Iowa came tearing into Thursday's match with seven straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 30.1 points) and they left with even more momentum. They took their game with ease, bagging a 42-14 victory over the DeRidder Dragons. Considering the Yellowjackets have won seven matchups by more than 22 points this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
A big part of Iowa's win came down to the chemistry between Reed Dupre and his top target Jeremiah Bushnell. Dupre threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 13.2 yards per attempt while Bushnell picked up 179 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Bushnell's longest reception was for an incredible 85 yards.
When it comes to explaining why DeRidder lost, don't look at Connor Rushford. Despite the final result, he rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown. Rushford is becoming a predictor of DeRidder's success: when he posts at least 100 rushing yards the team is 2-1 (and 3-4 when he doesn't). Backing up that air attack was Reed Williams, who rushed for 81 yards.
Iowa pushed their record up to 9-1 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. A key ingredient in that success has been their rushing production: they averaged an imposing 179.5 rushing yards in those games compared to only 179.5 in the others. As for DeRidder, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-5.
Both are set to take part in some playoff action in their next matches. Iowa will take on LaGrange at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Iowa is facing LaGrange at the right time seeing as LaGrange is stuck on a three-game losing streak. As for DeRidder, they will challenge Northwest at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Northwest is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 30.4 points per game this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
