Raiders advance with shootout win
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Mount Ayr mounts large comeback
By RYAN
STONEBRAKER
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The Mount Ayr football team used a potent rushing attack last Friday night to get past Council Bluffs St. Albert 55-47 in the first round of the Class A playoffs on the road in Council Bluffs.
The Raiders rushed for nearly 700 yards in the game to secure the victory. The win improved Mount Ayr’s record to 6-3 while the Falcons end 2025 with a record of 5-4. The football game was a long one, as the first half took almost two hours and by the end of the night, the two teams combined to score 102 points and combine to put up over 1,000 yards of total offense.
In other playoff games involving district teams, AC/GC beat Logan-Magnolia 33-7, BGM upset Riverside 35-30 in Oakland, Iowa and AHSTW fell to Woodbury Central 21-14. The Raiders will play at No. 3 AC/GC Friday.
“It was a happy bus ride home,” Mount Ayr coach Ryan Victor said. “It’s two-plus hours away and it is not a fun ride, but it makes it better when you bring home a win,” he said.
The victory sets up a big game Friday at AC/GC, the team that has knocked the Raiders out of the playoffs each of the last two seasons, 34-18 in 2023 and 41-14 last year.
“We have played them a lot over the last 2-3 years,” Victor said. “This will be something like the sixth time or something crazy. That’s the benefit of playing already this year. We know what they (AC/GC) are going to run and with what they do. The best way to prepare is to work hard every day and just prepare as best as you can.”
Mount Ayr scored first less than three minutes into the game on a 2-yard Dyson Thompson run for a 7-0 lead. It would be the first of four scoring runs for Thompson in the first half. His second with 6:26 left in the first gave the Raiders a 13-7 lead.
The Falcons would lead 14-13 after the first quarter and outscored Mount Ayr 23-14 in the second quarter to lead at halftime, 37-27.
Thompson added Raider scoring runs of 84 yards and 80 yards in the second quarter.
In the third quarter the Falcons scored the first 10 points including Cooper Hamilton’s second field goal of the game to take a three-score, 47-27 lead with 8:14 left in the third quarter. From there, it was all Raiders.
Mount Ayr scored the final 28 points of the game including a pair of touchdowns in the final eight minutes of the third quarter to get within at 47-41 after three quarters.
Scoring runs of 61 yards by Jackson Ruggles with 7:51 left in the game and one of 27 yards by Tate Dugan with 2:56 left in the game gave the Raiders the win.
The Raiders put up video game-like numbers in the ground game, rushing for 690 yards on 50 carries between five different rushers. Mount Ayr averaged 13.8 yards per carry and scored all eight touchdowns on the ground. Three Raider rushers topped 100 yards in the game led by Thompson’s career night with 391 yards on 22 carries with a 17.0-yard per rush average and four touchdowns. With those yards, Thompson has rushed for over 1,000 yards this season as he now has 1,020 for the year.
Ruggles carried the ball 11 times for 156 yards and a pair of touchdown runs and is closing in on 700 rushing yards this year as he sits at 671 going into Friday. Dugan added 117 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns and a 10.6-yard per rush average. Dugan is close to 500 yards rushing going into Friday with 473 on the season. Adler Reed caught both of Ruggles completions in the game for 24 yards.
Defensively, Mount Ayr was led in tackles by Ruggles with 10, Logan Worthington and Reed with 6.5 each and Dugan with six tackles. Four different Raiders had a tackle for loss in the game.
AC/GC improved to 9-0 with a 33-7 win over Logan-Magnolia last Friday. The two teams met in district play this year with the Chargers winning 28-20 on September 19 in Mount Ayr. Since that game, Mount Ayr has won five games in a row, as have the Chargers.
The Chargers still have not gone crazy in the passing game as senior quarterback Tommy Skram is 10-for-14 with three touchdown passes and an interception. Joe Crawford has 1,061 yards on 85 carries with 16 touchdowns. A second back, Brexton Schneider, recently moved to fullback and has flourished and has 869 yards on 114 carries with 15 rushing scores.
Defensively, The Chargers are led by Xander Harwood with 47 tackles, Ryder Cline and Charlie Christensen both with 29 tackles and Carter Richter with 27.5 tackles. The Chargers have 12 interceptions as a team and have a dangerous punt returner in Crawford who averages 24.5 yards per return.
The two teams have met seven times since 2018 with the Chargers leading the series by a 5-2 record including winning the last five games since 2023.
“Friday will be a game with two good football teams meeting in the second round,” Victor said. “We have respect for each other. You can’t control what the state does with who you play, but you have to get the job done no matter who is lined up across from you.
“We are excited to get another playoff game. It will be a good opportunity to prove ourselves. We get to keep practicing. We still have improving to do and we have to clean up some things. We really want to work on defending in the short yardage situations. They (AC/GC) thrive on that. They are going to run to the outside, but you have to be disciplined or they can get big plays on you.”
