Iola’s Middle School football teams welcomed Santa Fe Trail to town Thursday and split their matchups.
The seventh grade Mustangs scored a touchdown in each of the final three quarters for a 20-14 win before Iola’s eighth grade team was outmuscled in a 28-8 loss. Iola only suited up 11 Mustangs in their eighth grade game.
“It was iron man football today. The boys worked their tails off, and I am proud of that,” Iola head coach Scott Ellis said. “We will learn from it and get back to it.”
Seventh grade
Iola did an admirable job of holding onto the ball offensively and limiting turnovers in their third victory of the season.
Lucas Boeken led the Mustangs with 89 rushing yards and a touchdown while Hunter McDaniel provided the Mustangs with runs of 45 and 22 yards, racking up 67 total ground yards.
“The boys played hard until the end,” said Ellis. “We let too many big plays get by us, but I appreciated us executing the offense a little bit better tonight. We didn’t give as many turnovers as we’ve had in previous games, but it’s something we need to continue to get better at.”
Keithly started as quarterback for the Mustangs and completed three passes for 27 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came on a 15-yard completion to Henry Kramer, one of Iola’s three touchdowns.
Defensively, McDaniel led Iola with a team-high eight tackles while Spencer Sargent added six tackles and Theodore Beerbower and Boeken each had two tackles.
The Mustangs allowed Santa Fe Trail to score once in the second quarter and the other in the fourth. “Hunter McDaniel was much more aggressive for us on both sides of the ball and finishing leading tackles for us,” said Ellis.
Eighth grade
Despite only having 11 players suit up, the 8th grade Mustangs were able to stay close to Santa Fe Trail for three quarters in their loss.
Iola played a very physical game before Santa Fe Trail broke away for good, scoring two touchdowns in the final quarter. The Mustangs only allowed the Chargers to score a pair of touchdowns early and trailed 14-8 heading into the fourth.
“I think this was a game that could have gone either way, but tonight it wasn’t ours,” said Ellis. “This team took us out of our game at times, which is something we haven’t seen yet.”
Reed Clift scored the lone touchdown for Iola when he carried in a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-8.
