The Sigourney-Keota Cobra football team begins 2025 with life on the road when they travel to meet Prairie City Monroe. SK is coming off of an unbeaten district title season, their fifth in a row and 7-2 record. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by West Branch. The Cobras are ranked No. 8 in Class 1A in the first poll of the year from IAFootball.com. The Cobras scored 41 points per game and gave up 19 per night. They averaged 390 yards per contest, 312 on the ground and 78 through the air. They will need to replace their top two rushers, Isaac Bruns and Brady Clark who combined on 209 carries, 1827 yards and 25 touchdowns. That duo also led the receiving corps with 12 catches, 303 yards and five touchdowns. Leader back on the ground is Brayden Wood after a junior year with 67 rushes, 289 yards and five scores. Wood was also the leader through the air at 22 of 36 for 450 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. Ayden Galindo is the top returning receiver with a pair of touchdown grabs for 135 yards. Defensively, leading tackler Ashton Schwab departs with the top performer back John Berg with 31 stops. Owen Menke is back after a team best nine tackles for loss. Berg is turnover leader, coming back after three takeaways as a junior, for a team that had 16 total. SK ranked in the top 10 of Class 1A in 10 different categories a season ago.

PCM was 11-1 last year, unbeaten champs of 2A District 6. They were knocked out of the 2A semifinals in the dome by Spirit Lake. The Mustangs are ranked No. 7 in Class 2A according to the first IAFootball.com poll. They scored 56 points per game last year and gave up 13, posting 454 yards per game, 301 on the ground and 153 through the air. Signal caller Gavin VanGorp has graduated after throwing for 1490 yards on 87 of 123 passing with 29 touchdowns and four interceptions. The Mustangs will turn to Chase Wagaman who threw for 160 yards and a pair of scores last year. Top receiver Gavin Steenhoek is back after 30 catches 378 yards and seven scores. The rest of the receiving corps graduated which accounted for 54 catches, 1,019 yards and 20 touchdowns. Ground leader Adrien Robbins has also moved on after finishing with 2,191 yards and 24 touchdowns on 245 carries as a senior. Defensively, the Mustangs top four tacklers graduated with a combined 218 stops, 14 sacks and 38TFLS between them. Shay Burns is back after 34 tackles a season ago. The Mustangs forced 22 turnovers last year, including 14 picks. They ranked in the top 10 of 2A in 28 categories. This week, Cobra head coach Jared Jensen talked with KCII Sports about his takeaways from last week’s scrimmage and week 1 preparation. Jensen said, “You see the good, the bad and the ugly. Really for the first portion of the year, not just the scrimmage. We have to learn from our mistakes. It made us a better team going into week 1. We can have those mistakes fixed and be running on all cylinders.”

These two teams have met the past two seasons with the Mustangs winning both by a combined 76-29 score. Action starts Friday night at 7p.m. In Monroe.