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Interstate 35, Truro 35, Mount Ayr 0
TRURO – Mount Ayr’s season comes to a close after falling in the opening round of the postseason to an Interstate 35 squad that topped them in Week Two.
Friday, the Roadrunners defense was too strong for the Raiders, stifling Mount Ayr in a 35-0 victory.
The Raiders went three-and-out on their opening drive and a poor snap on the punt attempt led to the Roadrunners taking over on the 4-yard line.
Mason Cassady needed one play to get I-35 on the board, bouncing to the right side of the line and wiggling into the end zone.
After another Raider punt, I-35 drove 72 yards on eight plays capped off by a 7-yard run from Joey Bregar gave the Roadrunners a 14-0 lead.
The next two I-35 possessions ended the same way as Bregar hit Richie Griglione for a 12-yard strike and the junior quarterback powered his way into the end zone for the last score of the half.
Offensively, Mount Ayr was limited to just three first downs in the first half.
A 28-0 halftime lead remained throughout the third quarter before Griglione pulled down his second TD grab, a 26-yard reception in double coverage, to give the Roadrunners the lead by the eventual final score 35-0.
“They’ve got an awful lot of speed everywhere, but it really shows up on their defense,” said Mount Ayr head coach Delwyn Showalter. “It made it extremely difficult for us to do anything offensively and have any consistency. … They’re a very good football team.”
It marked Interstate 35’s first home postseason win in school history and its second playoff win ever, the first coming back in 2003.
Interstate 35 will host Dike-New Hartford, which beat South Hamilton 42-8, on Friday.
Mount Ayr ends the season with a 7-3 record after its first postseason appearance since 2015.
Fremont-Mills 61, Lenox 8
TABOR — Seth Malcom returned the opening kickoff 60 yards for a touchdown to open the gates for Fremont-Mills' big-play offense in a 61-8 rout of Lenox in an Eight-Man playoff opener Friday.
The Knights (9-1) rolled to a 41-0 halftime lead as the entire second half was played in the state's running clock mercy rule. Lenox finally got on the board at the 4:29 mark of the fourth quarter on a 7-yard run by Colton Gordon. Quarterback Carter Still ran in the two-point conversion.
Malcom finished with 149 yards rushing and three touchdowns of 8, 70 and 61 yards in addition to the kick return. Jaeger Powers ran for 59 yards and one touchdown and also had a 21-yard touchdown reception from Mason Vanatta. The Knights quarterback also had a 64-yard rushing touchdown and completed 7 of 10 passes for 102 yards and one TD.
Elias Owen had two touchdown runs for the Knights in the second half of 4 and 26 yards.
Still was 0-5 passing for Lenox with one interception. The Tigers bowed out at 7-3 in the first season under co-coaches Michael Nardini and Cole Bonde.
Other area scores
Exira/EHK 51, Stanton 14
Southeast Warren 47, Newell-Fonda 31
AHSTW 30, Alta-Aurelia 28 3OT
Lewis Central 51, Carroll 7
Harlan 36, Oskaloosa 14
PCM 48, Kuemper Catholic 0
Sergeant Bluff-Luton 42, Bishop Heelan 0