Take one look at Iowa Valley’s 2025 football schedule and something sticks out right away: the gauntlet has been thrown down. “We definitely have a tough schedule this year and we think that will help prepare us for later in the season. We will find out a lot about our team in the first few weeks of the season,” Iowa Valley Head Coach Casey Krull stated.
The Tigers from Marengo are coming off an 8-2 season with a district championship, the Tigers’ first three games consist of perennial powerhouse Don Bosco (Gilbertville) at home opening week, a short trek down Highway 212 for an 8-Player District 5 matchup of the year candidate with Belle Plaine, then they wrap up their non-district action on the road with South Iowa Cedar League foe Montezuma in week three.
Don Bosco and Montezuma were State Playoff Quarterfinalists in 2024 while Belle Plaine qualified for postseason play and ended the regular season with a victory over the Tigers by a 30-24 margin, playing spoiler to Iowa Valley’s quest for an undefeated regular season. Iowa Valley bowed out in the second round of postseason play against 8-Player State runner-up, Gladbrook-Reinbeck, 57-32.
After the week three tilt with the Braves, the Tigers wrap up the year with five district battles against the likes of HLV/Tri-County (Victor), Winfield-Mount Union, Lone Tree, English Valleys (North English), and WACO (Wayland).
Iowa Valley graduated six seniors from their 2024 team, including 6’9” Caleb Haack, who is on his way to DeKalb, Illinois to play football for the Northern Illinois University Huskies. Haack snagged 28 passes for 667 yards and 13 touchdowns for Iowa Valley in 2024 to go along with an eye-popping 25.5 tackles for loss defensively. But the cupboard is anything but empty in Marengo. Opposing defensive coordinators have probably spent all summer scratching their heads trying to figure out how to gameplan against do-it-all junior Nolan Kriegel. Few prep players around the state enter the 2025 season with statistics like Kriegel, who accounted for over 3200 yards and a whopping 60 touchdowns via passing, rushing, and receiving just one year ago. Kriegel gets help staying upright from three returning starters on the offensive line: Josh Read, Dallas Sherman, and Mason Hoyt.
“Our success starts with the guys up front that do all the dirty work for our backs and receivers,” Krull acknowledged.
Fellow junior classmate, Dane Smith, racked up over 500 yards and six touchdowns in 2024 and will see more opportunities with the football this season with the departures of Haack and Owen Bral. Layne Peska and Chance Hoyt, both juniors, found the end zone multiple times last year and will be battling for touches as well.
The same story applies to the defensive side of the ball. Yes, the Tigers lose 39 tackles for a loss between the departer Haack and Ian Smith, but that just means more opportunities for Mason Hoyt to continue his development on the gridiron. Hoyt was second on the team in stops in the backfield in 2024 as he racked up 17 of them while tying Haack’s team-leading sack total with 3.5. Krull noted that Read often lines up against the opposition’s top receiving threat and that Peska’s communication skills and attention to detail helps others reach success. Peska tallied 44 total tackles and a team-best six interactions a season ago. Kriegel and Chance Hoyt will lineup at linebacker for the orange and black, using their grit and athleticism to cover the entire field.
On the special teams, Krull mentioned that he was proud of Peska’s special teams work from a season ago and added the team has some intriguing return options between him, Smith, and Kriegel. Krull did point out something he wanted to see from his team this season: “We are looking to improve in the kicking game from a year ago. We struggled at times with our kickoff coverage team.”
The Tigers have lofty goals for 2025 but make no mistake about it: their focus is week by week and coming out of the gate prepared for anything.
