As the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything and on Friday, Iola’s first win of the 2017 season came with a flurry of first times.
The Mustangs scored in the first quarter for the first time all season. They won the turnover battle for the first time. It was their first road win. It was head coach David Daugharthy’s first win of his career as a high school head coach.
In response to that last one, Daugharthy couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s exactly like I dreamed it up,” Daugharthy said, laughing. “To the T. I thought we’d be storming the field as the clock ran out.”
And the Mustangs did exactly that as they closed out a 28-25 victory at Parsons pushing the Vikings to 0-5.
Inches separated the Mustangs from the joy that they experienced as the final five minutes twisted and turned like a snake after it’s prey, not letting either team go until time completely expired.
First, Parsons scores on a huge 27 yard touchdown pass from stud sophomore quarterback DaQuan Johnson to junior Patrick Loadholtz, their third touchdown of the game.
Johnson could not be stopped as he passed for 330 yards and ran for 131 yards seemingly evading any defender that dare try to tackled him.
“I told him after the game I’m so glad I never have to play you again,” Daugharthy said. “He is a fantastic talent and I said it before when I saw film on him, he’s probably the most talented kid I’ve even seen in high school football. I’ve only been coaching for four years but I haven’t seen anyone touch the field that had as much athleticism as him. It was pretty crazy.”
Then the Vikings successfully recover an onside kick and with a little more than four minutes left on the clock, they were down only three points and they were driving.
On another strike to the endzone, Johnson threw it right to defensive back Elijah Ludke who grabbed the Mustangs third interception of the day and his first of the season. Cale Barnhart and Kane Rogers had their interceptions earlier in the game.
“Those were big,” Daugharthy said. “We made a lot of in-game adjustments and changed things up and the kids responded, things we’ve never done before and they executed them well. Ultimately we made the plays we needed to make. In the last couple weeks we’ve dropped some picks. I know Kane Rogers and Elijah Ludke haven’t had a varsity pick and they each got one tonight so that was a big step towards their confidence and hopefully they can get a few more.”
With 3:56 seconds to play, the goal was simple, pound the ball like the Mustangs had done all game so well, racking up 400 rushing yards led by Isaac Vink, who had a 32, 2 and 28-yard touchdown run to go along with his 194 yards on 13 carries and Barnhart who didn’t find paydirt but still grinded his way through the Viking defense all games, accumulating 112 yards on 21 carries.
Freshman Isaac Badders had 45 yards on nine carries and quarterback Casen Barker 39 yards on 15 carries and a one yard touchdown run.
That level of offensive output is something that the coaches have been waiting for.
“What’s important to understand is that as coaches we’ve been preaching that we can do this,” Daugharthy said. “They’re capable and we’ve been so close and we drove the length four times throughout the game. Tonight was just physical evidence that we can do this against anybody. We executed tonight and that made the difference.”
