Maturing Mount Ida reaches 2A state championship

MOUNT IDA — Mount Ida coach Mike White said before the season that he expected his team to experience a drop-off after graduating eight seniors from a squad that went 12-1 and reached the Class 2A quarterfinals.

Led by a strong cast of sophomores and juniors, the Lions proved their coach wrong and advanced to the Class 2A championship game with a 33-20 win over Camden Harmony Grove Friday night at Stidman Field.

“I think we really hit our stride, even in practice, once we got to the playoffs,” White said. “That’s when we matured as a team and started doing things better. We don’t have a lot of speed, but we’ve got some good football players and our guys have really been focused since the start of the playoffs.”

Jonathan Lagrange gave Mount Ida a comfortable 30-14 lead with a 13-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, but the Hornets struck right back on the ensuing drive.

Harmony Grove was given a second chance after the Lions were called for

pass interference on fourth-andgoal from the 11 and Gannon Bearden found Dillon Vaughan from seven yards to make it 30-20 with under a minute to play in the third quarter.

After getting a fourth-down stop of their own, the Hornets were primed for a comeback. Harmony Grove marched to the 25 but no farther, turning the ball over on downs after three straight Bearden incompletions.

Tyler Allenbrand pushed the Mount Ida lead to 33-20 on a 30yard field goal with 2:51 to play and the Lions again got a defensive stop. The Hornets reached the 15 before Bearden’s pass on fourth down fell incomplete, allowing Mount Ida to run out the clock.

“We gave up some big plays tonight, but we stepped up in crucial situations when we really needed to,” said White. “Overall we had some young guys step up and make some plays for us and that’s what it’s all about.”

Leading 3-0 after the first quarter, Mount Ida got rushing touchdowns from Cade Jackson and Lagrange to lead 17-0. Lagrange finished with 107 yards on 25 carries, one of three 100-yard rushers for the Lions.

Cade Helms had 110 yards on 21 attempts and Gage Dyer paced the team with 135 yards on 12 carries.

“I love my offensive line, the big guys have carried us throughout this playoff run,” White said. “They execute their blocks. They’re big, they’re strong and they can see things on the field and tell me things on the sideline. They’ve really matured up there and it’s made our offense pretty hard to stop in these games.”

Harmony Grove got on the board on a 17-yard touchdown from Bearden to Vaughan with 25 seconds remaining in the first half, making it 17-7.

Mount Ida’s backfield trio combined for 53 yards on the first drive of the second half, Lagrange plunging in from the two for 24-7.

A short kickoff coupled with a long return by Jace Garcia gave the Hornets good field position on their ensuing drive and Bearden connected with Garcia for a 13yard score just four plays later.

Austin Jordan’s extra point made it 24-14, but Harmony Grove was never able to trim the gap more than that.

“As a coach, I’m trying to put us in good situations to be successful and our guys came through tonight,” said White. “Even when they scored on us, we didn’t want to get too fancy and just relied on what we know.”

Filling in for injured senior Nathan Whitley, Bearden finished with 293 yards passing and three touchdowns. After rushing for 108 yards and scoring three total touchdowns in Harmony Grove’s 39-38 win over Cross County in the quarterfinals, Jordan Hicks was limited to just 17 yards on eight carries.

Mount Ida will face conference 2A-8 champion Hampton in the state championship at noon on Saturday at War Memorial Field. The Bulldogs, who did not play football last season, walloped 2A-5 champion and previously undefeated England 54-32 at home Friday night.

“I know they’ve got a lot of talent, but other than that I don’t know much about them,” White said. “I haven’t seen them play, but we’ll watch some film and we’ll get our guys ready to go next week.”

White coached Mount Ida to the 2007 Class 2A title, the Lions defeating Bearden in the final. The Lions lost to eventual champion McCrory in the quarterfinals last year.