Raider comeback falls short at Pleasantville, 33-22

PLEASANTVILLE – The Mount Ayr Raiders were looking to rebound from a week two district opening loss to Riverside on September 5 when they traveled to Pleasantville for a non-district game.  It didn’t work out. However, that will have to wait one more week.

An early Pleasantville lead and eight Raider penalties were too much to overcome in a 33-22 loss.  The Raiders fell to 1-2 overall while Pleasantville improved to 3-0.  The win was the fourth straight for the Trojans over Mount Ayr.  The two teams played for the first time since the 2020 season.  Mount Ayr won the previous six games from 2008-2015.

“We knew this was going to be a tough road game and has given us a chance to see where we were against a very good football team,” Mount Ayr head coach Ryan Victor said.

“We had too many penalties in the game and that was big.  We did have a lot of rushing yards and we really are doing well moving the ball on the ground.  We have to get better at tackling things, but we were better at stopping the run.  We battled and not once did we get down on ourselves,” Victor said.

Pleasantville led 6-0 after the first quarter following a 40-yard touchdown pass from Brody Adreon to Ethan King.  The Raiders answered with its first touchdown early in the second quarter on a Jackson Ruggles one-yard run, 42 seconds into the quarter.  A Dyson Thompson conversion run gave Mount Ayr an 8-6 lead.

The Trojans, though,  would score 20 unanswered points on three touchdowns over the rest of the first half and early part of the third quarter.  All three touchdowns were scoring passes from Adreon to give Pleasantville a 26-8 lead with 10:04 left in the third quarter.

Mount Ayr broke the scoring run of Trojan points with 3:19 left in the third when Drayden Thompson threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ruggles.  A two-point run by Tate Dugan got Mount Ayr within 10 points, 26-16 with 3:19 left in the quarter.

That score stood until the 5:18 mark left in the game when the Trojans scored again to take a 33-16 lead.  Mount Ayr scored the last points of the game with 1:46 left to play on a Ruggles two-yard run

The Raiders had 333 yards of total offense in the game with 305 of those yards being on the ground.  Adler Reed, Ruggles and Dyson Thompson all had at least 10 carries in the game.  Reed led in yardage with 99 followed by Thompson with 86 and Ruggles with 69 and two touchdowns.  Drayden Thompson passed for one touchdown with a 28-yard scoring pass to Ruggles.  Defensively, Mount Ayr was led by Rowan Sackett and Tate Dugan in tackles with 7 and 6.5.  The Raiders collected six tackles for loss in the game.  Logan Worthington had one interception that he returned for 21 yards.

Pleasantville had nearly 300 yards of total offense.  Adreon passed for 158 yards on 11 completions with four touchdown passes.  The Trojans were led on the ground by Owen Rule with 75 yards on 21 carries.  Fellow senior Logan Roff carried the ball four times for 33 yards and a touchdown.  Ethan King led three different Trojan receivers with a touchdown catch with 88 yards and a pair of scores.  Defensively, Pleasantville was led by Logan Roff with nine and Rule with seven tackles, respectively.

Mount Ayr will return home this week to play state ranked AC/GC Chargers.  The Raiders have been on the road the last two weeks after beating Shenandoah at home in week one, 26-14.

The Chargers come into the game ranked as high as No. 4 in the latest Radio Iowa Class A football poll.  AC/GC got that way by a devastating ground attack that shifted from the wishbone to a true option offense.  The Chargers currently have the third most rushing yards as a team in Class A (1,081) and are tied for the lead in rushing touchdowns in Class A through three games.  The Chargers used that ground attack to total 357 yards rushing on 37 carries and had a per-rush average of 9.6 which led to a 54-0 win in week three at home against Nodaway Valley.  The two teams have played six times since 2018.  The AC/GC Chargers have won the last four games including twice in the last two playoffs.

