GIRARD — The dust from Girard’s football field seemed to hover and hang in the air for an eternity on Thursday as the Iola Mustangs marched off the field for the final time in 2017.
Cries and yells of jubilation from Trojan players and fans followed Iola off the field and into the locker room as Girard’s 25-0 victory over the Mustangs meant they were playoff bound and the Mustangs were not.
“We just didn’t execute tonight,” Iola head coach David Daugharthy said. “This is a team we should’ve been able to play with. We just didn’t execute. We weren’t blocking our assignments. We’ve been sound the past five weeks offensively, but we weren’t blocking plays right. We also weren’t running through alleys defensively and that hurts.”
It was one of those games almost not worth delving into the details. Yardage, tackles and touchdowns seemed so meaningless to those wearing white jerseys with blue and gold helmets. At the end of the night, the truth was simple and tough, the season was over.
Daugharthy, ending his first year at the helm of his alma mater, attempted to keep his emotions in check after the game. Through the struggles of the season’s six losses and the joys of Iola’s three wins, he’s watched his team kick, fight and claw through injuries and growing pains just to get up and do it again next season.
He mentions his seniors: Cale Barnhart, Isaac Vink, Tristan Fraker, Kanyon Beasley, Christian Jackson, Evan Sigg, Matt Komma, Mat Miller, Kiefer Endicott, Alex Morrison and Ethan Holloway who have been behind their head coach before he even got the job.
“You can’t even really describe it,” Daugharthy said. “I kind of tear up about it. They mean a lot. They were the first and they fought for me to even get the job in the first place. They went into the principal and stuck their neck out for me and that meant a lot. They fought hard and worked hard all season. I can’t even really describe what they mean to me. I told them that they’ll never be forgotten. They laid the foundation for what’s to come for Iola football.”
Some of those senior like Sigg were waylaid by injuries before the season started while other like Barnhart saw his season end a couple weeks ago with a shoulder injury.
Regardless, they were all there on the sideline that night, ready to celebrate or mourn with their teammates.
THE GAME started slowly; neither team did much in the first quarter.
A blocked punt set up Girard’s first score, setting up a 30-yard touchdown run off a fumbled snap by quarterback Kyler Siebert. The score put the Trojans up 7-0 with 11:09 to play in the half.
The Mustangs followed with a drive that nearly lasted the rest of the quarter, but a holding call stalled the Mustangs just outside of field goal range.
The Trojans opened the second half with another scoring drive, capped by a five-yard run from senior back Camden McFarland to make it 13-0.
Things started to get out of hand later that quarter as Siebert cashed in on a 29-yard pass to Kreed Curran to put Girard up 19-0.
The Mustang offense had trouble getting anything going, in part because two of Iola’s top running backs, senior wrecking ball Barnhart and junior speedster Elijah Luedke, were on the sideline with injuries.
