Tabor Fremont-Mills wins title game 81-0

CEDAR FALLS (AP) - Nate Meier's five rushing touchdowns led a record-breaking outburst that sent Tabor Fremont-Mills to an 81-0 rout of Murray in the eight-player state title game Friday.

Quarterback A.J. Scarborough scored twice and passed for two more TDs for the Knights, who capped a 13-0 season by running up the highest point total in the 12-year history of the eight-player finals and posting the first championship game shutout.

Meier scored on runs of 39, 32, 54, 8 and 4 yards. He set a title game record for touchdowns and had a record 218 yards rushing in only 12 carries.

Murray (12-2), which had been averaging 58.5 points a game, managed only 199 total yards. Quarterback Austin Halls threw five interceptions, and Fremont-Mills returned three of the picks for touchdowns.

Scarborough returned an interception 77 yards for a score and scampered 59 yards for a touchdown. He completed the only two passes he threw and both went for touchdowns, covering 15 and 13 yards to Nick Williams.

Logan Wood sped 26 and 74 yards for touchdowns on interception returns to complete the scoring.

Fremont-Mills built a 61-0 halftime lead and the second half was played with a continuous clock. The Knights set championship game records with 11 touchdowns, 352 rushing yards and five interceptions, and Meier tacked on a pair of 2-point conversions to set another record with 34 points.

Meier finished the season with 61 touchdowns to tie Armstrong-Ringsted's Tyler Tonderum for the state record. The 6-foot-2, 235-pound senior set a new mark with his 412 points.

For his career, Meier put up 4,765 yards rushing, 100 touchdowns and 662 points.

Both teams played in the championship game for the first time. Fremont-Mills reached the finals with a 69-26 victory over Armstrong-Ringsted, which had won the last two state titles.

Murray avenged its only regular-season loss with a 70-54 quarterfinal victory over Adair-Casey, then beat Clarksville 58-35 in the semifinals.

Halls was one of the state's top passers during the season, throwing for 2,353 yards and 34 TDs coming in. But the Fremont-Mills defense kept him under wraps throughout the game and he completed only nine of 32 passes for 164 yards and was sacked five times.