No. 4 Southeast Polk rolls to impressive road win at Linn-Mar

MARION — Kadyn Proctor is the main attraction for the Southeast Polk football team.

Moments after Proctor and his Ram teammates completed an impressive, 49-27, win over Linn-Mar on Friday night at Linn-Mar Stadium, the much-hyped future Iowa Hawkeye was surrounded by some young Lions fans seeking a photo with the 6-foot-8, 335-pound five-star lineman.

Proctor was more than willing to cooperate, but make no mistake, the state's No. 4 team in the latest Gazette Class 5A rankings is much more than its best-known player.

Running back Abu Sama scored four times while quarterback Connor Moberly threw for three scores and ran for another as the Rams (5-1) dominated from start to finish, racking up nearly 500 yards of total offense. Moberly connected on 15 of 19 passes for 236 yards. Both Sama and Harrison Gibson rushed for more than 100 yards behind a line led by Proctor.

“That's a state-championship caliber team,” said Linn-Mar Coach Tim Lovell. “They are at a level that we want to achieve. We simply couldn't get off the field defensively and that put us in a bind.”

Southeast Polk scored on seven of its first eight offensive drives. Ironically, the only time it failed to score came when Proctor, who was in the fullback position, fumbled just short of the goal line and Linn-Mar recovered.

The Lions (3-3) had many positives in the game. After Moberly scored on the opening drive, Linn-Mar answered with a 5-yard run from senior Carter Henderson to tie the score. Sama then scored on two short runs, pushing the Rams’ lead to 21-7.

“Obviously, we wanted to start a little faster,” Lovell said. “Even though we got down, this was a test of our physical and mental resilience.”

Lovell liked the response when, after a long kickoff return from Dylan Muszynski, Austin Waller hit Keaton Roskup on a beautiful 7-yard shovel pass and it was 21-13 Rams.

But Sama was just too much. After scoring on a short run, he finished off a beautiful catch and run on a 41-yard screen pass just before the half to give the Rams a 35-14 lead at the break.

Another Moberly TD pass pushed the lead to 42-14 in the third quarter and it appeared the game could be headed to a continuous clock.

“It would have been real easy for our kids to roll over at that point,” Lovell said. “They could have easily let it go to a rolling clock, but they came back and ended up playing them even in the second half.”

Waller scrambled and found TJ Jackson on a 38-yard scoring toss and Henderson, who finished with 115 yards on 18 carries, scored his second TD of the night on a 45-yard run. Waller completed 13 of 27 passes for 183 yards and two scores. On defense, Roskup and Jackson Severson led the way with 10 tackles each.

“I'm just so proud of the way we battled,” Lovell said. “They were the biggest football team we've seen all year hands down. They moved well and moved us well.”

The Lions hit the road next Friday at Ottumwa while the Rams play host to No. 7 Cedar Rapids Prairie.