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Tigers erupt in third to pull away from Dons
Iowa Valley scored on first offensive snap in each half
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — A statement win. A confidence-boosting win. A win that shows Iowa Valley’s potential this football season.
Those are all valid descriptions of the Iowa Valley Tigers’ 49-34 win over Don Bosco Friday night.
The Tigers began with some fireworks right away.
Starting on defense, Layne Peska intercepted Don Bosco quarterback Tucker Youngblut.
The very next play? Peska connected deep with the team’s usual quarterback, Nolan Kriegel, for a 54-yard score.
“We had so much energy coming into the game,” Peska said. “We needed something to amp it up an make us want to push harder. That start helped us excel the rest of the game.”
“That play helped us start off with a bang and show them (Don Bosco) we’re ready for this,” Kriegel added.
The Dons responded right away, running the ball all the way down the field, with Youngblut scoring from 11 yards out. Following the point-after kick, Don Bosco led 7-6.
Both teams scored once more before half, in what a became a physical defensive battle.
With the game tied at 14 apiece, the Tigers erupted in the third quarter, scoring five touchdowns with several long explosive plays.
“At halftime we changed some things up on who we were blocking,” Kriegel said. “That helped us make some big plays.”
Creative play calls were executed perfectly.
“We came out and executed the way we needed too,” Peska said.
As they had in the first half, the Tigers scored on their first offensive snap of the second. Kriegel scored on a 65-yard touchdown run.
Don Bosco returned the favor with a 64-yard touchdown run from Ty Christensen but failed on the two-point conversion.
From there, the Tigers scored 27-unanswered points.
Peska took a double reverse 64 yards and added another touchdown run from 49 yards out, making defenders miss along the way.
Following a forced turnover on downs in the third quarter, the Tigers drew up one of their better plays of the evening. What looked like a run, ended up being a pass; tight end Josh Read slipped past the defense for a 33-yard receiving touchdown from Kriegel.
A goal this season for the Tigers was to improve their passing game, and those improvements were on full display Friday.
The statistics back that up. The Tigers were 7-of-8 through the air for 183 yards.
“Coach (Krull) does a really a good job with that,” Kriegel said of their passing packages. “We have those plays in our back pocket now, and he knows when to bring them out.”
Taking a 49-27 lead into the fourth, the Tigers coasted to their eventual 49-34 victory.
Except for a few big plays by the Dons in open space, the Tigers defense stepped up in the second half, though key linebacker Chance Hoyt sat out almost all of the half.
“It shows the kind of dogs we have on our team that when one of our best defensive players is out, we can bring the next guy in,” Kriegel said.
The Tigers move to 2-0 on the season after scheduling a Week 0 game against Springville last week to make up for Lone Tree canceling its varsity season.
“That was a big confidence booster, but week by week we just have to keep building and getting better,” Kriegel said.
Kriegel and Peska both rushed for over 100 yards — Kriegel with 157 and Peska 118.
Plenty of football is left this season, and Iowa Valley has a lot to be excited for.
“I can’t wait for the rest of the season,” Peska said. “We’re just going to keep on building and building.”
IOWA VALLEY 49, DON BOSCO 34
Iowa Valley Statistics
Rushes-yards — 29-320
Passing yards — 183
Comp-Att-Int — 7-8-0
Punts-Avg.— 2-25
Fumbles-lost — 1-0
Scoring
Don Bosco … 7 7 13 7—34
Iowa Valley … 6 8 35 0—49
IV— Kriegel 54 pass from Peska (conversion failed)
DB— Youngblut 11 run (Vincent Pranger kick)
IV— Kriegel 12 run (Read pass from Kriegel)
DB— Christensen 5 run (Pranger kick)
IV— Kriegel 65 run (Chance Hoyt run)
DB— Christensen 64 run (conversion failed)
IV — Peska 64 run (Mason Hoyt kick)
IV— Read 33 pass from Kriegel (Mason Hoyt kick)
IV— Kriegel 15 run (conversion failed)
IV — Peska 49 run (Mason Hoyt kick)
DB— Christensen 23 pass from Youngblut (Pranger kick)
DB — Pranger 10 pass from Youngblut (Pranger kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Iowa Valley— Kriegel 19-157, Peska 5-118, Chance Hoyt 3-16, Dane Smith 2-29.
Passing: Iowa Valley— Kriegel 6-7-1-129, Peska 1-1-1-54.
Receiving: Iowa Valley— Smith 2-63, Kriegel 1-54, Read 1-33, Mason Hoyt 1-21, Peska 1-12, Chance Hoyt 1-0.
Defense (leading tackler): Iowa Valley— Chance Hoyt 10 (one for loss)
(Don Bosco’s complete statistics were unavailable before press time.)