              1     2         3     4       F

MA       0     8        8      6     22

PHS     6      13      7      7      33

1st Qtr (2:58) – PV – Brody Adreon 40-yard pass to Ethan King (Trindon Phipps kick no good)

2nd Qtr (11:18) – MA – Jackson Ruggles 1-yard run (Dyson Thompson run)

2nd Qtr (3:02) – PV – Brody Adreon 8-yard pass to Cooper Kennedy (Brody Adreon pass no good)

2nd Qtr (1:55) – PV – Brody Adreon 26-yard pass to Logan Roff (Trindon Phillips kick)

3rd Qtr (10:04) – PV – Brody Adron 48-yard pass to Ethan King (Trindon Phillips kick)

3rd Qtr (3:19) – MA – Drayden Thompson 28-yard pass to Jackson Ruggles (Tate Dugan run)

4th Qtr (5:18) – PV – Logan Roff 20-yard run (Trindon Phillips kick)

4th Qtr (1:46) – MA – Jackson Ruggles 2-yard run (Tate Dugan run no good)

Rushing: MA – Dyson Thompson 16-87, Adler Reed 10-99, Jackson Ruggles 10-71, Tate Dugan 6-40, Drayden Thompson 3-14. Pleasantville – Owen Rule 21-75, Logan Roff 4-33, Brody Adreon 2-7.

Passing: MA – Drayden Thompson 1-for-1 1 TD, 0 INT’s; Jackson Ruggles 0-for-5 0 yards, 0 TD’s, 1 INT. Pleasantville – 11-for-18 158 yards 4 TD’s, 1 INT.

Receiving: MA – Jackson Ruggles 1-28 yards. Pleasantville – Owen Rule 5-26, Ethan King 2-88, Logan Roff 2-24, Cooper Kennedy 2-20.

Tackles (S-A-T): MA – Rowan Sackett 3-4 7, Dyson Thompson 2-4 6, Tate Dugan 1-5 6, Logan Worthington 3-2 5, Ben Curry 0-4 4, Bracken Collier 1-3 4, Adler Reed 1-2 3, Jackson Ruggles 1-2 3, Isac Dugan 0-3 3, Cordell Clemens 1-1 2, Bryson Martin 1-2 3, Nathan Roemer 1-0 1.  Pleasantville – Logan Roff 4-5 9, Owen Rule 3-4 7, Tatum Baethke 3-2.5 5.5, Blake Rowson 1-3.5 4.5, Cooper Kennedy 1-2.5 3.5, Noah Rist 0-3 3, Stanton Major 0-2.5 2.5, Brody Adreon 1-1.5 2.5, Caylor Jones 1-1.5 2.5, William Mesecher 1-1.5 2.5, Luke Vestal 0-2 2, Jax Bingham 0-1.5 1.5, Carter Messamaker 1-0.5 1.5, Nathaniel Oliver 0-1 1, Cale Sorensen 1-0 1, Micha Hume 0-0.5 0.5.

Sacks: MA – Tate Dugan 1. Pleasantville – none.

Tackles For Loss: MA – Tate Dugan 2, Rowan Sackett 2, Logan Worthington 1. Pleasantville – Owen Rule 1, Tatum Baethke 1, William Mescher 1, Noah Rist 1, Blake Rowson 0.5.

Fumbles: MA – none. Pleasantville – Luke Vestal 1.

Interceptions: MA – Logan Worthington 1-21 yards. Pleasantville 1-21 yards.

Punts: MA – Tate Dugan 2-74 yards, 37.0-yard ave. Pleasantville – Logan Roff 4-164 yards, 41.0-yard ave.

Punt Returns: MA – Jackson Ruggles 2-28.  Pleasantville – N/A.

Kick-Offs: MA – Bryson Martin 4-75 yards.  Pleasantville – Trindon Phipps 6-283 yards.

Kick-Off Returns: MA – Dyson Thompson 4-68, Jackson Ruggles 2-35. Pleasantville – N/A.