Mount Ayr 55, CB St. Albert 47
Friday, October 24
At Council Bluffs
1 2 3 4 Final
MA 13 14 14 14 55
CBSA 14 23 10 0 47
Scoring Summary:
1st Qtr (9:55) – MA – Dyson Thompson 2-yard run (Drew Graham kick)
1st Qtr (6:44) – CBSA – Avery Beck 5-yard run (Cooper Hamilton kick)
1st Qtr (6:26) – MA – Dyson Thompson 66-yard run (Drew Graham kick)
1st Qtr (1:56) – CBSA – Kyle Irwin 1-yard run (Cooper Hamilton kick)
2nd Qtr (6:24) – MA – Dyson Thompson 84-yard run (Jackson Ruggles run)
2nd Qtr (1:58) – CBSA – Cael Yrkoski 9-yard pass to Colt Spencer (Cooper Hamilton kick)
2nd Qtr (1:30) – CBSA – Cael Yrkoski 28-yard pass to Adrian Jessen (Cooper Hamilton kick no good)
2nd Qtr (1:17) – MA – Dyson Thompson 80-yard run (Drew Graham kick no good)
2nd Qtr (0:21) – CBSA – Cael Yrkoski 19-yard pass to Ben Krohn (Cooper Hamilton kick)
2nd Qtr (0:03) – CBSA – Cooper Hamilton 43-yard field goal
3rd Qtr (11:05) – CBSA – Cael Yrkoski 23-yard pass to Colt Spencer (Cooper Hamilton kick)
3rd Qtr (8:14) – CBSA – Cooper Hamilton 37-yard field goal
3rd Qtr (7:32) – MA – Tate Dugan 47-yard run (Dyson Thompson run)
3rd Qtr (2:07) – MA – Jackson Ruggles 1-yard run (Dyson Thompson run no good)
4th Qtr (7:51) – MA – Jackson Ruggles 61-yard run (Dyson Thompson run)
4th Qtr (2:56) – MA – Tate Dugan 27-yard run (Jackson Ruggles rush no good)
Team Statistics:
MA CBSA
First Downs 25 21
Rushes-Yards 50-690 39-193
Rush-Ave. 13.8 4.9
Pass C-A-I 2-3-1 12-33-0
Pass yards 24 196
Total Offensee 714 379
Punts-Ave. 0-0 2-44.0
Return yards 59 136
Fumbles-Lost 4-4 0-0
Penalties-yards 6-70 7-70
Individual Statistics:
Rushing: Mount Ayr – Dyson Thompson 23-391, Jackson Ruggles 11-156, Tate Dugan 11-117, Adler Reed 4-16, Drayden Thompson 1-10. CBSA – Kyle Irwin 29-153, Avery Beck 6-20, Adrian Jessen 3-17, Cael Yrkoski 1-(-7).
Passing: Mount Ayr – Jackson Ruggles 2-for-3 24 yards 0 TD’s, 1 INT. CBSA – Cael Yrkoski 12-for-32 196 yards 4 TD’s, 0 INT’s; Cooper Hamilton 0-for-1 0 yards 0 TD’s, 0 INT’s.
Receiving: Mount Ayr – Adler Reed 2-24. CBSA – Cooper Hamilton 3-71, Adrian Jessen 3-44, Colt Spencer 2-32, Ben Krohn 2-29, Kyle Irwin 2-20.
Defensive Statistics:
Tackles (S-A-T): Mount Ayr – Jackson Ruggles 8-2 10, Adler Reed 5-1.5 6.5, Logan Worthington 3-3.5 6.5, Tate Dugan 4-2 6, Isac Dugan 4-0.5 4.5, Trace Knapp 3-0.5 3.5, Rowan Sackett 1-2.5 3.5, Bracken Collier 1-2 3, Tate Larson 1-1 2, Dyson Thompson 2-0 2, Drayden Thompson 1-0.5 1.5, Nathan Roemer 0-1.5 1.5, Zech Ranker 1-0 1, Evan Weehler 1-0 1, Drew Graham 0-0.5 0.5.
Tackles For Loss: Mount Ayr – Adler Reed 1, Rowan Sackett 1, Bracken Collier 0.5, Nathan Roemer 0.5.
Sacks: Mount Ayr – none.
Fumbles: Mount Ayr – none.
Interceptions: Mount Ayr – none.
Kicking Statistics:
Kick-Offs: Mount Ayr – Drew Graham 4-117, Isac Dugan 2-58, Bryson Martin 2-36, Tate Dugan 1-41.
Kick-Off Returns: Mount Ayr – Drayden Thompson 1-25, Dyson Thompson 1-22, Adler Reed 1-12.
Punts: Mount Ayr – none.
Punt Returns: Mount Ayr – none.
Two-Point Conversions: Mount Ayr – Dyson Thompson 2, Jackson Ruggles 1.
PAT’s: Mount Ayr – Drew Graham 1-for-3.