Burlington fends off Mount Pleasant's last-ditch upset effort in game of bizarre plays

MOUNT PLEASANT -- Perhaps it was only apropos that one of the most bizarre high school football games of the season ended in zany fashion.

In a game in which Burlington hit one big play after another, yet couldn't field a kickoff to save its life, Gabe Robinson batted down a pass in the end zone with 4.4 seconds left to preserve the Grayhounds' 41-33 Class 4A District 3 win over Mount Pleasant late Friday night on Bob Evans Field at Mapleleaf Stadium.

And perhaps it was only fitting that Robinson made the saving defensive play after he threw an interception on a broken play in the first half which helped the Panthers forge a 20-19 halftime lead after BHS jumped out to a 19-0 lead.

It was all baffling to BHS head coach Jim Krekel, but a win is a win, and the Grayhounds are taking it and moving on.

"There is no bad win in my book ever. I don't care at the end of the night as long as we go home a winner and as long as we work hard. That's what it's all about. Our kids had what it took to get it done," Krekel said.

Mount Pleasant, which has lost 12 straight games and nine straight home games, came within a whisker of breaking that drought, only to be turned away in the end.

"At the end of the day it's not about the scoreboard tonight. It's about the way the kids fought," Mount Pleasant head coach Shawn Striegel said. "I feel absolutely terrible for them that we lost. But we had hope all the way down to 4.4 seconds left. We were close to getting another opportunity. We still had work to do, but a wonderful team to coach."

"Playing out there tonight was one of the most special moments of my life. I'll never forget that," said Mount Pleasant senior quarterback Jacob Richtman, who completed 19-of-27 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. "It's pretty tough knowing that I'll never be able to come out here and play again in front of our home fans."

"We predicted that they weren't going to hit us in the mouth like they did and they hit us in the mouth hard," Robinson said. "We weren't ready for that. We were ready for an easy game and we just about got beat."

A wing and a prayer

Trailing 41-26 after a 5-yard scoring run by Robinson with 1 minutes, 41 seconds to play, Richtman broke loose for on a 45-yard scoring run, pulling the Panthers within 41-33 with 54 seconds left.

Burlington then botched a kickoff for the third time in the game as Payton Walker recovered for Mount Pleasant at the Panthers' 36.

Richtman drove the Panthers into scoring position. On a fourth-and 4 from the BHS 29, Richtman lofted a pass into the front right corner of the end zone for Wyatt Woodsmall, who had a step on Robinson. But Robinson recovered to bat the ball away and dash the Panthers' last-ditch hopes.

"I'm not going to lie. I got beat. It was an underthrown ball. I got lucky on that one," Robinson said.

"It's really what you practice in your backyard, those Hail Mary plays at the last second. We just couldn't convert on the last play. That's the biggest difference," Richtman said.

"I've been proud of this team all year," Striegel said. "They've been part of trying to change the culture at Mount Pleasant. We've had a couple years of some hiccups. They want to be held accountable and they want to fight hard and you saw that tonight. I'm extremely proud of them. I couldn't be more proud of them."

"Credit to them that they did something with it," Krekel said of the Panthers. "I've been around teams where you will get so many of those opportunities and they can't score. Give Mount Pleasant credit. They did something with it when they got those gifts."

Kickoff craziness

Burlington had myriad problems fielding kickoffs.

One ball sailed over the front line, only to be recovered by Mount Pleasant.

Another bounced off the facemask of a Burlington return man and was recovered by the Panthers.

And then the onside kick at the end which the Grayhounds couldn't field.

It all left Krekel shaking his head after the game.

"I saw things happen there that I haven't seen in a long, long time," Krekel said. "I've been in over 300 high school games and to watch a kickoff return team just struggle the way we did with fumbling and letting balls go over our head and no awareness to catch them or balls that go off our helmet. We practice all the time on all facets of our game. We don't even see that happen at practice. So to watch it happen tonight .. I really can't give an explanation other than it happened. It wasn't good. It let the other team back in the game."

"Our coaches had a great game plan for that and our kids executed so well," Striegel said. "I'm really super pride of those guys. Aiden Koenig is really good at that stuff. He just works so well with that. He's just a freshman and we are just so excited to have him."

Big plays galore

Burlington gouged the Panthers for 483 rushing yards, many of them coming on big plays.

Caden Schisel had scoring runs of 48 and 68 yards on his way to 225 rushing yards.

Nolan Simpson rumbled 91 yards for a score early in the second half. He finished with 119 rushing yards.

And Robinson broke loose for a 73-yard scoring scamper in the fourth quarter to put the Grayhounds up, 34-20. Robinson rushed for 131 yards.

Many of the Grayhounds' rushing yards came behind Trent Huffman and Xzavion Baker, who opened gaping holes on the left side for the BHS backs to barrel through.

"I got mad at halftime. It fueled me. I've got so much energy, so much adrenaline. I was like, 'Feed me. Feed me. Feed me' to Krekel and he fed me," Robinson said. "We talked about how they were beating us, how they were hitting us in the mouth, how disappointing it was to see how bad our defense was doing. We finally picked up our energy. We talked about how low our energy was, too, and we picked it up."

"They caught us a few times where we're basically in a goal-line defense to try to stop their run," Striegel said. "If they get past those first five yards we're in trouble. They found that a few times and we gave them a bunch of yards with that."

On the horizon

Mount Pleasant (0-7, 0-3) travels to play Clinton (1-6, 0-3) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at Coan Field in Clinton.

Burlington (5-2, 2-1) hosts fifth-ranked Iowa City Liberty (6-1, 3-0) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at Bracewell Stadium on Senior Night.

By the numbers

    BHS.  MP

First downs.  15.  19

Rushes-yards   44-483.  38-150

Passing yards   0.  155

Comp-Att-Int.  0-1-1.  19-27-0

Total offense.  483.  405

Fumbles-lost.  3-1.  3-2

Punts-average.  . 0-0.  2-39.0

Penalties-yards.  11-135.  5-56

3rd Down Efficiency.  6-8.  7-10

4th Down Efficiency.  2-2.  1-3

Time of possession.  26:54.  21:06

Scoring by quarters

Burlington 13 6 8 14 — 41

Mount Pleasant 0 20 0 13 — 33

Scoring

B—Caden Schisel 48 run (kick failed)

B—Schisel 68 run (Brennen Winke kick)

B—Nolan Simpson 91 run (kick failed)

MP—Payton Walker 1 run (Xach LeBlanc kick)

MP—Carter Amos 7 pass from Jacob Richtman (kick failed)

MP—Zerek Venghaus 1 run (kick failed)

B—Simpson 1 run (Gabe Robinson run)

B—Robinson 73 run (Winke kick)

MP—Payton Hagans 6 run (kick failled)

B—Robinson 5 run (Christian Snyder kick)

MP—Amos 45 pass from Richtman (LeBlanc kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Burlington — Schisel 18-225, Robinson 13-131, Simpson 10-119, Team 3-(-2). Mount Pleasant —Hagans 19-104, Walker 5-36, Venghaus 13-24, Team 1-(-4).

PASSING: Burlington — Robinson 0-1-1-0. Mount Pleasant — Richtman 19-27-0-155.

RECEIVING: Mount Pleasant — Amos 6-83, Venghaus 4-63, Hagans 4-38, Garrett Cook 1-26, Wyatt Woodsmall 3-14, Payson Coleman 1-11.

Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Burlington fends off Mount Pleasant's last-ditch upset effort