High School Football: Prairie View 42, Iola 14
LACYGNE With his team gathered around them in the end zone, Iola head coach David Daugharthy pointed at the middle of Prairie Views field after the Mustangs 42-14 loss Friday night.
Prairie Views players, coaches and fans were bunched together celebrating a district championship and the prospect of their first home playoff game in 20 years.
I want everyone to look at that, Daugharthy said. Freshman, sophomore and juniors, I want you to look at that and take it in. Thats the goal. Thats where we want to be. Thats what these seniors have bled and sweat for this season. Thats where this program should be.
The Mustangs did not know it at the time, but with the loss pushing their district record to 2-3, that put them on the wrong side of a tiebreaker for fourth place with Anderson County. Finishing in the bottom two of the district puts the Mustangs out of postseason play for the fifth time in the last six years.
Things werent all doom and gloom. Prairie View is one of the top teams in the state in Class 3A and the Mustangs held their own for three quarters. They trailed by two touchdowns heading into the fourth quarter before turnovers and defensive miscues allowed the Buffalos to pull away
We made mistakes and they didnt, Daugharthy said. In the end thats pretty much it. Theyre also a pretty good football team, too, so that doesnt help. This is a good enough team that if you make just one mistake, theyre going to punish you with big plays. Eliminate those big plays, its an entirely different ballgame.
Prairie View showed that exact punishment on the first play of the game as the Viking quarterback burned Iola for an 80-yard touchdown.
But Iola was undeterred early. Isacc Badders four-yard touchdown run tied the score 4 minutes later.
A Buffalo turnover on downs put the Mustangs at fmidfield with the final seconds ticking off the first quarter but Iola couldnt get anything going and punted it away.
An old bugaboo long punt returns for touchdown bit the Mustangs again, as Prairie View scored on a retunr to lead 14-7.
We worked all week on punting it out of bounds, Daugharthy said. And then we kicked it in the middle of the field and we got burned. Its happened multiple times this year. Weve tried different punters, different formations, everything. Hasnt made a difference. Well have to go back to the drawing board for next week.
Prairie View scored again after Iola muffed the ensuing kickoff.
The Mustangs responded with a march down the field, led by senior Elijah Luedkes rushing and receiving, to get near the goal line. Badders second score of the night cut the Buffalo lead to 21-14 at the break.
He was fighting for extra yards and thats what really impressed me, Daugharthy said. Prairie View is the best tackling team weve faced all year and every piece of film I got leading up to today confirmed that but Elijah broke a lot of tackles tonight and ran hard. He played his heart out.
Iola got the ball to start the second half but couldnt do anything with it. Prairie View got the ball and started to drive but Iola held them up at fourth and two at midfield.
A run up the middle turned those two yards into 48 and a touchdown.
