BURLINGTON — A back-and-forth thriller turned into a heartbreaking 46-42 defeat Friday evening for Iola HIgh.
The Mustangs traded huge momentum swings with host Burlington for much of the night, and the Mustangs were poised, twice, to push back ahead down the stretch.
But Iola came up empty on both occasions, including the game’s pivotal play, from the Burlington 24 yard line with a half-minute to play.
Mustang quarterback Landon Weide, whose electric running proved to be the team’s catalyst for much of the night, seemingly found receiver Korbin Cloud on a long third-down pass to the Wildcat 6.
But after the officiating crew’s lengthy huddle to discuss the play, they instead ruled the Burlington defender was able to wrest possession of the ball at the whistle.
Interception Wildcats.
Game over.
Iola head coach David Daugharthy and his assistants howled their disapproval as the hometown Burlington crowd went nuts upon the ruling.
“I thought he had it,” Daugharthy said afterward of Cloud. “I thought it was obvious. I don’t know what they saw.”
The unfortunate ending for the Mustang contingent soured what had been a classic scorefest in which the teams traded the lead four times in the fourth quarter alone, the final salvo coming from Burlington’s Zane Hoback, who ran in an 27-yard touchdown with 4:50 left in the game to push the Wildcats ahead, 46-42.
Iola made it to midfield on their next possession, but Weide threw incomplete on a long attempt to Cloud, who made the catch out of bounds, and then just missed on another long pass to Lucas Maier. The Wildcats blitzed on fourth down, forcing Weide to scramble to his left. He reversed course, but his pass over the middle came up just short of the receiver with 2 ½ minutes remaining.
Burlington was poised to drain much of the game clock from there, but Iola’s Ben Kerr spoiled their plans with a fumble recovery two plays later to set up the final Mustang possession.
Weide connected with Maier on the next play to push the ball to Burlington’s 25.
But a pair of Weide rushes went nowhere on the next two plays, setting up the climactic sequence.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Daugharthy said. “Defensively, we couldn’t figure out a way to stop them, and offensively, it seemed like whoever had the ball last was going to win.”
