Eagles rally to top Iowa Valley

Football

     Midland erased a 35-14, second-quarter deficit with five straight touchdowns, Austin Smith rushed for 371 yards and five touchdowns, as the Eagles defeated Iowa Valley 56-49 in an Eight-player, District 4 football game Friday, Sept. 22 in Marengo.

     “It was one of my proudest moments as a coach,” Midland coach Casey Hack said. “Our kids and coaches could have folded when we were down early and nothing was going right, but when things got tough our kids responded.”

     Austin Smith scored on runs of three and 59 yards to cut the deficit to 35-28 by halftime. Then, the Eagles scored in the third quarter on a five-yard run by Smith and a 46-yard run by Drew Gravel, to take a 42-35 lead.

     A pass to Carter Mohr for a three-yard score, and another three-yard touchdown run by Smith, gave Midland a 56-42 lead before Iowa Valley scored late to provide the final margin.

     Drew Gravel finished with 13 carries for 105 yards and two scores. Mohr had three catches for 76 yards.

     Leading tacklers were Griffin Gravel with 7.5, Fisher Bisinger and Drew Gravel with six apiece, and Hunter Rushford with 5.5. Griffin Gravel, Carsen Rupp and Brett Schoenherr had fumble recoveries.

     The Eagles are 3-0 in district play, 4-1 overall.

Volleyball

     A busy week featured six matches for the Midland High School volleyball team last week.

     The Eagles (0-4, 0-17) started the week with a trip to Lisbon Sept. 19, losing in three sets, 11-25, 13-25, 23-25. Midland had 17 kills led by Delanie Uppena with seven, Mikayla Dosland and Arianna Hacke with three apiece. Dosland also had four assists. Uppena had 11 digs, Emma Dusanek had eight, and Drew Jensen had six. Uppena served 8-for-9 with four aces, and Dosland served 9-for-9 with two aces.

     “In the third set we finally found some rhythm, but just couldn’t back from a deep hole we put ourselves in at the beginning of the set,” Midland coach Eric Smith said.

     On Sept. 21, Midland played host to Cedar Valley Christian, and lost by scores of 12-25, 15-25, 13-25. Calli Markmann had eight assists in the match, and served 11-for-11 with two aces. Dosland and Markmann had five kills apiece. Uppena had 13 digs, and Dusanek had nine.

     “Calli Markmann played lights-out,” Smith said. “Ella Rupp had her best game at libero this season. As a team we struggled to put any pressure on CVC; we need to get better at attacking the ball and giving our opponent hard hits.”

     The Eagles then played in the North Cedar Tournament Sept. 23, and lost four matches. Midland lost 6-21, 6-21 to North Cedar; 12-21, 10-21 to Edgewood-Colesburg; 11-21, 18-21 to Davenport North; and 13-21, 16-21 to Lisbon.

     Dosland had five digs, three assists, in the North Cedar match. Markmann had four kills and six digs against Ed-Co, and Jensen served 6-for-6 with two aces.

     Against Davenport North, Uppena had five kills and five digs, and Rupp had eight digs. Dusanek, Rupp and Uppena had five digs apiece against Lisbon.

     “We struggled to get any consistency,” Smith said. “but it was nice to see the progress that a lot of our girls are showing. We are getting smarter and are understanding parts of the game better.”

Cross country

     Midland had a busy week of cross country, competing in three meets: at Bellevue Sept. 18, at Center Point-Urbana Sept. 19, and at the Anamosa Invitational Sept. 23. Highlights from the three Eagle runners:

     Jacob Ervin ran his first meet at Bellevue, and between Monday and Saturday, took a minute off his time.

     Ryan Wariner set his PR at Bellevue with a time of 22:25.

     Owen Doll missed the Bellevue meet because of illness, but had a time of 24:17 at CP-U.