When you look good, you feel good and then you get good results.
Iola’s junior varsity football squad definitely felt good on Monday in their 40-12 dismantling of Osawatomie in a game that despite the lopsided score wasn’t as close as the final tally indicates.
The Mustangs wore their all-gold combination of jerseys and pants for the first time this season in either varsity or junior varsity action.
The Mustangs got off to as good of a start as they possibly could when freshman Dan Foust was able to run the opening kickoff back for a touchdown.
“That gave us a great start,” Iola freshman Casen Barker said. “He just saw the hole and took off. He is fast.”
After forcing a turnover-on-downs, the Mustangs got back on the offensive with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that culminated in Caden Knavel‘s 17-yard touchdown reception from Elijah Luedke to give the team a 13-0 lead.
After an Osawatomie punt, Mustang sophomore Tyler Garner got into the offensive action with a 31-yard run to open the second quarter scoring and the lead was extended to 20-0.
“It felt good,” Barker said of the team’s fast start. “We just had a lot of guys doing the right things. The line was blocking and we all just did our jobs. We just executed.”
Another Trojan punt set the Mustangs up in Trojan territory and Iola took advantage in two plays. Luedke found Zane Whitney on a 22-yard connection to set up a 24-yard Garner touchdown run.
Garner finished the game with 75 yards on just four carries and left the game with an elbow injury, but his absence appeared to be just precautionary.
Iola forced one more Trojan three-and-out with under 30 seconds left before halftime and appeared to decide just to run the clock out, but Barker had our ideas and after Luedke mishandled a snap, Barker plucked the ball out of the air and scored on a 47-yard run with 10 seconds left in the half. Iola went into the locker room with a 34-0 lead.
Barker finished the game with 115 yards rushing.
Iola didn’t miss a beat on offense to begin the second half. Whitney scored on the team’s opening drive with a five-yard touchdown scamper.
“Zane scored his first touchdown,” Iola coach Nick McAnulty said. “He does a great job blocking and we were finally able to get him a touchdown this week. He runs hard.”
The drive represented the team’s sixth-straight touchdown drive to open the game and they went ahead 40-0.
“We have started slow a lot this season, but we just told them to start this game like we finished last week’s game,” McAnulty said. “We came out with a lot of intensity and we told them we expect them to play like that the entire game. We have yet to put a full game together and I think that if we can, we can be a really good team.”
Osawatomie added a kickoff return touchdown and a late touchdown pass on a deep ball, but for the most part, Iola silenced the Trojan offense.
Sophomore Dallas Huddleston made a pair of key interceptions down the stretch to ensure that the Trojans would not be able to muster a comeback.
“Those were great and he was in great position,” McAnulty said.
UP NEXT
The junior varsity Mustangs end their season next Monday in Burlington when they face off against the Wildcats.
The Mustangs will enter that contest with a 3-3 record and are putting a big emphasis on winning their final game to finish with a winning mark.
“Getting these guys back and learning how to win would be great,” McAnulty said. “We were at 1-3, so to have a chance to finish with a winning record and end on a three-game winning streak would be great.”
