Murray loses big in 8-man championship

CEDAR FALLS — The Murray Mustangs lost 81-0 Friday to Fremont-Mills, Tabor in the 8-man state football championship at the UNI-Dome.

After an early fumble, the Knights dominated Murray in the record-breaking blowout. Fremont-Mills jumped out to a 34-0 lead in the first quarter, and led 61-0 at halftime, a total for the Knights that broke the state record for points in a championship game. The entire second half was played under the state's running clock mercy rule, which the Knights have enacted in every game this season.

Nate Meier had a championship game record 218 yards rushing and a championship-game record tying five rushing touchdowns. As a team the Knights set another championship game record by running for 352 yards.

Meier ended the season just shy of 2,500 yards rushing. He set season records for points and touchdowns in Class 8-Man.

Another Knight senior, A.J. Scarborough had a fantastic day as well. Offensively, he threw only two passes, both for touchdowns. He also ran for 76 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, he had two interceptions, one of them returned 78 yards for a touchdown, another championship-game record.

The Knight defense held Murray to under 200 yards of total offense, and forced five turnovers in the team's first shutout of the season.

The Knights had three interception returns for touchdowns on the game, one from Scarborough, and two from Logan Wood.

The 891 points Fremont-Mills scored this season is the most in state history in any class, drawing interest afterward among observers if this is the best all-time 8-man team in Iowa history.

Fremont-Mills finished a perfect 13-0 season with its first state championship in any sport in school history.

Murray finished with only 87 yards rushing, led by reserve Alex Shaw's 30 yards on four carries. Among starters, Andrew Rider finished with 21 yards on nine carries, and quarterback Austin Halls had -20 net yards with 27 yards in losses against the heavy rush of the Knight front line.

Halls was 8-of-31 passing for 143 yards with five interceptions. No. 1 receiver Cody Scroggie took Meier head-on as Meier was lead blocker on the Knights' final drive of the first half, and sat out the second half with a banged-up knee. He had three catches for 87 yards. Jake Oswald had two catches for 40 yards.