Mason City, Iowa — The defending Class A state champions are out of the playoffs. For the second time in three years, the North Tama Redhawks’ season ended at the hands of the Mason City Newman Catholic Knights.
The results of North Tama’s first five drives: punt, fumble, interception, punt, interception. There was one first down in the first quarter. A drive at the end of the second quarter that ended in a touchdown was the only sustained action for the Redhawk offense. Newman, on the other hand, did not complete a pass in the entire game.
Defending champion Solon lost too.
Some statistics about NT’s second-round/round-of-16 playoff loss:
- First time in four years the season did not end in the UNI-Dome.
- First time the season has ended in October since 2007 (Wapsie Valley 47, NT 0), which was also a loss on Halloween.
- Eighth loss of any kind since the beginning of the 2006 season, playoff losses in italics (Riceville 2006, Postville 2006, Lisbon 2007, Wapsie 2007, Southern Cal 2008, Newman 2009, Postville 2011, Newman 2011). That’s two to Newman, two to Postville, and three to schools that aren’t playing Class A football anymore (Riceville to 8-man, Southern Cal merging, Wapsie up to 1A).
Congratulations to the Redhawks on their fine season.