On Friday, Oct. 11, it was tune up time for Mount Vernon during a 56-7 win over Fort Madison at Martha Parsons Activities Complex.
“Games like these are really good for development,” junior quarterback Kellen Haverback said. “We’re getting multiple people involved and getting some new stuff in.
“Get everything dialed in before the playoffs start.”
The playoffs are still two weeks away in Class 3A. Mount Vernon (7-0, 4-0) finishes District 4 play with a trip to Washington (5-2, 2-1) on Friday, Oct. 18, and a home game against Keokuk (3-4, 1-2) on Oct. 25.
Washington lost to Assumption 34-6 last Friday.
Mount Vernon beat Assumption 46-14 in Week 6.
“It’ll be another good test for us,” Mount Vernon Coach Brad Meester said. “I’ve talked to our team about this stretch here. Our biggest opponent is ourselves. We need to come out ready to play every day.”
Mount Vernon scored on its first six possessions against Fort Madison and led 42-7 by halftime.
Haverback had touchdown passes to Jase Jaspers and Watson Krob and also ran one in. Cooper Hird added three rushing touchdowns to go with 58 rushing yards.
The Bloodhounds scored right before half on a 95-yard tipped pass. Triston Marshall had the ball fall in his hands behind the Mustang defense and outran everyone to the end zone.
Take away that big, improbable play, and Fort Madsion (0-7) had just 89 yards of offense on 43 plays.
“We just treated it like every other game; it doesn’t matter what their record is,” senior D-lineman Kael Riniker said. “We came out and played our hardest and played our best game; one hundred percent, all the time.”
The continuous clock ran the entire second half and the reserves got a lot of playing time after the starters got one final touchdown on a sneak by Haverback with 3:55 left in the third quarter.
The junior QB continued to sling it in his final two drives and finished with 220 yards on 16-of-25 passing. Jaspers had eight catches for 132 yards. Eight different players ended up making a catch.
“We got the ball out to a lot of different guys, which is awesome,” Meester said. “Kellen is doing a great job of seeing the field right now. His progress has been unbelievable the last couple of weeks.”
“When you get the ball to your athletes, good things happen,” Haverback said.
The Mustangs capped the game with 1-yard touchdown run by junior Caysen Curran with 5:06 to play.
“We did a real nice job coming out ready to go,” Meester said.