For the past five years, the Iowa City fall classic known by everyone as “the Battle for the Boot” has gone to the home team.

City and West will face off at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 16 at West High.

After losing to Ames in overtime last week, the Little Hawks are 2-1 on the season and fell to #10 in the state. The Trojans, coming off of a home win last week against Cedar Falls, are 3-0 and #5 in the Gazette poll. Head coach Dan Sabers believes that the loss was a learning experience for the team.

“We just had too many mistakes the other night, and we now realize that we know our team better as coaches,” Sabers said. “We’re trying to work better with the talents we have, and I think you’ll see that we do a better job of that [Friday] night.”

Sabers believes that his team is up for the task of playing on the road as the Little Hawks begin a string of three straight road games.

“It’s obviously going to be tough [playing at West],” Sabers said. “I think after last week our guys got a bit of a dose of humility which was good and they know it’s going to be a tough ball game.”

Linebacker Brock Hunger ’17 believes that the Little Hawks struggled with tackling defensively, but also that they can beat West if they practice the fundamentals and limit turnovers and penalties.

“The way we beat West is to beat them with the basics and to just execute,” Hunger said. “It was absolutely ridiculous [the number of mistakes we made last week]. If we take those away, we’re a pretty good team.”