Pioneer League-leading Prairie View High’s Buffalos come to town Friday night. Iola High’s Mustangs will be waiting for them on the football field.
The two teams have met the past two years in Kansas Class 4A district play. They split those contests.
On the line in 2012 is Pioneer League bragging rights for both the Mustangs and Buffalos and a homecoming victory for the Mustangs. Iola is coming off a 40-20 non-league loss at Coffeyville to go 2-1 overall.
Prairie View is also 2-1 but is on a two-game win streak in league action rolling over Anderson County and Wellsville the past two weeks. The Mustangs are 1-0 in Pioneer League play.
Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Iola’s Riverside Park football stadium. The IHS fall homecoming crowning ceremony is at 6:15 p.m.
“Prairie View is a hot team right now and they remind us a lot of Osawatomie. They run the option on offense. They are a team of players who work hard and they have size up front,” said Doug Kerr, Mustang head coach.
“The best part of last week’s loss to Coffeyville is our kids are learning to play as a team. It didn’t matter who was on the field late in the game when we scored last week. The guys were pulling for each other.”
While the Mustangs were dominating time of possession in the loss to Coffeyville, the Buffalos were running rampant against Wellsville High’s Eagles in a 50-16 romp. The Buffalos racked up over 600 yards of total offense in the game.
“Our success is tied to the work of our front five. Those guys are controlling the line of scrimmage allowing us to run the option offense,” said Doug Whitcraft, Buffalo head coach. “Defensively, we’ve played good sound defense and not allowed opponents to have the running lanes.”
The Buffalos run game starts with junior quarterback Shey Spears, who rushed for 180 yards and passed for over 200 yards a week ago. In the backfield with Spears are sophomore running backs Blake Barnes and Cordell Dunlop and senior fullback Jake Bradley.
Up front for Prairie View are seniors Matt Kellerman (6-6, 270), Preston Roedel (6-0, 155), Landin Dalsing (6-0, 175) and Brandon Johnson (6-1, 265). Luke Miller, a senior, and Levi Clark, a junior, are the starting wide receivers with senior Zach Craig rotating in for the Buffalos.
Most of those players are mainstays on the Prairie View defense also. Sophomore linebacker Will Holland joins the group.
“Iola has a new coach and we’re excited that this is a league game,” Whitcraft said. “We have to take care of our responsibilities on defense and not get caught up in all of Iola’s misdirection on offense.”
The Buffalo defense has held its two Pioneer League opponents to 18 and 16 points the past two weeks.
For the Mustangs, Kerr said his players used the Coffeyville game as a learning tool and moved forward this week. He said the Mustangs were able to see their mistakes on film and worked on getting better.
