High School Football: Eagles 35, Mustangs 16
WELLSVILLE The air was misty and full of excitement after a 10-yard Iola rushing touchdown gave the Mustangs their first lead of the season at 9-8 with a little more than 7 minutes to play in the first half Friday against host Wellsville.
After Wellsville housed a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the ball game, Iola had been the aggressor on both sides of the ball. The Mustangs grabbed multiple interceptions and had even forced a safety.
But when bodies started dropping early in the second half, Iola (0-2) couldnt keep up with a tenacious Wellsville (2-0) squad, falling 35-16.
In our post-game huddle, one of our senior linemen Mat Karr spoke up and told everyone that this was the toughest game that hes ever been involved with, head coach David Daugharthy said. The first thing that I told them was that I was really proud of the effort that they put in. We had one thing that we asked them to do which was give me everything they had and for the most part, I feel like they did that.
Iola came into the 2018 season proud of its linemen. Daugharthy noted that they had the potential to be one of the best units in recent Iola history.
But, like so many things at the high school level, their depth was suspect and that showed when sophomores Logan Brown and Gage Turner both went down early in the second half with leg injuries.
Brown had been a nightmare for the Wellsville offense up to that point and was a constant source of pressure against the Eagles. Turner had been solid on the line up to that point but left with an injury to his right knee that required him to be taken to the emergency room by an ambulance after the game.
With those two out, things got thin and the Mustangs struggled on both ends of the ball.
I was planning our worst case scenario the other day because we had some guys who were banged up, Daugharthy said. At one point we were three-deep on the offensive line and that just gets pretty tough. You have to start counting on guys with not a whole lot of experience at those positions. We had to move Nic Zimmerman to center and hes never snapped a ball in his life.
But despite the struggle, the Mustangs found sparks of hope that they plan to build on as the season continued.
Sophomore Isaac Badders cramped up early in the game and was kept out in favor of junior quarterback Casen Barker who slid over to the fullback position where he had lots of success including breaking several big runs.
But the biggest spark of the evening came from sophomore quarterback Bradyn Cole who came in to replace Barker at quarterback.
Cole completed several long passes which put him well over 150 yards for the game, and was just yards away from those passes turning into touchdowns.
On the flip side, he did contribute to the Mustangs four turnovers with an interception late in the fourth quarter but despite the fact that he was facing significant pressure from the Wellsville defensive line he was sacked numerous times for his first time under the big lights, he handled himself well.
No matter where we put Casen Barker, we know hes going to run the ball hard, Daugharthy said. We moved him to fullback because Badders was cramping and Bradyn Cole stepped in. Hes just a sophomore but hes really progressed in this offense. He made a couple of amazing throws. That kid has really impressed me.
