BURLINGTON — A lack of personnel in the backfield hurt Iola High’s junior varsity football team’s chances against Burlington before the game even started. The Mustangs lost 46-14 to the Wildcats Monday afternoon.
“The effort was there. We were put in a really bad situation because we didn’t really have enough people to play a game in the backfield,” coach Dana Daugharthy said. “But, we made the best of a bad situation for sure. The fact that we got 14 points, I think is pretty good.”
Iola was held to 117 total yards of offense — the majority of which were rushing yards. Of the Mustang’s 87 rushing yards, Joey Zimmerman ran for 42 of them on five carries. Ben Cooper rushed for 21 yards, including a touchdown. Nik Peterson and Evan Sigg each had 12 rushing yards.
29 passing yards came from a touchdown pass from Cooper to Zimmerman. It was Cooper’s second completed pass of six attempts, which included an interception. He also threw a one yard pass to Zimmerman. Sigg threw two passes, one went into the hands of the opposing defense. Zimmerman had the only takeaway for the Mustang defense, which was an interception.
“We just couldn’t stop them,” Daugharthy said. “On the plays that burned us on varsity, it was more of the same for JV. We just couldn’t stop them. But, they seemed to burn us more than in the varsity game.”
Iola JV hosts Anderson County Monday for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff.
Iola’s JV football struggles in loss at Burlington
