Throughout a fiercely competitive game, Montezuma and Iowa Valley had answers for each other.
Now, with just 4:20 left to play, the Tigers scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to take a 36-33 lead in the Friday evening, Aug. 19 season opener at Badger-Gabriel Field.
What would be the Braves’ answer to this?
Montezuma, which had moved the ball well all night, began another march.
The Braves reached Iowa Valley’s 30-yard line, where they faced fourth down and seven.
“We threw an out route to Masin Shearer at the sticks, but just couldn’t complete the pass,” said Braves Coach John Beck.
And that was it: 36-33 for Iowa Valley in a game in which the teams stayed within a score of each other all night.
“We had a lot of opportunities and moved the ball well throughout the game,” Beck said.
“We really did do a lot of things well. We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times on both sides of the ball,” said the coach. “We had too many penalties that stalled out some drives. We have to clean up some of that stuff.”
“In the end, we just came up one or two plays short of where we needed to be,” the coach said.
Montezuma nearly overcame a big effort by Tigers quarterback Evan Kearney, a 6-foot, 150-pound senior.
Kearney completed 14 of 22 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns, while being intercepted just once. He rushed for 160 yards on 24 carries on Montezuma’s charts, scoring one touchdown.
“Kearney is a very talented athlete and we struggled at first to contain him,” Beck said.
The game was tied 14-14 after one quarter. “After the first two drives, I thought we did a very good job in the run game against Kearney,” the coach said.
“He (Kearney) extended some broken plays with his legs and was able to find some guys downfield,” said Beck. “We did a good job of rallying to the ball.”
The Braves pitched a second quarter shutout and took a 21-14 lead into halftime.
Montezuma quarterback Owen Cook completed 6 of 12 passes for 114 yards and three touchdowns and did not throw an interception. Cook also rushed for 99 yards on 18 carries, including a touchdown.
All three touchdown passes for the Braves went to the lightning-quick Shearer, who caught five balls altogether, for 98 yards. “Masin had a great game catching the ball,” Beck said. “He runs good routes and has very good hands.”
“Owen (Cook) made some really good decisions. He threw and ran the ball well and controlled the offense the way we want to control it,” Beck said.
“I was also impressed with Brady Boulton. He came in at the quarterback spot when Cook had a leg cramp and took our offense down the field,” Beck said. “That is very impressive for a freshman to do.”
“I was pleased with our offense, for the most part,” Beck said. “We moved them up front on the offensive line. Our running backs, Brett Plants, Marty Knox and Broox Stockman, ran the ball hard and blocked well.” Linebacker Pierce Kienitz was a menace to anyone with the ball for the Braves. He made 14 tackles.
Montezuma led 33-28 through three quarters.
“Defensively, we covered initially pretty well, but as plays extend, it is hard to stay on a guy,” Beck said. “That will be something we need to work on. We tackled better as the night went on, but we can still improve on that.”
“It comes down to turnovers and penalties, and those are things we can fix,” the coach said. “I expect the boys to come focused and hungry next week when we take on another traditionally physical and well-coached team in HLV.”
BRAVES NOTES: Lightning delayed the start of the game by an hour and 10 minutes. The contest didn’t end until 10:35 p.m. . . .it was supposed to be Senior Night, but that was postponed until later . . and so was yearbook sales.
UP NEXT – Montezuma hosts HLV on Friday, Aug. 26.