard run by Weber for the final margin.
“It was good to get those,” Dodds said. “But we need to get those a lot sooner in the game.”