FRONTENAC — The first step is always the hardest.
The Iola Mustangs made the first step two weeks ago in Garnett, when they defeated Anderson County to punch their ticket to state for the first time since 2008.
The last two weeks, the Mustangs have tried to take that next step, but were denied by Girard last week and this week, Frontenac — the top ranked 4A-II in the state — gave the Mustangs a goal to strive to become by demonstrating its dominance with a 56-14 victory on Friday night.
“Now the underclassmen know that we need to get bigger, faster and stronger if we want to compete with these teams on the state level,” Iola coach Doug Kerr said. “Hopefully the kids can see that next step that we need to take.”
After the game, as senior quarterback Ben Cooper and senior linebacker Chase Regehr hugged and thanked each of their coaches after their final games as Mustangs, Kerr’s mind was not on the disappointment of a lop-sided playoff loss.
As he hugged his offensive and defensive signal-callers, Kerr was thinking the foundation these two along the other eight seniors had set for the traditionally mediocre program to build upon.
“Five years ago, when we started this journey, we knew that it wasn’t going to happen overnight,” Kerr said. “We were honest about it and up-front about it. There are growing pains and this is a great growing pain, because we never have had this experience before.”
The Mustangs fell behind early as Raider senior quarterback Brandon Miekus had a touchdown run and senior Ryan Long picked off a pass as Iola attempted a flea-flicker on its first play from scrimmage and took it back for a touchdown.
By the end of the first quarter, Frontenac had already built a 28-0 lead and there wasn’t a soul in the stadium with any doubt about which team would still be playing next weekend, but in true Mustang fashion, Iola continued to fight.
With just 5 seconds left in the half, a pair of Mustang seniors connected to give the Mustangs some life and put them on the board with a 50-yard Cooper touchdown bomb down the middle of the field to Joey Zimmermann.
With the score 35-7, the Iola sideline erupted and Kerr demonstrated where the Mustangs get their no-quit attitudes from by going up the sideline and telling the team that they get the ball after half and have the chance to put a score into the Raiders.
Unfortunately for Kerr, that chance never materialized.
On the final play of the half, Frontenac turned a swing-pass into a 60-yard score and the Raiders went into intermission with a 42-7 lead.
The second half played out similarly to the first with Frontenac scoring two quick touchdowns to build the lead to 56-7, but again the Mustangs refused to quit.
