FOR HIS TRAGIC SISTER
Slain gal's QB bro leads team to win
He won one for Mollie. The little brother of slain Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts led his high-school football team to victory in a game he nearly didn’t play.
Quarterback Scott Tibbetts, 18, threw a pair of touchdown passes and scrambled for a third during Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom’s emotional season opener Friday night, propelling the Bears to a 35-24 win against the Lisbon HS Lions.
Scott — along with the millions of people following the tragic case — learned Tuesday that his sister, missing for over a month, was found dead in a remote cornfield in Guernsey.
Less than two days later, the grieving senior put on his No. 4 jersey and returned to practice, though “his head wasn’t really in it,” his coach, Jerod Burns, told The Des Moines Register.
But later that day Burns got a text: His starting QB intended to play in the season opener.
On game day, Burns walked over to Scott as the rest of the team did calisthenics, pulling him close to talk.
“You’ve got two hours here where you can focus on something else,” Burns told him, the Register reported. “This is your football team. You’ve got to lead it. There’s nobody else that can.” And he did. By kickoff, Scott had his game face on as he slapped his teammates’ helmets in the huddle. His older brother, Jake, stood watching with friends from the south end zone at Walmer Field in Lisbon.
Scott had 36 other brothers with him — his teammates, who wore teal “MT” patches on their white jerseys, and decals on their helmets in honor of their quarterback’s sister.
He got going early with a 6yard pass that led to his team’s first score. And by the end of the second quarter, he threw a 50-yard touchdown pass and scrambled 9 yards for another score as his team built a commanding 28-6 lead, which they never relinquished.
The team — with Burns’ urging — was playing the way “Mollie lived her life.”
“She was a hard worker and she lived with no regrets,” the coach said. “Just leave it on the field, and life’s too short to do anything half-heartedly.”
A preliminary autopsy showed the 20-year-old University of Iowa student died of “multiple sharp force injuries” and her death was declared a homicide, according to reports.
Cristhian Rivera, 24, was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder.
Investigators believe Rivera, who they say is an illegal alien, abducted Tibbetts on July 18 while she was out for a jog.
On Saturday, Iowa conservatives outraged by Rivera’s immigration background rushed to collect 1,500 signatures to add Iowa attorney general GOP candidate Patrick Anderson to the ballot in November.
Anderson, of Des Moines, would challenge Democrat Tom Miller, who is currently running unopposed for his 10th term.