Mount Vernon works through mistakes for Class 2A semifinal win

CEDAR FALLS — Throughout the 2015 high school football season, Mount Vernon has felt a little overlooked.

With Anamosa in its district and the top four teams in Class 2A all dominant and undefeated, Mount Vernon didn't get a ton of attention. It only took getting to the UNI-Dome to finally cement what they knew all along: the Mustangs are for real.

Mount Vernon controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the game, forced turnovers and by most accounts dominated — with several self-inflicted errors keeping things close — the consensus No. 1 team all season in Class 2A, Albia, en route to a 24-21 victory and a berth in the state championship game.

'I sure hope they pay attention to us now,' said Coach Lance Pedersen. 'We've been an underdog in every game we've played. I don't think anybody has really picked us to win a game. And here we are in the state championship game.

'They believe. We're really excited to have this opportunity to play in the state championship.'

The Mustangs don't mind that chip on their shoulder, though. In fact, they like it there.

The players have played with an extra fire throughout the playoffs, and especially in the quarterfinals and semifinals, in which Mount Vernon beat an undefeated Anamosa team in the rematch and then knocking off 2A top dog Albia on Saturday.

That attitude, plus how close the team has grown over the last several months, kept the Mustangs together when things got tough Saturday night in the UNI-Dome.

'I definitely feel we were underrated the whole year, basically,' said running back Sam Moore, who led Mount Vernon with 19 carries for 111 yards. 'We like that. Because we're going to show the state we're more than that. They're wrong. We're going to prove them wrong.'

The Mustangs outgained the Blue Demons, 366 to 165, intercepted Albia quarterback Blake Beyer — who exited the game in the fourth quarter on a stretcher after a bad leg injury — twice, blocked a punt and bottled up the Albia run game.

But the statistical disparity didn't mean the win was a cakewalk by any means.

Mount Vernon quarterback Drew Adams had three interceptions of his own, and after both Albia turnovers, the Mustangs either turned it over (one of Adams' interceptions) or failed to convert on fourth down and couldn't get any points. He finished 15 of 28 for 212 yards, two touchdowns and those three interceptions.

Adams' third interception was one that gave the Blue Demons their best shot to complete the comeback, throwing his second to Bret Freshwater with 10:13 left in the game.

Albia's star running back, Carter Isley, hadn't played at all through the first 2 ½ quarters, but came in with 4:50 left in the third and gave a spark to the Blue Demons' offense. In his limited time on the field, he carried 15 times for 53 yards and one touchdown — the one that brought the score within three.

Through all that, though, Mount Vernon bent but never broke.

'It shows a lot about their character and it shows a lot about how they believe in themselves,' Pedersen said. 'They do some amazing things. The key, I think, is how they truly believe. If something bad happens, we don't get all the way down. We feel that we can come back.'

Isley entering the game in the third quarter rattled the Mustangs for a bit. A top-ranked heavyweight wrestler nationally, Isley powered through that injured ankle and gave Mount Vernon a shot in the mouth that they nearly didn't recover from.

But the defensive mentality of swarming to the ball eventually won out for the Mustangs, and it carried them to a date with Spirit Lake for the title on Friday at 2 p.m.

'He's a good, hard runner, and that's a gutsy performance to be able to come out and play. It took time for us to adjust,' Pedersen said. 'Our kids just make adjustments on the fly. It's just gang-tackling. You can't have just one guy stop him. It's the whole team. That's what we were able to do.

'We had too many mistakes, too many turnovers, but we did good things. We'll continue to work hard. We haven't played our best football yet, and hopefully we have an opportunity to do that.'

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