High School Football: Trojans 21, Mustangs 13
Iolas Friday night 21-13 home loss to Girard was sort of a head-scratcher.
In one respect, the Mustangs were fortunate to lose by just a touchdown after coughing up five turnovers. In another aspect, Iola and its defense gave the Mustangs every possible opportunity to bring home a third straight win.
Instead, Iolas loss dropped the Mustangs to 2-5 and 2-2 in district play.
Mustang head coach David Daugharthy was left shaking his head at what could have been after a furious fourth-quarter rally almost overcame what had been a 21-0 deficit in the third quarter.
Our effort was good but silly metal mistakes like fumbling the football are what killed us, Daugharthy said. Bottom line. We held them pretty well defensively and offensively we got in a bit of rut early but we made adjustments at halftime to get us going. We just made too many mistakes.
The star of the night was the Iola defense who charitably only gave up one touchdown all night.
Girards first score was on a 70-yard punt return for a touchdown and the second was after the Iola offensive forced their defense into a short field after a fumble at the 19-yard line.
The only touchdown that was truly on them was a long drive at the beginning of the second half that ended in a 1-yard touchdown run and even that was the result of Iola fumbling the ball at the goal line in its opening drive of the half.
Our defense has played well three weeks in a row, Daugharthy said. Weve emphasized the importance of tackling and attacking lanes and its so evident. Even when we mess up, were able to make an adjustment so much quicker now and fix it on the fly.
Meanwhile, the offense reverted back to its early-season form throughout the first half and into the third quarter.
Four turnovers and penalties kept the Mustangs from getting anything going up until the end of the third quarter where they got to the goalline and punched it in after a long run from junior Isaac Badders.
After that, the tone of things changed.
The defense got a quick stop giving Iola the ball back and after running with senior Elijah Luedke throughout the night, the Mustangs decided to take a chance on a halfback pass that sailed 47-yard into the hands of Drake Sellman for the Mustangs second score with less than 7 minutes to play.
We needed a big play, Daugharthy said. Weve been working on it all year and weve just never gotten to run it in a game. We executed it exactly like we drew it up. It worked out pretty well.
The Iola defense got another three-and-out with 6 minutes left in the game but a penalty kept the Girard drive going another several minutes until the Mustangs were able to get another stop.
