Mustangs fall short of playoff berth

GIRARD — What if Anderson County hadn’t converted that two-point conversion last week?
What if Girard went 98 yards instead of 99?
What if Burlington pulled out a win Thursday night?
“Human nature is going to tell you to say, ‘What if?’” Coach Doug Kerr said. “I think  a big problem in our society today is we do, ‘What ifs’ in all sorts of things in life, not just sports. We can’t do that. You got to look back and say, ‘OK, I did everything I possibly could and we came up short.’
“And sometimes, that just happens in life.”
On Thursday night, Iola came up short, losing 28-14 to Girard.
As a result, the Mustangs will once again sit on the sidelines during the playoffs as Girard and Anderson County advance as the District 3 representatives.
Had Iola earned a victory on the road against Girard or had Anderson County lost to Burlington, Kerr and company wouldn’t be asking, “What if?”
They’d be heading to the postseason for the first time since 2008.
Instead, Iola will end the 2015 campaign with a 3-6 overall record and a 1-2 record in district play.
“This isn’t the first time in their life that they’re going to face something tough and not live through it,” Kerr said. “Hopefully we learn from this. We’re going to keep plugging away at the program.”
The program has now had two straight losing seasons under Kerr after the head coach recorded two straight winning seasons to begin his tenure in Iola.
But the Mustangs did improve by one game from 2014. And key returning players like Ben Cooper, Ethan Scheibmeir and Tayton Driskel will provide some stability heading into the offseason as well as varsity experience heading into the 2016 campaign.
Still, it will be difficult for Iola’s senior leaders like Ethan Sigg, Brice Aiello and Keanen Badders to keep themselves from asking, “What if?”
For example, the Mustangs held a 14-13 lead heading into the second half of Thursday night’s contest.
A huge punt by senior Mason Key on Iola’s first drive of the half pinned Girard inside its own 1-yard line, making a comeback attempt as difficult as possible for the Trojans.
But penalties and missed tackles on the drive ended up costing the Mustangs. Girard marched down the field and scored on a 15-yard touchdown run by Eric Wilson to take the lead.
Iola then surrendered a two-point conversion to go down by a full seven points.
“We let them off the hook,” Kerr said. “That was probably the most frustrating drive of the year because we had four or five chances to get off the field.”
When the Mustangs’ offense had a chance to respond and at least tie the game, it also came up short in the clutch.
Following Girard’s 99-yard drive to take a 21-14 advantage, Iola’s offense punted, turned the ball over twice on downs and then threw two interceptions to close out the game.
In the meantime, the Trojans’ Trey Eaton added an insurance score early in the fourth quarter to make it a 28-14 contest.
The Mustangs finished the night with 254 yards of total offense, 241 of which came on the ground.
Aiello led Iola with 134 rushing yards on 23 carries as well as one of the squad’s two rushing touchdowns. Badders, who recorded 41 yards on the ground in his final high school game, had the team’s other score.
Defensively, Driskel led all Mustangs with 12 total tackles, including a sack and a fumble recovery.
Kerr said he is optimistic for the future of the program but added the team has to work more on weight lifting as a whole.
“If anything the last four weeks showed us we got to be in the weight room getting stronger,” the fourth-year head coach said. “We had so many plays where we had them stopped at the line of scrimmage and we could not bring them down.”
Kerr added that his players will need to rededicate themselves to getting bigger starting immediately, not just when the team holds its annual workout program during the summer.
But Kerr emphasized he was proud of the Mustangs’ effort this season, especially from the departing seniors.
“The kids can walk off saying they played their tails off the last game of the season,” Kerr said. “Seniors, I thought, played their butts off (Thursday) and made the plays they could make. And we just came up a little short.”