Highlights: senior wide receiver Devon Conner hauled in two touchdown passes and gained 91 yards on kickoff returns for Iola High’s Mustangs Friday night; junior quarterback Mason Coons threw three touchdown passes; Jerrik Sigg, Iola senior tailback, had two touchdowns; Bryce Misenhelter, a sophomore, caught three passes for 75 yards.
Low-lights: visiting Field Kindley High of Coffeyville rolled over the Mustangs 71-28 in Southeast Kansas League play. The Golden Tornado came in the form of junior tailback Wesley Collins, who gashed the Iola defense for 269 yards on 13 carries and five of those went for touchdowns.
The Mustangs answered Collins’ first trip to the end zone quickly. Devon Conner returned the ensuing kickoff to the Coffeyville 41-yard line.
Coons found Conner streaking down the far sideline and dropped the pass to Conner in stride. With 6:27 left in the first quarter, Iola was within two points of the ’Nado.
“They went for two and got it on their first touchdown. That forced us to try for two and we didn’t get it,” said Rick Horton, Mustang head coach.
Down 8-6, Iola kicked off to Coffeyville, which set up shop at its own 39-yard line. One play and Collins was gone — 61 yards and a touchdown.
The play that opened the flood gates was a 49-yard interception return by Allen Williams. Williams picked off a pass by Sigg and raced to paydirt. The Mustangs were down 28-6 with 1:35 left in the first quarter.
On a fourth-down play, Coons found D. Conner again down the other sideline. The scoring pass play covered 50 yards. It was 28-12.
Coffeyville would score 36 points in the second period. The Golden Tornado led 64-12 at halftime. Collins already had 206 yards rushing and James Jones had 38 yards.
“We told our kids that Collins was a good back. We told them we could not dive at people’s ankles to tackle. We needed to stay on our feet to make the defensive plays,” Horton said.
“We’re not playing physically enough and that carries into tackling. We have to correct our tackling. We’re not being aggressive enough.”
Collins finished the scoring for Coffeyville on the opening drive of the third quarter. He ran through the Mustang defense for a 51-yard touchdown.
The entire second half was played under a running clock. By rule, an adminstrator may request it if agreed upon by both coaches.
Iola scored with 3:23 left in the third quarter on a 25-yard pass play from Coons to Sigg. Coons ran in the two-point conversion.
Three pass plays from Coons to Misenhelter — 30 yards, 39 yards and six yards — got the Mustangs down in Coffeyville territory one last time. Sigg finished it off with an eight-yard run into the end zone then caught the two-point conversion pass from Coons.
“Devon is a kid who came out this year and has helped us out. He had a good game. Bryce is working well and we’re excited about what we see in him,” Horton said.
“Right now, it’s about confidence. We’re not playing with confidence and we need to develop that to be successful.”
Iola’s defense was led by Derrick Weir with three solo tackles and seven unassisted tackles. Zach Crawford had six assisted tackles for the Mustangs. Kaden Macha had four assisted stops while Sigg had two solo tackles and three assisted.
Devin Culler and Clint Heffern each had two solo tackles.
“We’re going to work on some friendly competitions during practice this week. We want to build up our kids’ confidence,” Horton said.
The 0-3 Mustangs travel to Columbus next Friday.
Iola 12-0-8-8—28
Coffeyville 28-36-7-0—71
C — Collins 16 yd run (Collins run)
I — D. Conner 41 yd pass from Coons (run failed)
C — Collins 61 yd run (Kimmel kick)
C — Williams 49 yd interception return (Kimmel kick)
C — J. Newton 36 yd pass from Turner (kick failed)
I — D. Conner 50 yd pass from Coons (run failed)
C — J. Newton 36 yd pass from Turner (Collins run)
C — Collins 50 yd run (Kimmel kick)
C — J. Newton 55 yd punt return (Kimmel kick)
C — Collins 17 yd run (Kimmel kick)
C — Bolden 35 yd run (Kimmel kick)
C — Collins 51 yd run (Kimmel kick)
I — Sigg 22 yd pass from Coons (Coons run)
I — Sigg 8 yd run (Sigg pass from Coons)
Iola Coffeyville
First Downs 5 10
Rushes-yds 21-2 29-348
Passing yds 268 92
Total Offense 270 440
Passing 13-26-2 4-5-0
Fumbles/lost 1/0 2/0
Punts-Avg. 3-31 1-32
Penalties-yds 3-35 5-55
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Iola-Sigg 12-24, Coons 9-(-22). Coffeyville-Collins 13-269, Jones 7-41, Turner 1-(-1), Bolden 3-41, Logan 4 (-10).
Passing: Iola-Coons 12-23-256-1, Sigg 1-3-12-1. Coffeyville-Turner 2-2-72-0, Redington 2-3-20-0.
Receiving: Iola-D. Conner 4-119, Misenhelter 3-75, Sigg 3-29, C. Heffern 1-33, Coons 1-12, Taylor 1-8. Coffeyville-Newton 2-72, Kimmel 1-10, Thompson 1-10.
Punting: Iola-D. Conner 3-95 (31 avg.). Coffeyville-Nelson 1-32.
