Muscatine Muskies Fall In Season Opener To Davenport North

After playing Davenport North to a stalemate in the opening half of the season opener at Brady Street Stadium, the Wildcats scored two second-half touchdowns to prevail 27-14.

“Very happy with the first half,” Muscatine coach Mike Truitt said. “I thought our offense played well. Defensively, we have some things to shore up. It is a new defense, and it is fixable.”

MHS could not have scripted a better start. On an opening drive that chewed up more than 7 minutes, the Muskies found the end zone when senior quarterback Gaige Curtis hit senior receiver Levi Butzen for a 7-yard touchdown. Garrick Fillmore added the point-after kick.

North responded with the next two scores — a 23-yard run from Carson Williams and a 9-yard touchdown pass from Neil Brown to Derrick Pena.

The Muskies, though, answered right before halftime.

Faced with fourth down and long inside the North 20-yard line, Curtis connected with junior Ryland Gbor for a 17-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left in the second quarter. The point-after kick squared the game at intermission, 14-all.

MHS, which completed only 33 passes all of last season, extended multiple drives in the opening half through the air.

“With Gaige being in his third year as quarterback, he is way more confident in himself throwing the ball,” Truitt said. “He knows the offense like the back of his hand.

“If we can continue to evolve more of a passing game, it will help a ton to loosen up the defense.”

Thanks to two significant fourth-down conversions from the Wildcats that led to touchdowns from Pena, North scored twice in a five-minute span of the third quarter to seize control.

MHS ran fewer offensive plays in the second half than it did the entire first quarter.

“That killed us,” Truitt said. “I told them afterward, we can’t expect to put points on the board when we don’t have the ball.”

Truitt admitted his squad needs to make big strides on the defensive side of the ball before next Friday’s home opener against Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

“We need more effort, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” he said. “We need to be flying around, cutting people down. Our team goal this year was to lead the state in (takeaways), and we came away with none tonight.

“The main teaching point is going to be effort on Monday. We need more.”

Conversely, the MHS head coach said he was pleased with the offensive execution in the first half, especially for the season opener.

“Our guys should have the confidence that we can move the ball and we can score,” he said. “We just have to stop the other team now.”