ALTAMONT — Down 16-0 after one quarter, the Iola Middle School eighth-grade Ponies rallied for a 26-16 win Thursday.
Iola Middle School’s seventh-grade Ponies posted their first win of the season Thursday. Iola beat Labette County 24-6.
The eighth-grade Ponies were down 16-6 at halftime.Brett Taylor finished a Pony drive with a two-yard touchdown run with 4:10 left in the second quarter.
“These kids shook off just a horrible start, made some adjustments and really played three very good quarters of football,” said Marty Taylor, IMS eighth-grade coach.
In the second half, Iola’s offensive unit unleashed Keanan Badders. Badders had touchdown runs of 59 and 79 yards in the third quarter, lifting Iola to an 18-16 lead.
Badders, who had 181 yards on 14 carries, scored a third time. It was a one-yard plunge into the end zone with 1:24 remaining in the game. Brice Aiello had the two-point conversion.
“Keanan was far and away the best player on the field, just a fantastic all-around game,” Taylor said. “Brice had a slow start but kept his head in the game and made some huge plays for us.”
Aiello had 71 yards on 12 carries. Brett Taylor, who rushed for 17 yards, was 2 of 3 passing for 16 yards.
Defensively, Aiello had six unassisted tackles, four assisted tackles and five quarterback sacks. He recovered a fumble. Badders had five solo stops and six assisted tackles.
Ethan Sigg had three solo tackles and two assisted while Gus Hopkins had one solo and four assisted. Daniel Ware and Jake Gumfory each had two solo stops and one assisted tackle and Taylor had one unassisted tackle and two assists.
Ben Cooper found Chase Regehr on a 10-yard touchdown pass play to open the scoring for the seventh-grade Ponies. Mason Snavely’s two-point conversion run made it 8-0.
Snavely pushed over from one-yard out with 2:34 left in the first half. Cooper had the two-point conversion run. Iola led 16-6 at halftime.
The lone score of the second half was another one-yard run by Snavely. He also had the conversion run.
Cooper had 88 yards on 10 carries and completed 3 of 6 passes for 45 yards. All three passes were caught by Regher.
Snavely racked up 86 yards on 15 carries for the Ponies. Ethan Scheibmeier had 19 yards on five carries and Seth Sanford rushed for 18 yards on seven hauls.
“Just a much better effort from this group of young men from last week,” Taylor said. “The two smallest kids on the field — Mason and Ben — played the biggest.
“Hunter Boren stepped up and played well at defensive end.”
Sanford led the Iola defense with six tackles and Scheibmeir had five. Boren and Regehr recorded four tackles each. Colton Toney had three.
Cooper, Dallas Merritt, Dacoda Settlemyer and Gage Cleaver each had one tackle.
Colson Wiggin recovered a fumble.
Iola’s eighth-grade team is 2-0. The seventh-grade Ponies are 1-1.
On Monday, the IMS squads hold a jamboree at 6 p.m. at the football stadium in Riverside Park.
Thursday the Ponies host Royster Middle School of Chanute starting at 5 p.m.
Pony football teams beat Labette County
