The wait is finally over for the Iowa Yellow Jackets.
After more than a century of existence as a school and 72 years as a football program, Iowa High School has a state championship.
Jeremiah Bushnell scored four touchdowns, while Kaston Lewis and J’Vien Adams combined for 330 rushing yards and three touchdowns to lead the Yellow Jackets to the Division II Non-Select state title Friday afternoon.
“Jeremiah had an unbelievable game tonight,” Iowa coach Tommy Johns said of his senior Houston signee who had 156 yards from scrimmage. “That’s what’s so special about this team because, week to week, you don’t know who’s gonna end up having a game. I thought this was probably one of the best games of (Bushnell’s) career.”
Despite compiling almost 600 total yards of offense, the Yellow Jackets and their fans couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the final minute. North DeSoto had come up with a rare defensive stop, but a roughing-the-punter penalty with just over two minutes remaining allowed Iowa to run three plays in the Victory formation and hold on for a 50-43 victory.
“When (junior quarterback Lawston Broussard) took that last knee, that’s I guess when it became real,” Johns said. “Man, what an unbelievable feeling.”
“You dream of this moment,” Bushnell said, “but really, it don’t feel real. It’s a dream come true.”
The feeling of joy that Johns, the Jackets and the entire Iowa community felt as the seconds ticked off the Caesars Superdome scoreboard, as they broke through for a state championship in their first trip to the championship game, was only matched by the devastation felt by the North DeSoto faithful as the Griffins finished as state runner-up for the second time in four years.
“This in no way diminishes what these guys have done,” North DeSoto coach Dennis Dunn said. “The four-year run here with Luke Delafield as our leader and these seniors won 46 football games, and that’s pretty amazing.”
“I’ve been playing football since kindergarten, and every time I’ve stepped on the field I’ve had ‘ND’ on my chest,” said Delafield, who signed with Northwestern State earlier this month and finished his career with 10,851 passing yards, ranking him fifth in Louisiana prep history. “It’s been a really, really, really fun ride. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
Dunn said the difference in the game was the Jackets’ physicality up front on the offensive line, which is something the Griffins struggled to handle as Iowa racked up 405 rushing yards.
“They knew what they wanted to do against us,” Dunn said. “They had a plan, and they executed the plan.”
“Our guys up front, those boys don’t get a lick of credit,” Johns said, “and they are what we are built around. They’re the hardest-working guys in the room every day. I wish you could see the work that these guys pour in, twice a day in the offseason. I always tell them they’re just built different. They are. We put it on their back, and they take us. They’ve done that all year long. What a special group.”
Iowa, which capped a perfect 14-0 season, held a two-score lead midway through the second quarter, but twice had to rally from second-half deficits to earn the victory.
The teams traded scores on their first two drives as Bushnell found the end zone on a receiving TD and a rushing TD, while North DeSoto got touchdowns through the air and on the ground by Delafield.
Back-to-back rushing TDs by Lewis and Adams gave the Jackets a 28-15 lead, but the Griffins (13-1) erased that lead with rushing TDs by senior Braelyn Latin late in the second quarter and on their first drive of the second half.
From there, the two teams traded scores in a fast-paced, electric third quarter, setting up a final period where it felt like the proverbial team with the ball last would win.
Iowa retook the lead on a 49-yard TD pass from Broussard to Bushnell late in the third quarter before the Griffins went ahead 36-34 on Kenny Thomas’ 27-yard TD run up the middle.
Two plays later, Lewis put the Jackets back in front with a 42-yard TD run with 18 seconds left in the third quarter. In the blink of an eye, North DeSoto went ahead 43-42 as Delafield connected with Colton LaCour two plays later for a 42-yard touchdown.
Delafield finished the game 17-of-24 passing for 233 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. LaCour caught six passes for 113 yards and two scores. Thomas had a team-high 90 rushing yards and a touchdown, while Delafield added 71 yards and a score on the ground.
Although he had a mostly quiet game, taking a backseat to teammates like Bushnell, Lewis and Adams, Broussard came up with perhaps the Jackets’ biggest touchdown as he kept on a read-option and ran 11 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 8:38 remaining.
In a game that featured seven touchdown drives of two minutes or less, Iowa was able to get a defensive stop and then salt away the final 6 minutes and 45 seconds of the game to lift the trophy for the first time in school history.