Van Buren County football: 2022

KEOSAUQUA — Van Buren County football has a lot of talent.

The 2021 season didn’t go the way the Warriors would have liked, winning just one game out of the eight.

This time around, there’s a lot to be optimistic about as far as the 2022 season.

Coming into the fall, Van Buren football lost just seven players to graduation.

Despite the loses, the Warriors bring back a lot of leaders from their 2021 season, which includes their quarterback, leading rusher and leading receiver.

Senior Jackson Manning will be running the offensive schemes once again. In his junior season, Manning threw for 662 yards and nine touchdowns.

On the ground, Manning rushed for 97 yards and an additional pair of touchdowns.

Defensively, Manning was stellar in the secondary. He had five interceptions.

Leading rusher Sam Warth is back for his senior season. Warth ran the ball 73 times in 2021 for 435 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow senior Wyatt Mertens also will be in the mix. Mertens was second to Warth in rushing yards, tallying 340 on 42 rushes for four touchdowns.

Van Buren has a lot to work with in the backfield as junior Tyler Stoltz and sophomore Bryce Newcomb both ran for over 100 yards each last season as well.

As for receiving, Anthony Dunkin is back in action. Dunkin caught the pigskin 11 times for 304 yards and five touchdowns.

Senior Dylan Richardson followed Dunkin with 133 yards on 10 catches. He also had one touchdown.

While the offense is looking pretty similar for Van Buren County, defensively there’s some big holes to fill.

Four of the five Warriors leading tacklers will not be a part of this years squad.

Graduate Brant Tedrow led in 2021 with 75.5 total tackles, 47 of which were solo.

Now senior Cayden Summers returns. He finished with 61 tackles last year, 37 solo.

The next three highest all graduated, which include Nathan Davidson, Owen Loeffler and Lukas McEntee.

Van Buren will take on the same opponents from last season. Besides Louisa-Muscatine, the Warriors will look to get some payback on their other foes.

Van Buren County 2022 football schedule

Aug. 19 vs. Albia

Aug. 26 at Central Lee

Sept. 2 vs. Davis County

Sept. 9 at Louisa-Muscatine

Sept. 16 at Pella Christian

Sept. 23 vs. Cardinal

Sept. 30 at Central Decatur

Oct. 7 at Pleasantville

Oct. 14 vs. Sigourney-Keota