Not one finger even got close to the panic button Friday, Oct. 4, when Mount Vernon beat Assumption 46-14 at Jack and Pat Bush Stadium in Davenport.
The Mustangs trailed 14-3 early.
“I absolutely felt like we could come back,” sophomore linebacker Jaxson Anderson said. “I felt like we were a better team than they were. It was just two bad plays that went south.”
“This group just doesn’t give up,” Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester said. “We’ve got to overcome the highs and lows and just keep working.
“That was a big low. We were down. Our backs were against the wall, and momentum was not on our side, and we were on the road. Literally, within 2-3 minutes it changed. That’s what this team is about. We just keep finding ways to win. They just don’t give up.”
After Bennett Harp connected on a 47-yard field goal to open the scoring, Assumption (1-5) struck with two big plays.
First, Assumption running back Ben Yeggy went untouched on a 53-yard sprint to the end zone.
Mount Vernon responded with a 6-play, 79-yard drive. But on the seventh play of the drive, Jase Jaspers lost the football and Yeggy picked it up and took it 94 yards the other direction.
Assumption led, 14-3, with 5:21 left in the first half.
“We were behind, but we were composed,” Jaspers said. “Our coach always talks about grit and adversity. We just came together. We can be down, but we’re going to keep fighting.”
Mount Vernon led at half, 25-14, so yeah, they responded.
First, the Mustangs put together a 9-play, 80-yard drive, capped with a 12-yard TD run by Jaspers. Then on the Knights’ next possession,Tyler Williams pounced on a fumble. Two plays later, Kellen Haverback connected with Michael Ryan on a 28-yard scoring strike.
Next, Anderson got his hands on a wobbly pass from Assumption QB Braylon Thomsen and returned it 12 yards for a pick-6 TD.
“I’ve got to credit the guy that hit the quarterback,” Anderson said. “It wobbled just enough that I could get under it. “I was super surprised that it came to me. I just looked up and it was there. I grabbed it and took off with it.”
Anderson said it was the first time he’s been in the end zone in a varsity game. “That made me happy; I can’t say it didn’t,” he said.
“Jaxon is having a tremendous year for us,” Meester said. “And that was a huge pivotal point for us. We were getting momentum back, but that was the nail.”
Mount Vernon was up two scores, and got the ball to start the second half. Assumption only gained 29 offensive yards in the third quarter.
The Mustangs put the game out of reach with a pair of fourth-quarter scoring strikes from Haverback to Watson Krob – one for 68 yards, the other for 23 yards.
The Knights tacked on 58 yards of offense on their final drive.
“Our defense did good the whole night besides the one play,” Jaspers said. “We had to fix a few things here and there.” “I think we started to figure out what they were doing and got to the right adjustments,” Anderson said.
Haverback finished with 265 yards on 16-of-24 passing. Jaspers had eight catches for 112 yards. Cooper Hird led the rushing effort with 72 yards on 18 carries.
“Early on, they had some nice answers right out of the gate and took away some of the stuff we wanted to do,” Meester said. “We had to scramble a little bit. “Once we figured out what we needed to do, the line started clicking, and good things happened.”
Mount Vernon (5-1, 2-0) returns home this week to take on Fort Madison (0-6) at Martha Parsons Activities Complex.
“Our biggest opponent right now is ourselves,” Meester said. “We’ve just got to keep focusing on what we do.”