High School Football
Mt. Pleasant’s kicker Dylan White is the hero for the second time this season after nailing a last second 32-yard field goal to spoil Fort Madison’s homecoming last night 16-14. Both defenses showed up ready to play as neither team scored until nearly four and half minutes had passed in the second quarter with Ramzy Davis walking in for a three-yard touchdown to give Mt. Pleasant the 7 to 0 lead. Head coach John Bowlin talked about his trio of runners: Zach Newton, Payton Walker, and Davis, as they combined for 180 rushing yards,
“It was a little better for us on that [left] side, so he’s got Peyton Walker and Merrick Lamm, who was great tonight at tight end. So we give him a lot of carries just because it suits our offense well. But like you said, Zach Newton’s running the ball great for us and Peyton Walker, you know, I know he’s always lead blocking for us, but he’s a guy that we’d like to get a few more carries for because he’s just a tough nose kid. He’s a great football player, I love watching him.”
Bloodhound senior quarterback Marcus Guzman would not let his team go down without a fight as he scampered 28 yards on 4th down to tie the game at 7 on the next drive.
Neither team would find the endzone in the 3rd quarter, but it did not take long in the 4th quarter for Guzman to scramble for his second touchdown of the game to give Fort Madison a 14 to 7 lead. The Bloodhounds had complete control of the game until William Birdsell blocked a punt, which set up the Panthers with a short field, ending in a 20-yard Newton to Merrick Lamm connection for a touchdown. However, the extra point was blocked, keeping the lead in Fort Madison’s favor.
The Bloodhounds had another chance to run out the clock, but the Panther defense held strong and got the ball back with a little over two minutes to go at their own 16-yard line. Coach Bowlin talked about his thought process heading into that final drive,
“I mean number one was trying to figure out what we can do. You know, we hadn’t run the ball well, had two timeouts, you know, with two minutes and 40 seconds left. So, we knew we had to try to throw the ball and really went to some stuff we hadn’t been doing, went to a twins look. Missed on those and we started running a couple routes to our outside that we, you know, Zach was really poised, made some great plays on the outside, hit a couple swings to our tail back that we knew were there. We tried to hit them earlier, but we didn’t quite go there. So, you know just a lot of poise out of those guys and I got a ton of faith in Dylan that, you know, obviously if we’d score a touchdown, would be happy as all get out, but a ton of faith that he’s going to come in and, you know, give us his best and, you know, going to make that kick, that’s two of them for him this year. So just, you know, happy for him and just our guys competing all night.”
The Panthers will end the regular season on Friday, October 25th, at 7:30 pm at home against Assumption.
Van Buren County was shutout by #4 Lisbon last night 49-0. The Warriors end the season with a 1-7 record.
Winfield-Mt. Union closed out the regular season with a 58-18 clobbering of HLV last night. The Wolves qualified for the postseason.
New London ended the regular season with a crushing win over English Valleys last night 56-22. The Tigers collected a 2-6 record for the season.
Danville and Columbus had their postseason tickets booked heading into last night’s matchup; it did not stop the two from engaging in an overtime epic that Danville managed to come out on top of 31-24. Jaden Bauer tossed for 402 yards and two touchdowns in the winning effort.
Wapello lost to Highland last night 43-0.
Fairfield ran into an angry Solon squad last night, falling 61-19 to the Spartans. The Trojans will close out the season at home on Friday at 7:30 pm against Grinnell.
West Burlington/Notre Dame’s path to the postseason continued with a 49-21 thumping of Davis County last night. The Falcons await their postseason matchup.
Mediapolis punched their ticket to the postseason with a dominant 48-14 victory over Central Lee last night. The Hawks ended the season with a 4-4 record.
In other Class 3A District 4 matchups, #7 Mt. Vernon outpaced Washington 42-21 and Assumption beat down Keokuk 35-14 last night.
WACO qualified for the postseason in 8-Player. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call for their matchup on Friday.
Postseason matchups for 8-Player and Classes A, 1A, and 2A will be released today at 10 am.
Postseason Volleyball
Classes 1A and 2A will have their first round matchups start on Monday, October 21st, at 7 pm. Here’s a look at our local matchups.
In Class 1A Region 2, Winfield-Mt. Union will face off against Lone Tree at home on Monday at 7 pm. The winner will take on #2 Holy Trinity Catholic on Wednesday, October 23rd, at 7 pm in Fort Madison.
Burlington Notre Dame will host WACO at 7 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm. The winner will take on the winner between Wapello and New London with the Arrows acting as the hosts against the Tigers.
In Class 2A Region 2, Van Buren County will take on Cardinal on Wednesday at 7 pm at home. Columbus will battle with Danville at home with the winner advancing to play #14 West Burlington.
Class 3A Region 5 will have Washington hosting Mediapolis on Tuesday, October 22nd, at 7 pm. Region 8 will see Fairfield travel to Wilton and Central Lee making the trip to West Liberty.
Lastly, for Class 4A Region 4, Mt. Pleasant will take on Fort Madison at home on Tuesday at 7 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.
High School Cross Country
Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield will travel to Pella for their Class 3A state qualifying meet set for Wednesday, October 23rd, at 4 pm. Class 4A’s Burlington will also run on Wednesday at Pleasant Valley.
The state qualifying meets for Classes 1A and 2A will commence at 4 pm on Thursday, October 24th.
For Class 1A at Regina Catholic, Danville will run against Van Buren County as the two boys’ teams will enter the race ranked. Joining them will be Wapello, New London, and the Holy Trinity Catholic boys’ team.
WACO and Winfield-Mt. Union will make the trip west to Pleasantville to compete, while Columbus will be on its own at North Linn.
In Class 2A, Central Lee and Notre Dame/West Burlington will make the trip to Monticello, while Mediapolis will follow the highly ranked Mid-Prairie teams to Pella Christian.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team will host a triangular today with their first match against Kansas City Kansas Community College at 11 am.
College Football
#9 Iowa State will host UCF tonight at 6:30 pm. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will have the broadcast.
Iowa will square off against Michigan State on the road tonight at 6:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM will be on the call.
This Day in Sports History
1957 – Montreal Canadien Maurice “Rocket” Richard becomes the first NHL player to score 500 goals.
1966 – Bobby Orr makes his NHL regular-season debut for the Boston Bruins against the Detroit Red Wings.
2022 – Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola faces his brother San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola in first MLB playoff sibling pitcher-batter battle; Austin goes 1-2, with a rally starting RBI in an 8-5 win at Petco Park, San Diego.