DEWITT – The road to the UNI-Dome got a lot rockier this past week, with No. 4 Mount Vernon losing 33-24 Friday, Oct. 10, to Central DeWitt at Birney Field.
The Sabers were the real deal, outgaining the Mustangs 402 yards to 281 and 28 first downs to 18.
“They had a great game plan, they had great athletes,” senior Kellen Haverback said. “They just had our number tonight.”
It makes the next two weeks critical for Mount Vernon (5-2, 2-1) if they want to be a playoff team. No. 7 Dubuque Wahlert (5-2, 3-0) and No. 10 Davenport Assumption (4-3, 2-1) — who both beat Central DeWitt — are up next on the schedule.
There are only two automatic playoff spots to go around in Class 3A District 3.
“The only thing we can do now is keep working, keep fighting,” Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester said. “Our goals are still ahead of us. But we’ve got to win the next couple games.”
Trailing 18-7 at halftime, Mount Vernon used a sack/forced fumble/fumble recovery by senior Jaxon Anderson to set up a 12-yard touchdown pass to senior Mikey Ryan from Haverback, and a 2-point conversion pass from Haverback to Tommy Rhomberg, to cut the lead to three, 18-15.
It seemed like momentum might have turned for good when Haverback came up with an interception on the next Saber drive, setting Mount Vernon up at the DeWitt 29.
But Haverback was picked off trying to take the lead on a deep pass.
Central DeWitt was able to extend their next drive thanks to a third-down defensive holding call, and paid it off with a 55-yard touchdown pass from Hudson Krukow to Mason Staub to make it 26-15.
The next Mustang drive stalled in the red zone, but Anderson connected on a 30-yard field goal to make it a one-score game, 26-18, with 7:59 left to play.
But the Sabers picked up a pair of third-down conversion and then junior running back Cooper Small exploded for a 41-yard touchdown to make it 33-18 with 3:50 to play.
“They knew every one of our weaknesses,” Anderson said. “(Small) looked for the cutback lane the whole time. … That means you have to fill every one of them.”
With the clock working against them, the Mustangs drove down the field, fueled by a 47-yard pass from Haverback to Hlavacek and an 18-yard pass to Rhomberg to set up a sneak by the QB to make it 33-24 with 2:34 to play.
Mount Vernon then tried an onside kick, and it was recovered by Stanley Krob. But the refs flagged him for being offside, and the next attempt was recovered by the Sabers.
On fourth-and-two, Small ran for 11 yards, and Central DeWitt (4-3, 1-2) was able to go into victory formation.
Small finished with 208 rushing yards on 30 carries.
“They were just really physical up front,” Haverback said. “They played to their strengths and had a great game plan.”
“We need to be better at assignment football,” Meester said. “We’ll correct what we can correct.”
Haverback finished with 230 yards on 19-of-34 passing and Ryan had 12 catches for 121 yards. But the signature big scoring play wasn’t there as reliably for Mount Vernon this week.
“Teams are trying to take more and more of that away,” Meester said. “We’re having to go to more shorter stuff and make longer drives.”
Friday will be Senior Night at the Martha Parsons Activities Complex.
“We knew we were going to face adversity this year,” Haverback said. “It is how you bounce back. We’ll be ready on Friday.”