Sprinkles fell on the heads of players and spectators at Iola Municipal Stadium at various points Friday as the Iola Mustangs (0-3) fell to Wellsville (2-1) 34-13.
The rain was not hard enough to get anything wet, but it was there. It was hanging around, hoping maybe to catch a atmospheric break and start pouring.
Iola’s offense was doing the same. It was there, but it waited until far too late to have any real impact except to spare the Mustangs from their second straight shutout.
“We are close to exploding,” head coach David Daugharthy said. “I firmly believe that. I thought we were going to go off tonight. We just haven’t made improvements across the board. We’re making the same mistakes we made in week one. Until we make those improvements, we’re still going to not be putting up points. Once we make those changes, we can be a 40 point football team.”
The Iola defense, just like last week versus Prairie View, held steady throughout the first half giving up a 36 yard touchdown pass on the opening drive before nearly holding the Eagles to just 6 points until halftime.
On two straight drives in the second quarter, the defense not only held up against Wellsville, they did something that they hadn’t done in two games prior: take the ball away.
The first time was a interception on a deep throw by senior cornerback Isaac Vink and the second was a fumble near midfield.
“We did force our first turnover defensively,” Daugharthy said. “That was a positive note. We need a lot more of those.”
The Mustangs failed to capitalize on either turnover where they threw an interception of their own, which was quarterback Casen Barker’s second of the night. That set up an 8 yard touchdown run for Wellsville right before the end of the half.
“Casen will get better and better,” Daugharthy said. “You saw it near the end of the fourth quarter, early in the game he was just chucking it no matter what and at the end of the game he checked down which is something I hadn’t seen him do all year.”
The third quarter didn’t go better as the Mustangs held tight for nearly the entire quarter before giving up two more touchdowns, a 43 yard run and a 10 yard pass both by quarterback Zach Vance, in the final three minutes as the Eagles extended their lead to 28-0.
On the next drive, Vance struck again turning a fumbled snap at their own 30 into a 70 yard touchdown run with 9:46 left in the game, putting Wellsville up 34-0.
“We had a couple of busts in the secondary and we had a couple busts in our linebackers,” Daugharthy said. “I know we had a bust on our assignment with our defensive end so really it’s just mental. It’s nothing physical. Physically we can compete with Wellsville. We just weren’t playing assignment sound football on both sides of the ball.”
Daylight came to Mustang offense with a little more than a minute left in the game. After continuously getting stopped at the line, the Mustangs methodically moved it up the field to set up a six yard option keep from Barker to cut the lead to 34-6.
A muff on the ensuing kickoff gave Iola great field position, as an 18 yard run from freshman Isaac Badders gave the Mustangs their first game with more than one touchdown, pushing the score to the final of 34-13.
The Iola coaches knew that this team is capable to execute offensively like they did in the final minute of the game, but the fundamentals are still not clicking.
