Mustangs embrace opportunity

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Sports

November 3, 2016 - 12:00 AM

The 2016 season has been a historically great campaign for the Iola Mustangs, no matter how you slice it.
The team got off to an incredibly disappointing start with a near-miss Chanute, but responded with a win over Prairie View.
They then got into the tough part of their schedule and struggled against Wellsville, Santa Fe Trail and Parsons, but they again responded, this time with a trio of wins. The Mustangs topped Osawatomie on the road and opened the district season with wins over Burlington and Anderson County.
Now after losing the district championship last week against Girard, the Mustangs will need to prepare for their toughest challenge to date when they travel to Frontenac for their first round matchup.
“We are ready,” Iola coach Doug Kerr said. “We are going to give them everything we got. I’m going to call everything I have in the tank and defensively, we are bringing everything we have. We are going to measure how we match up against the No. 1 team in the state.”
The Raiders are coming off two-straight seasons of losing in the second round of the playoffs, but enter this season’s playoffs as the No. 1 team in the state and are hungry to make a much deeper run through the playoffs.
“The good thing for us is that we are playing an uncommon opponent,” Frontenac coach Mark Smith said. “We don’t know that much about Iola, except the from film… Our kids are confident, but they are still wary because they don’t really know what to expect.
“We have some big goals. We have lost in the second round, so we want to make it past there and make a deep run into November.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Iola will be making only their second playoff appearance since the 1980’s and Kerr is preaching to his players to not be satisfied and embrace the challenge.
“Our whole demeanor this week has been like Week One,” Kerr said. “Everybody is 0-0. The kids have acted like we are back to Week One and that has been great.
“The longer we are in the game the better it is for us. If we keep it close at halftime, the pressure falls on them. We have no pressure.”
On the field, Raiders’ quarterback Brandon Miekus  — No. 2 — poses the biggest threat to the Mustangs’ chances of putting a scare in the heavily-favoured Raiders.
“He is so smooth and he will be playing on Saturdays,” Kerr said. “He is able to run full-speed while looking downfield the whole time and that just is going to be a handful for us. We are going to give them everything we got and try to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible.”
Miekus has exploded in his senior season and become one of the most dangerous players in the state. He leads his team with 1,014 yards rushing and 16 rushing touchdowns.
Miekus isn’t just a runner though, he has completed 64 percent of his passes and thrown for 865 yards. The most impressive part of the quarterback’s stat line is that while throwing 11 touchdowns this season, he has only threw one interception.
“Brandon has had a tremendous season running and throwing the ball,” Smith said. “We’ve had games were we don’t throw as much as we would like because of the score, but he can do it both ways. He is a dual-threat quarterback.”
So all together Miekus has accounted for 27 touchdowns this season and he has only turned the ball over twice, with a fumble being added on to his interception.
“It is going to take us getting some turnovers to get them out of their game and put some stress on them,” Kerr said. “We are going to have to force turnovers that they haven’t made all year long.”
While Miekus is the clear star of the team, the Raiders rely on a committee of players to complement him.
Cadin Bolinger — No. 26 — is the team’s second leading rusher with 80 carries for 465 yards. The senior has excelled in short-yardage situations with 12 touchdowns.
Fellow-senior Austin Madl — No. 20 — is the team’s big-play back. He only has 48 carries this season, but has racked up 7.8 yards per carry and 374 yards.
“We have a committee of running backs and we try to spread it out as much as we can to avoid having anyone key on just one guy,” Smith said. “We have some pretty good athletes in the backfield and the harder we make it for people to key on one guy, opens holes for everyone.”
Miekus distributes the ball fairly evenly among the team’s top three receivers. Seniors Ryan Long, Isaac Bicknell and Dylan Flora all have similar yardage and touchdown totals.
Long — No. 16 — is the team’s leading receiver with 236 yards and four touchdowns. Bicknell — No. 6 — has 221 yards and four scores and Flora — No. 8 — complements the two outside threats as a tight end with 175 yards and three touchdowns.
Regardless of how you approach this game, the Mustangs are significant underdogs, but this group of players has been responding with their backs against the wall all season and if Frontenac isn’t careful on Friday night, they could be in for more of a first round challenge than they realize.
“Starting Friday, this is win or go home time,” Smith said. “So we better play well… This is the real season, you can tell that kids are more focused in practice and they are excited for the challenge in front of us.”

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