By Sam Parsons
The Oskaloosa Indians football team entered Friday night’s road contest at Burlington reeling, having lost 5 consecutive games while dealing with a plethora of injuries and absences. Both the Indians and the Grayhounds were winless in district play, setting the stage for two teams that were hungry to capture an important victory.
Early in the first half, the Grayhounds established the upper hand. They forced back-to-back turnovers on Oskaloosa’s first two possessions (one botched snap and one interception) and converted those turnovers into a pair of touchdowns to lead 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. The early turnovers for Osky’s offense prompted a QB change for the Indians: Osky’s coaching staff turned to sophomore QB Tyler Edgar while moving junior starter Kayne Boender out to WR.
Almost immediately, Oskaloosa reaped rewards from this change. Edgar’s first offensive drive resulted in a touchdown: a 1-yard QB keeper to cap off a 10-play scoring drive to bring the Indians within a score early in the second quarter. After the Indians forced a stop in their own territory, Edgar again piloted the Osky offense to a score, this time a 30-yard touchdown pass to junior WR Heavon Knox. The Indians missed the PAT, so at halftime, they trailed 14-13.
In the third quarter, however, the game went off the rails for Oskaloosa, as Burlington’s offense managed to stay on the field for virtually the entire frame. The Grayhounds took 8 plays to score on their first drive of the second half; then, after sophomore Jalin Woodard fumbled the following kick return, the Grayhounds enjoyed another 8-play scoring drive. With a missed PAT mixed in, the Grayhounds led 27-13, and it wasn’t long before they got the ball back yet again: a fumble on a handoff exchange between Edgar and junior Trey Parks just 3 plays into the next drive gave the ball to Burlington in Osky territory, and it was early in the fourth quarter that they punched the ball in from one yard out, with senior RB Darius Shealey scoring once again to make the score 34-13 Burlington with under 11 minutes left in the game.
It was the next drive that would spark Osky’s best 10 minutes of football of the entire season. After a personal foul was commited by the Grayhounds, Tyler Edgar heaved a deep ball down the sideline to Kayne Boender, who created space to haul in the pass and scamper into the end zone for a 58 yard touchdown to cut the lead to 34-20. Osky’s offense had found life, and the focus turned to their defense, who answered the bell for the remainder of the game: the unit forced a quick three-and-out to give the ball back to Edgar and company. The sophomore continued to sizzle, completing 3 passes for 62 yards, all to Heavon Knox, to bring the Indians into the red zone, where eventually Jalin Woodard found paydirt from 6 yards out. At that point, it was 34-27 Burlington with just under 5 minutes left in the game.
Yet another three-and-out forced by Osky’s defense resulted in a bold fake punt call by the Grayhounds, in a gambit to snatch momentum back from the Indians; this, however, backfired, as punter Buxton Carlson fumbled the ball without being touched, the Indians recovered, and on the very next play, Edgar again hooked up with Boender, this time from 29 yards out, with Boender reeling in the pass after bobbling it in the process of winning the jump ball, and he took it the rest of the way for the score. Kicker Arabsho Davlatshoev would miss the PAT, though, so the comeback wasn’t complete: Osky still trailed 34-33 with 2:38 left.
Burlington, understandably, turned back to Darius Shealey to attempt to salt the game away, but on his first carry, he was blown up by senior LB Dom Piersel, who forced a fumble on the hit and Trey Parks came up with the ball to give Osky one more shot. That was all that Edgar and the offense would need: Edgar completed passes to Heavon Knox and Jalin Woodard for 20+ yards each, putting the Indians deep in Grayhound territory; and after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Grayhounds, Edgar scrambled for one more touchdown, his 5th total score of the night, from 5 yards out, taking the lead for Osky for the first time in the game. The Indians converted a 2-point conversion courtesy of an end-around with Heavon Knox and led 41-34, having unbelievably scored 28 unanswered points in crunch time.
With 1:37 left in the game, the Indians defense would need to hold firm once more, as they had for the entire 4th quarter; and they did. Burlington had friendly starting field position after the Indians were flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and back-to-back offside penalties, but their drive sputtered out inside the Oskaloosa 10 yard line, ultimately ending as time expired on the Osky 9. The Indians had completed a 21-point 4th quarter comeback to notch their first district win of the season.
Tyler Edgar finished the night 13/22 passing for 298 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 sack, and 2 rushing TDs. Heavon Knox brought in 7 catches for 152 yards and 1 TD.
The Indians (2-6) will host North Scott on Friday for their final game of the season. Coverage can be heard on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com.
