Mustangs fall to 1-1 in district play

Out of 48 minutes of play, Anderson County led Friday night’s game against Iola for just 1:26.
Unfortunately for coach Doug Kerr and his Mustangs, the Bulldogs led for the contest’s last 1:26 and came away with a 22-21 win.
“I told the kids, ‘The only way they have a chance to beat us is if we beat ourselves,’” coach Doug Kerr said. “Not to take any credit away from them, but we beat ourselves tonight.”
Up 21-14, Iola (3-5, 1-1) allowed Anderson County (4-4, 1-1) quarterback Jacob Rundle to score on a 1-yard run with 1:26 remaining in the game.
Had the Bulldogs kicked the extra point, the contest would have more than likely gone into overtime.
But coach Greg Welch decided to go for the win with a two-point conversion. The Mustangs left a man open in the flat during the conversion attempt and the Bulldogs took advantage by connecting with him on a short 2-yard pass for the score.
“It’s frustrating,” Kerr said. “We called timeout before the quarterback even got under center. I screamed and I screamed but they still didn’t call it. It doesn’t matter though, we still got to make a play on a two-point conversion. It’s painful.”
Following the subsequent kickoff, Iola had just more than a minute left to take back the lead it possessed for much of the game.
The Mustangs did have a couple of timeouts remaining, but on 2nd down, quarterback Ben Cooper decided to spike the ball in order to stop the clock. Kerr said there was a miscommunication, causing Cooper to waste a down rather than call a timeout.
Two plays later, Iola faced a 4th-and-6 on its own 34-yard line with 54 seconds on the clock. Cooper’s pass to Keanen Badders was then broken up to essentially seal the game and the victory for Anderson County.
“I think they got a little bit nervous at the end,” Kerr said. “I told them not to panic and that we just needed a field goal, not a touchdown. And we kind of panicked at the end. We got to do a better job in the two-minute drill.”
Up until those final 90 seconds or so, the Mustangs had set the tempo and controlled most of the matchup with the Bulldogs.
Iola’s Brett Taylor recorded an interception on Anderson County’s first possession of the game, and the turnover led to points for Iola.
Less than a minute after taking over on the opponent’s 30-yard line, the Mustangs’ Brice Aiello took a 3-yard run into the end zone to put Kerr’s squad up 7-0.
From then on, the contest was a back-and-forth tug of war between the two district teams.
When Anderson County responded to score its first touchdown early in the second quarter, Iola bounced right back to assume a 14-7 lead off a Badders’ 1-yard scoring run.
When the Bulldogs knotted the game once again just a little fewer than five minutes later, the Mustangs offense went back into action in the fourth quarter.
With 5:45 left in the game, Aiello scored his second touchdown of the game on a 4-yard score to put Iola up 21-14.
In the second half, each team had taken lengthy possessions, so it was possible that whoever had the ball last would prevail.
But the 1:26 that the Bulldogs left on the clock after taking a 22-21 advantage was not enough for the Mustangs to march down into a possible field-goal range for kicker Mason Key.
“At times, we looked really, really good,” Kerr said. “But we don’t have that resolve yet to take that next step.”
Kerr added that a couple of drive-sustaining penalties allowed Anderson County’s offense to stay on the field when it shouldn’t have.
And although neither of Iola’s turnovers ended up leading to points for Anderson County, at least one of them would have led to a sure-fire score for Iola.
Late in the third quarter, Badders was about a foot or two from finding the end zone for a second time when a Bulldogs defender stripped and recovered the ball.
“Those are inexcusable,” Kerr said. “It was nothing they did. It was all us. We did a good job of beating ourselves tonight.”
The Mustangs finished the game with 289 yards of total offense, 251 of which came on the ground.
Aiello led all rushers with 93 yards and two touchdowns.
The loss drops Iola to 1-1 in district play, which helps determine the playoff participants. Had the Mustangs held on for a win Friday during their home finale, they would have punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2008.
Now with just one game remaining on its schedule,  Iola must win to move on.
“We got to win,” Kerr said. “We got to put all the chips on the table.”