Dylan Muszynski dazzles in Linn-Mar’s 50-0 win over Dubuque Senior

MARION — Muszynski Magic is alive and well at Linn-Mar.

For the past three seasons, Dylan Muszynski has shown the ability to make something out of nothing as a member of the Lions football team.

A nagging high ankle sprain limited Muszynski last season as a junior.

In Friday night's season-opener against Dubuque Senior at Linn-Mar Stadium, Muszynski was back to his old ways. He scored four first-half touchdowns, including a highlight-reel 5-yard run as Linn-Mar rolled to a 50-0 win.

Muszynski’s final numbers, 88 rushing yards on 16 carries, are not eye-popping at first glance, but the flare with which he ran showed he was back to the form he showed before his ankle injury.

“It was just nice to get back out here and play before our home fans,” he said. “I was ready to run against somebody besides our home team and I know everybody else was ready for that too.”

Three of the TD runs for the 5-foot-9, 170 pounder were fairly routine. His 5-yard score in the second quarter was anything but. The play began as a sweep to the left that the Senior defense appeared to have bottled up. Muszynski put his foot in the ground, reversed field, got a block from quarterback Stone Morgan along the way and ran it into the right corner of the end zone.

“It was just instinct,” he said of the run. “It is just something I have always done, trying to make something happen if nothing is there and I'm glad it worked out the way it did.”

Lions co-head coach Chad Tompkins said Muszynski does things that cannot be coached.

“He is one of those kids when the ball touches his hands, you better be watching because you don't have any idea of what is going to happen,” Tompkins said. “Dylan is one of those special kids that can make those kinds of plays happen. I can think of a couple of times he's done things like that in the last couple of years and it is nice to have a back like him here at Linn-Mar.”

The four TD runs, along with a 13-yard pass from Morgan to Tyree Alons late in the first quarter, gave the Lions a 36-0 lead at halftime.

With a continuous clock in the second half, freshman reserve running back Hudson Turner made the most of his chance to play, scoring a pair of TDs on runs of 1 and 20 yards.

Linn-Mar’s defense was equally as impressive. The Lions held the Rams to 75 total yards, allowing just four first downs. Linn-Mar had 326 yards of total offense

Tompkins, who is co-head coach this season with Ben Martens, said there were a lot of things to like about Linn-Mar’s effort in the opener.

“I thought we executed things we worked on throughout the week pretty well, especially on the defensive side,” he said. “We put some new stuff in that we haven't been able to run. We've incorporated that over the past couple of weeks and I thought they did a nice job with that tonight.”

Next week Linn-Mar will host Cedar Rapids Washington while the Rams will play host to Cedar Rapids Prairie.