Mount Vernon fans are familiar with their Hwy. 1 rivalry.
But how about a Hwy. 30 rivalry?
Carroll (6-3) rolls into town Friday for a Class 3A Round of 16 playoff game. The Tigers are making the 182-mile trek, almost entirely on Hwy. 30, from Western Iowa.
“The coaches talked about it a million times and had a thousand thoughts on who we’d get,” Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester said.
“Not a single person thought Carroll.” Meester has seen the film. The Tigers are going to be a problem.
“They are big up front and run the ball well,” Meester said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
No. 4 Mount Vernon got put in a four-team pod with Harlan (6-3) and No. 6 Algona (8-1), both also on the other side of the state. Meester said if Harlan wins, Mount Vernon will get another home game in the quarterfinals. But if Algona wins … it will be a 210-mile road trip next week.
“We’ve talked from day one, we’ll play anywhere at any time,” Meester said. “If we have to travel, the kids will embrace that.”
Mount Vernon (9-0) closed out the regular season with a 62-7 rout of Keokuk on Friday, Oct. 25, at the Martha Parsons Activities Complex.
That first quarter included a 19-yard scoop-and-score fumble recovery by Tyler Williams on the first play of the game. There was also a safety on high punt snap that went out the back of the end zone, and Michael Ryan had a 14-yard return off a shanked punt for a score. Mix in a 21-yard scoring pass from Kellen Haverback to Jase Jaspers and an 8-yard rushing TD by Cooper Hird, and it was 31-0 after one quarter.
“I’m still excited about how we came out ready to go,” Meester said. “The team was locked in and ready to go from the start, and got after it right away.”
Hird added another rushing TD to start the second quarter, and Haverback connected with Ryan (32 yards) and Cole Thurn (54 yards) on scoring passes to make it 52-7 at halftime.
The Chiefs (3-6) scored on a 91-yard pass from Brenton Hoard to Malachi Allison.
But unlike the previous week, when the second team got a little wobblily against Washington, they held firm Friday, main- taining the shutout and added 10 more points – a 42-yard Bennett Harp field goal and a 29-yard TD pass from Tommy
Rhomberg to Gabriel Portillo.
“It was great to see,” Meester said of t h e i m p r o ve d p l a y
of the reserves. “We pushed them, and they responded so well. We played a great four quarters and it was exciting to see a lot of guys get in.”