Invariably, some losses sting a bit more than others in a long football season.
For Iola High’s Mustangs, Friday’s 23-20 setback to Prairie View is gonna leave a mark.
The Buffalos stormed back from a two-score deficit in the fourth quarter, then won on Peyton Doty’s 26-yard field goal with 7 seconds left.
“We were in position to make plays defensively and offensively,” Mustang head coach David Daugharthy said. “We just didn’t execute.”
The Mustangs were in full control, though, leading 20-6 when a cacophony of big plays and momentum-swinging penalties swung the pendulum in Prairie View’s favor.
A bad snap on a punt attempt allowed the Buffalos to set up shop at the Mustang 5 yard line with 8 minutes left in the game.
Undaunted, Iola took position and coolly marched down the field chewing more than 4 minutes off the clock in the process.
But the fickle hands of fate intervened once again, this time in the form of a yellow flag.
Iola had possession at midfield, and a 6-yard pass from Landon Weide to Carter Hutton set up a fourth-and-short call.
As the Mustangs have done before, a delayed snap prompted a pair of eager Buffalo defenders to flinch, moments before the ball was snapped, prompting everyone in the Riverside Park football stadium to assume an offside call was coming, and five free yards, and thus, a crucial first down for Iola.
Maybe not.
Instead, the officials ruled that the flinching Buffalo defenders were still on their side of the ball, and that Iola’s offensive linemen were the ones who moved improperly.
The 5-yard false start penalty meant Iola had to punt, and the ball went off the side of the punter’s foot, giving Prairie View the ball at its own 40.
“It is what it is,” Daugharthy said. “Unfortunately, they said he didn’t break the plane.
“I find it hard to believe, but I can’t complain about that. That’s not why we lost.”
The Buffalos didn’t waste any time in taking full advantage of the swing of events.
Prairie View tailback Dakota Stogsdill took the handoff, but instead of darting to the line, pulled up and lofted a pass downfield to the streaking Zach Thies, who outraced the Mustang defenders 60 yards to the end zone. The subsequent 2-point conversion knotted the score at 20-20 with 3:25 remaining.
