Panthers close with second straight win

PERRY — The Creston football team saved the best for last in the 2025 season.

After a sloppy first half riddled by turnovers and penalties, the Panthers broke away from a 19-13 edge at the break to overwhelm Perry 35-0 in the second half Friday night for a 54-13 victory over Perry in the season finale.

“We played our sloppiest first half of the season, and then came back and played our best half of the year,” Panther coach Brian Morrison said as his team concluded a 2-7 campaign with a dominating two quarters.

Creston had achieved its first victory of the season a week earlier, 42-35 over Greene County, with hopes of carrying that momentum into the game against an 0-8 Perry team that hadn’t won a game since Sept. 13, 2024.

But, both teams stumbled at the start on a cool night with intermittent light rain showers. Each offense fumbled on their first possession, and Creston turned it over again on an interception in the end zone after reaching the Perry 6-yard line on its second drive.

Receiver injured

On the play, Creston receiver Seth Gordon was injured in a collision on the field and the game was delayed several minutes. Gordon, reporting head and neck pain, was taken by stretcher to an ambulance for examination at Dallas County Hospital in Perry. Gordon was released later Friday night after being diagnosed with a concussion, but no serious neck injuries.

Three plays later on third-and-13, Perry freshman speedster Xavier Leake broke through an opening on the left side and streaked down the sideline for a 90-yard touchdown. The Bluejays grabbed just their second lead of the season, 6-0, after failing to convert the extra point.

Leake was injured later in the first half and finished with only three carries as Perry was outgained by Creston in total offense, 630 yards to 313 yards. Perry quarterback Ian Fisher passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns. The Bluejays managed only 46 yards rushing besides Leake’s long TD scamper.

Creston responded to the early deficit by taking a 19-6 lead in the second quarter on three touchdown runs by quarterback Tanner Ray, sandwiched by another Perry turnover on an interception by Panther linebacker Kal Barber.

The Bluejays got within six points (19-13) with 11 seconds left in the half as Fisher connected with receiver Owen Zander for a 16-yard touchdown pass.

Second half surge

Ray had a hand in all eight touchdowns scored by the Panthers — six by rushing and two on passes to Jace Purdum and Rhett Driskell. He rushed for 229 yards on 21 carries, and was 20-of-28 passing for 263 yards.

“We had a talk and changed our mindset,” Ray said. “I think we came in thinking, it’s Perry. We just knew we had to go out there and do our job, and then the scoreboard will show it.”

Offensive guard Gunner Martwick, a starter since the 2023 state semifinal season, said the team was determined at halftime to make a statement during the rest of the game.

“The game started out rough,” Martwick said. “They were jawing at us, we were jawing back at them. That got us penalties. At halftime, (coach Morrison) said we just needed to close our mouths and get to work, and not worry about what they’ve got going on. We just went out to work hard and beat them off the ball on every play.”

Eight plays into the second half the Panthers extended their lead to 26-13 on Ray’s 1-yard touchdown, and it was 33-13 with 4:27 left in the third quarter as Ray and freshman running back Gabe Kaufman alternated carries in a steamrolling Panther rushing attack. Ray ran it into the end zone from 10 yards after a 16-yard pickup by Kaufman.

Kaufman finished with 138 yards on 16 carries.

From there, it became a series of Perry’s offense going three plays and punting, with Creston converting each possession into points. Ray hit Purdum for a 42-yard scoring pass to make it 40-13 late in the third quarter.

The first possession of the fourth quarter ended in a 10-yard TD pass to Driskell. After a Perry fumble, Ray scored his sixth rushing touchdown from 11 yards for the final 54-13 score as the game then went quickly under the mercy rule running clock that’s enacted with a margin of 35 points or more.

“We gave up the big play early when we got a little out of position, but we made an adjustment after that,” Morrison said. “Overall our kids responded really well. Our defense gave us three-and-outs, our special teams got us field position, and our offense played clean football in the second half. We just needed to flush that first half and come an show what we’re made of in the second half.”

Creston’s offensive line, featuring three seniors in center Chasse Downing, tackle Garrick Clausen and Martwick at guard, dominated the Perry defensive front in amassing 367 rushing yards. Morrison said Ray took advantage of the line’s performance with one of his best overall individual efforts.

“Last year Tanner was a sophomore starter and had some special pieces around him that helped him,” Morrison said. “This year he really stepped up became a leader in our offense. He’s athletic and can make plays in the run game. Hes a tough kid and we’re happy to have him back for another year.”

