Mount Vernon loses to Spirit Lake in record-setting 2A title game

CEDAR FALLS — Just go ahead and assume that every Class 2A state championship-game record was broken Monday afternoon at the UNI-Dome. Not just broken, but shattered, obliterated, however you want to colorfully word it.

It's way easier to list the marks that weren't set.

Let's begin with the final score: Spirit Lake 70, Mount Vernon 56. You'd call it Big 12 Conference football, but that's not doing it justice.

'It was like a track meet on grass,' said Spirit Lake Coach Josh Bolluyt. 'Each team just kept countering each other.'

The 126 points were, needless to say, a record, even more than the highest-scoring Eight-Player championship game. Spirit Lake's 70 points were an 11-player record, second only to Newell-Fonda's 81 in the 2011 Eight-Player title tilt.

'I don't even know how many points it added up to in the end,' said Mount Vernon's Sam Moore. 'Back and forth, back and forth. Every mistake that we made turned into a score. That was the biggest thing. That's what mattered in the end.'

These teams combined for an astonishing 1,283 yards. Up one end of the field and down the other, with defense simply a suggestion.

Spirit Lake (14-0) and its high-tempo, versatile offense absolutely could not be stopped, as it racked up 787 yards and 40 first downs. That was 378 on the ground and 409 through the air.

Exquisite senior quarterback Logan Backhaus accounted for 497 yards rushing and passing and six total touchdowns. He was literally knocked out of the game with 8:26 to go after completing a two-point conversion pass, taking a clean shot from linebacker Moore in the chest that smacked him and the back of his head hard on the turf.

There was a 15-minute delay while he was tended to by medical personnel and eventually stretchered off the field and to a local hospital. He was conscious as he left to a rousing applause, raising his arms.

'I thought I had a shot to get the sack there,' Moore said. 'I don't think he knew I was there. I got all of him. I actually went down to help him up, and there was no response.'

'He's one of our brothers,' said Spirit Lake's Billy Brown. 'We wanted him to be out there at the end of the game with us celebrating, too.'

Brown ran the opening kickoff back 82 yards for a touchdown to get the calculators warmed up immediately. Spirit Lake had a 42-14 lead at the break, with Mount Vernon (11-3) having to stop the Indians inside the 5-yard line in the final minute of the second quarter to prevent the spread from being even higher.

Mount Vernon scored on the initial possession of the second half, with sophomore QB Drew Adams hooking up with Connor Herrmann for a 38-yard touchdown. Herrmann had 10 receptions for 205 yards and four TDs, the first and last of those numbers tying or setting 2A title-game records.

Adams completed 21 of 32 passes for 387 yards and six touchdowns, those latter two figures also records.

'I anticipated our offense being able to move the ball,' said Adams. 'I knew they had a good offense, too. So I guess (a shootout) was something that was pretty probable. But this kind of score, I can't say I would have predicted that.'

'The end result sucks right now,' Herrmann said. 'But I'm so proud of everyone on this team. Everyone fought their hearts out. We didn't have it today, but we played with a lot of heart.'

Moore also set a record by taking the football away from a Spirit Lake running back early in the third quarter and running it back 98 yards for a touchdown. That made it a 42-28 game, but MV never got another defensive stop until the final seconds.

'I think it's just a combination of the good athletes that they have,' said Mount Vernon Coach Lance Pedersen. 'They have a good offensive line as well. They're able to do two things, are multi-dimensional. They can run the football and pass it. Recently we've been facing teams that have just run it, and now you face a team that can do both. That makes it harder to defend.'

'You've got to give credit to them,' Herrmann said. 'They've got a lot of athletes. Their quarterback is a great player, (Brown) is a great wide receiver. They just spread the field. Their high-tempo offense is hard to stay with for a full game.'

Getting back to the records thing, 16 of them were tied or set here.

'The outcome wasn't what we wanted, but a game like that is kind of fun as an offensive player,' said Adams, who is part of a strong returning nucleus for the Mustangs. 'Back and forth like that, that's a lot of points. To put up 56 points and lose, that's pretty crazy.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com