Iola Middle School’s Ponies rocked visiting Royster Middle School’s eighth-grade Rockets 44-16 Thursday.
Brice Aiello piled up 200 yards on 28 carries and scored three touchdowns to power the Ponies. Keanan Badders scored two touchdowns, rushing for 97 yards on 14 carries.
“Just a great effort from our young men. For the first time, Brice ran like a running back. He took some hits and kept right on going,” said Marty Taylor, Pony head coach.
Following a strong opening kickoff return by Gus Hopkins, the Ponies finished the drive on a 14-yard touchdown run by Aiello. Brett Taylor flipped a two-point pass to Jake Gumfory.
Royster scored on a long pass play and tied the game at 8-8. The Ponies answered right back to take a 16-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Aiello went in from one-yard out. He tacked on the two-point run.
In the second quarter, Badders connected with Hopkins on a sweep pass that went 23 yards for the score. Aiello had the two-point run. With 30 second left to halftime, Aiello powered over from four yards out to put Iola up 30-8 at intermission.
The Rockets had a touchdown run and two-point conversion in the third quarter.
Badders had touchdown runs of four and 41 yards in the fourth quarter. He also had a two-point conversion run.
Taylor had 20 yards rushing and Jake Kress had 14 yards. Trevor Cox had one run for 10 yards to help build Iola’s 341 yards on the ground.
“Our offensive line came off the ball hard all night long. Jack Morrell is doing a super job with them,” Taylor said. “Jake Kress was the smallest kid on the field but he was in (Royster’s) backfield all night long from his defensive tackle spot.”
Kress had a quarterback sack and three assisted tackles plus a fumble recovery. Aiello had six solo tackles, three assisted and a quarterback sack.
Badders recorded four solo stops and three assisted tackles. Hopkins had three unassisted tackles and one assisted.
The eighth-grade Ponies are 3-0 and travel to Pittsburg next Thursday.
Ponies deck the Rockets
