IOWA — The outcome was as cold as the weather in Iowa Friday night.

The No. 12-seeded Yellow Jackets struggled defending quarterback Tyler Brown and the junior quarterback contributed to all four of Donaldsonville’s touchdowns — three rushing and one passing — in a 24-13 upset of Iowa.

Brown slipped, scrambled and chucked his way to a big first half that set the table in the Tigers’ win. He finished with 187 total yards as the Tigers (6-5) finished with 405 yards of offense and 22 first downs.

“He’s a good player. He kind of takes what you give him,” Iowa head coach Sean Richard said. “We saw that on film. He limped around those last three quarters of the game. He stayed out there and performed really well.”

Much of that first half was spent with the ball in Donaldsonville’s hands. They limited Iowa to 14 offensive snaps and two first downs while themselves running 44 snaps and getting 13 first downs.

Without the ball the ’Jackets never established an offensive rhythm and Brown extended drives with his legs, the biggest play being a 32-yard scramble on a third-and-11 that kept Donaldsonville’s final scoring drive of the first half alive.

In turn, Iowa struggled finishing drives. After Chaz Key scored on a 3-yard run that gave Iowa a 7-6 lead on the first play of the second quarter, Iowa had two drives in the second half stall on downs in Donaldsonville territory.

“We didn’t perform well tonight,” Richard said. “I’m not taking anything away from Donaldsonville, but we didn’t show up and do the things needed to win a playoff game.”

Despite its regular-season success, in which Iowa shared the District 4-3A crown with St. Louis, they lost a bi-district home game for the second consecutive year.

“We had a tremendous regular season,” Richard said. “You’re always disappointed when you can’t come through in the postseason. But we played a tough schedule. We just didn’t come out and perform well tonight. (Sometimes) that happens in the playoffs.”(Kirk Meche/Special to the American Press)

Kirk Meche