Too much Gordon for Raiders in 44-32 District opening loss

OAKLAND Iowa – The Mount Ayr Raiders faced a tough running back last Friday in senior Jaxon Gordon.  The 2024 first team All-State running back in Class A, came into his senior season with 3,714 yards and 52 career touchdowns and rushed for 1,932 yards and 31 touchdowns as a junior.  He has rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons.  Coming off of a week 1 performance where he rushed for 139 yards with no scores in a 42-8 loss to Treynor.  Last Friday, Gordon made up for it, turning in the 17th best rush total all-time in a single game for an Iowa high school running back.  Gordon shredded the Raiders defense for 422 yards on 38 carries and had five touchdowns.  Two scores came in the first quarter and one more each in the final remaining three quarters.

“It was an incredible individual performance,” said Mount Ayr football coach Ryan Victor.  “Gordon is a very, very good running back.  He ran hard and is the real deal.  They blocked well and opened up gaps for him to run.  It is hard to replicate the speed and size they have.”

The loss saw the Raiders record slip to 1-1 and 0-1 in Class A District 7.  Mount Ayr will play on the road in week three at Pleasantville.

Mount Ayr opened the scoring in the game less than three minutes in on a Jackson Ruggles 41-yard scoring run.  The conversion pass failed, but Mount Ayr led 6-0.  Riverside would score the first of two touchdowns in the quarter with 4:43 left in the quarter, to grab an 8-6 lead on a Gordon 96-yard run and two-point conversion.  Later, with 1:15 left in the quarter, Gordon scored on a 1-yard run and another two-point conversion to put the score at 16-6 Bulldogs after the first quarter. Riverside would extend the lead to 30-6 at halftime after a 6-yard touchdown pass from Landyn Schoenrock to Peyton Amdor and Gordon’s third touchdown run with 2:01 left before halftime.

Riverside took their biggest lead in the game with 9:29 left in the third quarter when Gordon scored his fourth rushing touchdown from 9-yards out to set the score at 36-6.

Mount Ayr had enough.  The Raiders would explode for three touchdowns in the final 5:20 of the third quarter to pull within 36-26 after three quarters.  A pair of Dyson Thompson scoring runs of 27 yards and 38 yards and a Tate Dugan 6-yard scoring run accounted for the 20 unanswered points.

Mount Ayr had a chance for a defensive score on a botched snap on a Bulldog punt attempt that saw the ball go to the endzone with Mount Ayr recovering, but the play was ruled dead on an inadvertent whistle and Riverside was allowed to punt the football back to Mount Ayr without the points.  Riverside would score late in the final quarter with 2:03 left in the game on Gordon’s fifth rushing touchdown, this one from 33-yards, to get the score to 44-26.  Mount Ayr came right back though with a touchdown less than 30 seconds of game clock later when Ruggles connected with Adler Reed on a 26-yard scoring pass to get Mount Ayr within 44-32.  The Raiders could get no closer, but did outscore the Bulldogs 26-14 in the second half.

“I am proud of how we didn’t quit, kept working hard, and fought back to get in the game in the second half,” Victor said, “That run of 20 straight points in a short amount of time was something.  We have a lot of football left in the season and I’m excited to get back to work this week.”

Mount Ayr had 250 yards of total offense with 31 passing and 219 rushing yards in the game.  The Raiders passing game still is off to a slow start this year.  Ruggles passed for 31 yards on 3-for-10 attempts with a touchdown and two interceptions.  The senior quarterback also rushed for 55 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown.

Thompson led Mount Ayr in rushing with 105 yards on 10 carries and two touchdowns.  Tate Dugan added 36 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown.  Reed caught a touchdown pass and Dugan led in receiving with a pair of receptions.

Defensively, Mount Ayr was led in tackles by Bracken Collier with 9.5, Dugan with 8.5, Ruggles with 8, and Rowan Sackett with 7.5.  Ben Curry had a fumble recovery in the game.

Riverside quarterback Landyn Schoenrock passed for 60 yards on four completions with one touchdown pass.  Peyton Amdor and Cole Jeppesen each caught two passes and Amdor had a touchdown catch.  Defensively, Wyatt Bell had eight tackles a sack and two tackles for loss to lead the Bulldogs.

