Iola Highs Mustangs knew Thursday was the end of the line, win or lose.
A week 8 loss eliminated Iola from the states new playoff format, leaving the Mustangs one final game to play out the string.
Undeterred, head coach David Daugharthy and his squad decided to treat their finale much as if a college team were headed to a bowl game.
We get a chance to send out our seniors in a good way, but also build for our future, Daugharthy said. The kids got behind it in practice. We practiced with great intensity, and we played with great intensity tonight.
The Mustangs amassed nearly 300 yards of rushing and put together a series of defensive stands down the stretch to end the 2018 campaign with a 24-22 win over visiting Columbus. The victory ends Iolas season at 3-6.
Iola rode to a quick start, leading 18-0 by the midway point of the second quarter before Columbus responded with 22 straight points to take a four-point lead.
Isaac Badders, who led Iola with 185 rushing yards, gave the lead back to the Mustangs with a 4-yard touchdown run at the 1:36 mark of the third quarter.
The rest was all defense sort of.
Columbus reached Iola territory on its final three drives of the game but were repelled on fourth down on the first two.
Much of the drama, including a number of self-inflicted wounds for the Titans, sealed the win.
A bad snap on Iolas fourth-down punt attempt would have given the Titans possession at the Mustang 25 with 3:13 left in the game, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play pushed them back to the 40. A holding penalty on the next play pushed Columbus farther back to its own side of the field.
An incompletion followed, and a short pass from Patrick Cassidy to Shawn Robinson went nowhere after Robinson slipped and fell just beyond the line of scrimmage and no Iola player was within 5 yards of him.
Then on third down, Iolas defensive line broke through a disrupted pass from Cassidy to Matt Robnett. Robnett broke backward in an attempt to elude the Mustang defenders, only to lose 18 yards on the play.
On fourth-and-42, the Titans punted the ball away, even though 1:25 remained on the clock, and they were almost out of timeouts.
I was shocked he didnt go for it, Daugharthy said. He pretty much had to.
