Iowa City City High's Ellis Jordan (3) pulls down an interception during the first half of their game against Cedar Rapids Prairie Friday, Oct. 09, 2009 in Cedar Rapids. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Senior quarterback A.J. Derby and his Iowa City High teammates struggled through a flu-ravaged week of practice. You couldn’t tell by the top-ranked Little Hawks’ performance last night.

Derby ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more to lead City High past Cedar Rapids Prairie, 34-0, in a Mississippi Valley Conference prep football game at John Wall Field.

“I missed one day of practice and we had a lot of guys that were sick and fought through it,” said Derby, who had scoring runs of 7 and 27 yards, and touchdown passes of 27 and 10 yards to senior John Chelf.

About 400 students — nearly 25 percent of City High’s enrollment — were absent during the week.

“It was the worst I’ve ever seen,” said City High Coach Dan Sabers, who estimated nearly 25 players — one-third of the team — missed practice time during the week. “Some of our key guys didn’t practice all week. But we stepped up and played pretty well in all phases of the game.”

While City High’s offense ground out 250 yards against Prairie’s salty defenders, it was the Little Hawks’ defense that provided the spark for the rout. Prairie managed only 98 yards of offense, committed one turnover that led to a touchdown and ran only three plays in the fourth quarter.

“It’s just a matter of time until they wear you down,” Prairie Coach Craig Jelinek said. “We’re happy with our kids’ effort. We did a real nice job early. But we ran out of steam late.”

Derby’s 7-yard run midway through the first quarter, following a Little Hawks interception, staked City High to a 6-0 lead. It stayed that way until midway through the second quarter, when on fourth-and-2, Derby ran an option keeper, bounced off one defender and raced 27 yards to a touchdown.

Prairie mishandled the ensuing kickoff and a punt from the 5 was returned by City High sophomore Jasper Washington 12 yards to the Hawks’ 27. Derby lofted a strike to Chelf on the first play for a 27-yard touchdown. Chelf has nine touchdown catches for the season.

City High also ground out an 18-play, 92-yard scoring drive that chewed 8:53 off the clock. Junior Andrew McNulty sneaked 1 yard for the touchdown with 4:11 left.

While City High (7-0) has clinched a substate playoff berth, Prairie (3-4) likely needs a win in one of its final two games to have a chance to qualify. The Hawks face stiff tests. They play at Cedar Falls on Friday and host Cedar Rapids Xavier on Oct. 23.