Nine different Panther receivers caught at least one pass in the game. Senior safety Lane Travis finished his career with a team-high 6.5 tackles. Ethan Holliday and Blake Hayes had two tackles for losses each, and Tom Mikkelsen had a tackle for loss among his five stops. Mikkelsen and Joaquin Flores recovered Perry fumbles.

Season overview

Creston got off to an 0-4 start this season against four playoff qualifiers in the non-district portion of the schedule. Clarinda lost to Pella Christian Friday, 27-24, in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.

Winterset finished the season 6-3 overall and a Class 3A district champion after topping Des Moines Christian, which also made the 3A playoffs. Glenwood went 7-2 and a district runner-up in the Class 4A playoffs this week.

In the end, Creston placed fourth among six teams in Class 3A District 6 at 2-3, finishing behind Carroll (5-0), Atlantic (4-1) and Harlan (3-2). Greene County went 1-4 with a win over Perry. Carroll and Atlantic advanced to the 3A playoffs.

Morrison said he was confident the Panthers would finish the season on a strong note after multiple close calls, including a 28-27 loss to Winterset and 29-27 homecoming loss to Atlantic on the game’s final play. Twice the Panthers came back from deficits to tie Des Moines Christian when the Lions were ranked in the top 10.

“What this shows is that if you show up to practice week one through nine and ignore the previous score from Friday, good things will happen,” Morrison said. “If you were around our guys week to week you would think we were an undefeated football team. That’s how the kids went about it. We played four good teams in non-district, four playoff teams. There were teams that flat-out beat us this year, but also some games that we should’ve or could’ve won. We just kept showing up on Monday and getting better.”

Creston played a freshman-sophomore game against Perry’s JV Friday afternoon and won, 44-7.

Creston 54, Perry 13

Points by quarter

CR 13 6 21 14 — 54

P 7 6 0 0 — 13

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

P — Xavier Leake 90 run (pass failed), 6:16

Cr — Tanner Ray 32 run (Joaquin Flores kick), 3:56

Cr — Ray 7 run (run failed), 0:17

Second Quarter

Cr — Ray 2 run (pass failed), 3:02

P — Owen Zander 16 pass from Ian Fisher (George Krohn kick), 0:11

Third Quarter

Cr — Ray 1 run (Flores kick), 9:56

Cr — Ray 10 run (Flores kick), 4:27

Cr — Jace Purdum 42 pass from Ray (Flores kick), 1:20

Fourth Quarter

Cr — Rhett Driskell 10 pass from Ray (Flores kick), 11:19

Cr — Ray 11 run (Flores kick), 10:00

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TEAM STATISTICS

CR P

Rushes-yards 37-367 31-136

Passing 20-28-2 13-28-1

Passing yards 263 177

Total yards 630 313

Punts-avg. 0-0 3-38.0

Fumbles lost 1 2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — CR: Tanner Ray 21-229, 6 TD; Gabe Kaufman 16-138. P: Xavier Leake 3-90, 1 TD; Rylan Modlin 7-27; Nadir Ouahbi 6-10; Phullip Gray 10-5; Ian Fisher 3-4.

PASSING — CR: Ray 20-28-2 for 263 yards, 2 TD. P: Fisher 13-27-1 for 177 yards, 1 TD.

RECEIVING — CR: Jace Purdum 6-107, 1 TD; Kaufman 4-47; Riggins Hanson 2-32; Seth Gordon 1-22; Rhett Driskell 3-22, 1 TD; Baret Lane 1-19; CT Stalker 1-12; Brady McDonald 1-5; Durrell Haynes 1-(-3). P: Rylan Modlin 4-73; Owen Zander 3-56, 1 TD; Gustavo Drahos 4-44; Jacobo Cerna-Gomez 2-4.

TACKLE LEADERS (solo) — CR: Lane Travis 6.5 (5), Tom Mikkelsen 5.0 (5), Ethan Holliday 5.0 (5), Blake Hayes 4.5 (2), Davin Wallace 4.5 (4), Coltyr Frey 3.5 (2), Brodrick Phelps 2.0 (2), Hayden Levine 2.0 (1). P: Michael Bahtagic 8.5 (5), Cerna-Gomez 8.5 (4), Cohen Galivan 7.5 (4), Ricky Muro 5.5 (3).

INTERCEPTIONS — CR: Kal Barber 1. P: Michael Bahtagic 1, Owen Zander 1.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES — CR: Joaquin Flores 1, Mikkelsen 1. P: Townes Wilson 1.

TACKLES FOR LOSS — CR: Holliday 2.0, Hayes 2.0, Mikkelsen 1.0.