Iola High’s Mustangs will be playing for the team’s first win when they travel to Labette County High School for Friday’s game.
Like the Mustangs, the Grizzlies have started the season at 0-2. Labette lost its first game to Independence 41-10 and then lost last week to Osawatomie 43-32. The Grizzlies have scored a combined 42 points compared to Iola’s lone touchdown coming from Brice Aiello’s kickoff return in last Friday’s homecoming game.
“Osawatomie and Independence are pretty heavy offensive teams,” coach Doug Kerr said. “We knew that coming into our game (this week). I wasn’t surprised (Labette) did really well, but they’re a lot bigger than us.
“Teams have been able to get to the perimeter on them and we’ve worked on our perimeter offense really well. So, hopefully we can take advantage of that.”
Iola did have three key offensive drives stopped by their own mistakes against Prairie View last week. On a third and 9 on Prairie View’s 19 yard line, Kaden Macha ran for a first down. Unfortunately, the offensive line drew a holding call negating the play. Iola settled for a field goal attempt, which it missed. The game was tied 7-7 at that point.
With the score 21-7 in favor of Prairie View, the Mustang offense was driving the field. But, the Buffalos would force a fumble and return it 72 yards for a touchdown. That would put the game out of reach. A botched snap late in the third quarter was recovered by Prairie View. Iola was on the Buffalo’s 23-yard line, when the snap occurred.
Kerr said that once the offense gets that first touchdown, more will come.
“I think any time you just get that first one off, the pressure will be off,” Kerr said. “I think with our wins, too. If we could get a win, it gets the monkey off the kids’ backs and they can relax. We started pressing a little bit and the fumbles were caused by the pressing.
“So, we’ve told them to relax and we’ve told them we’re not going to go the whole season without scoring and we’re not going to go the whole season without a win.”
He added that this should be the week that the offense gets into the end zone. Through the first two games, Labette has allowed 84 points. Iola has allowed 76 points.
“It could be a high-scoring game. I hope the defense settles in,” Kerr said. “I thought we played a lot better last week than we did the week before, it’s just the big plays really hurt us. Other than a couple runs and a couple passes, we really played pretty good defense.”
Macha was the only player on defense to play the same position before.
“There were 10 guys in a brand new position who had four quarters of experience,” Kerr said. “So, I thought from week one to week two we made vast improvements on defense. We didn’t tackle as well against those big backs, so we’ve worked on tackling this week. All we can do is hope to progress each week and hopefully that’s a little better than last week.”
Kerr said that he has instilled a philosophy that the season is made up of three categories. He labeled the first three games of the season as “the preseason,” where the team is feeling its way out. The next three games are called “homecomings,” since weeks four, five and six are usually everyone’s homecoming games. He said the last three games are really what the season comes down to.
For the past two seasons under Kerr, the team has gone 2-1 in the preseason category. On Friday, the team has a chance to get out of the first three games with a win.
“There’s not really pressure right now on the kids, other than the pressure they put on themselves to achieve,” Kerr said. “They’re excited for the chance to get a win at Labette County, but there’s no panic in week two. I think once we get win one, more will come.”
The game is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Labette County.
Iola looking for first win at Labette
