The Iola Ponies’ eighth-grade football team had to deal with a lot of change going into the 2016 season.
They made the switch from the SEK to the Pioneer League. They had a coaching change the summer before the season began with long-time coach Marty Taylor leaving and first-year coach Scott Ellis taking the reins. With their new league came a whole new slate of opponents, but one thing didn’t change for the Ponies.
Every time they took the field, they emerged with the win and they continued that in Monday’s rescheduled battle with Burlington to end their season by thrashing the previously unbeaten Bobcats, 32-8.
“It feels great,” Iola running back Isaac Badders said. “I don’t even know what to say. I started with these guys in third grade. It just feels so good.
“I was a little nervous because they have some good size and are actually a pretty decent team, but we came out and went as hard as we could, probably harder than we ever had really.”
The actual game wasn’t even as close as the final score indicates. The Bobcats had no answer for the inside-outside threat of Dylon Reiter and Badders and the Ponies were never forced to even consider passing the football.
“Coming into it we challenged the boys and told them they’d need to be ready to play against Burlington,” Ellis said. “We were able to get on top and take care of business.”
Meanwhile, the Ponies’ defense was completely dominating and made sure that the Bobcat offense got no where near the end zone until the closing minutes when Burlington scored with 2:03 left in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.
Defensive linemen Guiseppe Mangrella and Logan Brown led the defense with nine and eight tackles respectively. Badders also had eight.
Even with the near-shutout, the perfectionist leaders of the Iola defense were not completely satisfied.
“Our defense did pretty good,” Badders, who plays linebacker, said. “We kind of gave up a little bit at the end when we thought we had them.”
Defensive back Josh Kaufman led the Iola defense with two interceptions. Both of Kaufman’s picks led to long touchdown runs.
“It felt great,” Kaufman said. “It is all about being in the right place at the right time. It was zone and I was just able to guard the flat.”
Badders began the game with a 36-yard touchdown run on the third play from scrimmage and then after Kaufman’s first interception, Badders immediately took the ball 53 yards for a touchdown and just like that the Iola lead was 16-0.
“I just see open-field and I’m going to take it,” Badders said. “If I see a hole, I’m going to use it, no matter how big or small, and try to get yards and first downs, that is all that matters.”
