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Mt. Pleasant falls at West Delaware
Panthers season ends in 3A first round
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MANCHESTER — Mt. Pleasant football’s strong 2025 campaign came to an end Friday. The Panthers were defeated 35-21 by No. 4 West Delaware in the Class 3A playoffs.
The visitors held their own through the first two quarters but couldn’t get enough offense going in the second half. West Delaware marched down the field on the opening drive of the third quarter to make it 28-14.
MP had its best chance to make it a one-score game when Keegan Heaton recovered a fumble with 8:40 remaining in the fourth, one of three takeaways for a Panthers defense. Grayson Walker got MP into Hawks territory two plays later with a 33-yard strike to Kaden Schadt.
That’s when the West Delaware defense countered MP’s. The Hawks sacked Walker on back-to-back plays to force the Panthers back to their own 37-yard line. West Delaware finished the game off on its next drive with 36-yard touchdown run by Austin Schnieders.
“It got away from us in the second half there, but our D-Line play all year has been really big,” MP coach John Bowlin assessed. “I thought our linebackers stepped up filling holes great tonight. They’ve got some special athletes over there. So when they hit something, they’re gone.”
The Panthers’ effort on defense prevented the Hawks from pulling away in the first half. MP made tied the game at 14 when Kellen Kohorst drilled Schnieders from behind. The ball popped out and landed into the arms of Ramzy Davis, who sprinted 24 yards to the house.
“I’m not that fast so I’m wondering if I’m about to get hawked down but I just kept going and I made it,” Davis said with a smile. “So it was pretty cool.”
Davis finished the night with 16 carries for 55 yards and a touchdown on the ground to go along with his huge defensive play. His rushing TD came just minutes before the scoop-n-score when he punched it in from one yard out, trimming West Delaware’s lead to 14-7.
That score was setup by a 40-yard bomb from Walker to Brody Clark. Clark finished the game with 5 catches for 58 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 4-yard pass from Walker in the dying seconds of the fourth.
West Delaware’s pass rush stayed relentless, and sacked Walker eight times Friday. But the junior was still efficient through the air going 13 of 16 for 188 yards.
“His leadership is pretty outstanding,” Bowlin said of Walker. “He’s such a positive kid. Always getting everybody fired up. He’s a great leader. He does whatever’s asked of him. Nobody else we’d rather have back there leading that team.”
The Panthers appeared to have a chance to tie the game at halftime after a wild sequence. West Delaware quickly restored a 21-14 advantage and had the ball again, eventually ending up on the MP 21-yard line with two seconds left.
West Delaware decided to try its first field goal of the season to extend the lead. MP broke though and Isaiah Lange blocked the kick. Davis returned it all the way to the Hawks 39-yard line with no time left.
A flag was thrown for a horse collar tackle on Davis, which would have given the Panthers one untimed down. After a long discussion, however, the refs picked up the flag and blew for halftime. One official blew their whistle immediately after the kick was blocked.
The Panthers prevented the Hawks from taking a 14-0 lead in the first quarter despite fumbling the ball to West Delaware down 7-0. On the first play of the Hawks drive, Asa Rose picked off Schnieders to gift possession back to MP and held the Panthers stave off what could have been a blowout defeat to one of the top sides in 3A.
“They’ve got to be proud of themselves,” Bowlin said. “We didn’t catch some breaks, and they’re a great team. We knew that coming in, and it definitely wasn’t easy for them tonight, and these guys got to be really proud of what they’ve done this year.”
The Panthers end the season at 7-3, including a 4-1 mark in district play. Though it didn’t get the result it wanted Friday, Mt. Pleasant still earned a trophy and a banner for reaching the playoffs.
The hardware is reflective of an exceptional turnaround after the Panthers went 0-9 just two seasons ago. Davis had tears in his as he talked about the effort MP’s 12 seniors put in to leave their jerseys in a better place than they found them.
“I think us as a senior class, we worked really hard to put MP back on the map,” Davis said. “A lot of people in the town are saying we brought football back. So that’s pretty cool.”
Davis also guaranteed MP would continue its upward trajectory. Walker still has a season ahead at QB. Sophomores Griffen Jones and Ryan Helling combined for 691 yards and 11 touchdowns behind Davis at running back.
Clark lead the team in receiving in his junior season. Sophomores Schadt and Lange weren’t far behind. Lange was also second on the team in tackles and had 13 sacks. Rose’s interception Friday was the third of his sophomore season.
“That sophomore class, there’s a lot of kids that are just working hard every day,” Bowlin said. “They’ve got a chance to do something if they keep putting the time in. Our junior class, we don’t have a lot of juniors out, but every single one put the effort in. They’re going to be great leaders for us next year. So it’s just about can we keep stringing classes together, and there’s so much growth that can be done in a couple years from freshman to junior year. They just have to trust the process and go.”