Mount Ayr will travel to Pleasantville this Friday to play the 2-0 Trojans in non-district play.  Pleasantville won a state baseball title last summer and has several of those players on its football team.  The Trojans have an All-State caliber player in junior quarterback Braylon Bingham who has passed for 340 yards and three touchdowns and has rushed for 356 yards on 31 carries with three touchdowns in the first two weeks of the season.  Bingham also is a force on defense with 20 tackles and is the Trojans punter.

“We have an incredible opportunity to play and see a really good quarterback Friday that will test our defense,” Victor said.    “He is like Preston Wicker from Madrid that we have seen the past two seasons, but Bingham can zip the football around more, and that makes it tough to prepare for.”

“We are excited to get to play them.  They have an awesome facility and we are going to give it everything we got.”

Pleasantville won a 47-36 shootout against Lynnville-Sully in week one and a tight 21-20 game against Pella Christian last week.

              1    2    3    4    F

MA       6    0   20  6   32

RHS     16  14  6    8   44

1st Qtr (9:47) – MA – Jackson Ruggles 41-yard run (Jackson Ruggles pass to Tanner Streit no good)

1st Qtr (4:43) – RIV – Jaxon Gordon 96-yard run (Jaxon Gordon run)

1st Qtr (1:15) – RIV – Jaxon Gordon 1-yard run (Jaxon Gordon run)

2nd Qtr (10:05) – RIV – Peyton Amdor 6-yard pass from Landyn Schoenrock (Jaxon Gordon run failed).

2nd Qtr (2:01) – RIV – Jaxon Gordon 55-yard run (Jaxon Gordon run).

3rd Qtr (9:29) – RIV – Jaxon Gordon 9-yard run (Jaxon Gordon run failed).

3rd Qtr (5:20) – MA – Dyson Thompson 27-yard run (Tate Dugan run failed).

3rd Qtr (4:22) – MA – Dyson Thompson 38-yard run (Tate Dugan run).

3rd Qtr (2:08) – MA – Tate Dugan (Tate Dugan run failed).

4th Qtr (2:03) – RIV – Jaxon Gordon 33-yard run (Landyn Schoenrock pass to Peyton Amdor).

4th Qtr (1:36 – MA – Adler Reed 26-yard pass from Jackson Ruggles (Jackson Ruggles pass to Isac Dugan no good).

Rushing: MA – Tate Dugan 13-60, Jackson Ruggles 12-75, Dyson Thompson 10-102, Drayden Thompson 4-7, Adler Reed 3-18.  Riverside – Jaxon Gordon 41-420, Landyn Schoenrock 7-(-22), Keegan Smith 4-19, Kort Rieken 3-9.

Passings: MA – Jackson Ruggles 3-for-10 31 yards 1 TD, 2 INT’s.  Riverside – Landyn Schoenrock 4-for-9 60 yards 1 TD, 0 INT’s.

Receiving: MA – Tate Dugan 2-5, Adler Reed 1-26. Riverside – Cole Jeppesen 2-52, Peyton Amdor 2-8.

Tackles (S-A-T): Bracken Collier 5-9 14, Tate Dugan 5-7 12, Jackson Ruggles 5-6 11, Dyson Thompson 5-3 8, Rowan Sackett 7-1 8, Drayden Thompson 3-3 6, Trace Knapp 5-0 5, Isac Dugan 3-1 4, Logan Worthington 1-3 4, Ben Curry 3-0 3, Tate Larson 2-0 2, Nathan Roemer 0-1 1.

Fumble Recoveries: MA – Ben Curry 1.

Punts: MA – Tate Dugan 4-177 yards, 44.3 yards

Punt Returns: MA – N/A.

Kick-Offs: MA – Bryson Martin 4-82, Tanner Streit 1-45, Tate Dugan 1-44.

Kick-Off Returns: MA – Trace Knapp 2-31, Drayden Thompson 1-10.

Class A District 7 scores

FRIDAY, September 5

Nodaway Valley 33, Central Decatur 18

At Guthrie Center – Nodaway Valley at AC/GC

At Avoca – Riverside at AHSTW

At Leon – Southwest Valley at Central Decatur

At Pleasantville – Mount Ayr at Pleasantville.