Rinse. And spit.
The bad taste of a loss to Solon the previous week was washed out Friday, Sept. 19, with a 56-0 win over Fort Madison at the Martha Parsons Activity Complex.
“I like how we responded,” Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester said. “We talked about it all week. Sometimes you get knocked down. It is about getting back up. They came out ready to play from the first snap.”
Literally.
Senior Toby Neal took the opening kickoff the other way, at high speed, for an 85-yard return for a touchdown.
“He is one of the fastest kids at our school, if not the fastest,” senior Michael Ryan said. “We got him to come out for football. He got it, and just went. Awesome for him.”
Then on Fort Madison’s second offensive play, senior Jaxon Anderson got into the passing lane, picked off Stefan Berlett and took it 40 yards to the end zone.
It was 14-0 less than a minute into the game.
The Mustangs would put together a 49-0 lead by halftime.
It was the end result of a hard week of practice.
“It was more of a grind than usual,” senior Ryan Hoffman said. “We took that loss to Solon, we looked in the mirror and said, we need to get better, we need to go harder.”
Anderson said the Mustangs tore everything down to the foundations.
“We went back to the basics,” Anderson said. “We really just dug deep. It was kind of a get-back-into-it practice. It got everybody ready to go.”
Coach Meester played the team a speech from Kobe Bryant.
“He embraced losing as an opportunity to get better,” Meester said.
A few midweek injuries did push Mount Vernon to try senior Michael Ryan in the backfield for the first time this season. He only carried the ball four times, but ran for 50 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s one of those guys you can play about anywhere,” Meester said. “He’s a threat wherever you put him.”
Ryan embraced the challenge.
“I’ve played it in the past, and the coaches thought I could do it,” Ryan said. “So, I’ll do whatever.”
Senior quarterback Kellen Haverback was mercilessly efficient, passing 10-for-12 for 145 yards and two touchdowns. Maddox Curran had five catches for 77 yards and a score, and Holden Hlavacek had two catches for 35 yards and a TD.
Gabe Grafft had the other Mount Vernon (3-1) touchdowns. The first when he recovered a fumble in the end zone, the other on a 1-yard plunge in the third quarter.
The continuous clock ran the entire second half. It helped the Mustangs post a shutout, and hold the Bloodhounds to just 38 yards of offense.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a shutout in a while,” Hoffman said. “We responded to the loss. We used it to fuel ourselves for this game.”
The Mustangs are on the road this week, opening Class 3A District 3 play at Maquoketa (1-3). Then homecoming is Friday, Oct. 3, against Center Point-Urbana (1-3).
“We’ll get back after it Monday,” Meester said. “We need to keep pushing, to be the best team at the end of the season, when the playoffs start.”