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BETTENDORF, Iowa – The scoreboard at TouVelle Stadium showed a 40-19 victory for Bettendorf, but Muscatine left town feeling much better about its football team Friday night.

A week after struggling on both sides of the ball and facing a 27-0 deficit at home to Davenport Central, Muscatine took a giant step forward against the state's fifth-ranked team and two-time defending Mississippi Athletic Conference champions.

“We showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of guts,” Muskie head coach Tony Napierala said. “The kids were physical and didn't back down to anything.

“We’ve set a standard and expectation for ourselves now that we’ve got to start living up to. If we do, I think some very good things will happen.”

Muscatine gave Bettendorf – which has won 20 straight conference games – a scare for 31/2 quarters.

The Muskies had a 10-0 advantage late in the first half, and had an opportunity to tie the game at 21-all with a two-point conversion with 7 minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the contest.

“I thought, ‘We have them; it’s in the bag,’” Muskie linebacker Mitch Shellady said. “We were executing what we wanted to do.”

Muscatine (0-2) was much more aggressive on defense, forcing three turnovers and holding Bettendorf (2-0) to just 53 yards rushing in the opening half.

Offensively, quarterback Paul Jindrich completed 20 of his first 32 passes for 234 yards.

“If that offense is clicking, it’s tough to match up with,” Bettendorf coach Aaron Wiley said. “I thought their quarterback played a nice game. He really did a nice job of threading the needle with some of those passes.”

Despite that, the Bulldogs had too much – particularly in the backfield and up front.

After Muscatine failed to convert the potential two-point conversion try, Bettendorf rattled off 19 unanswered points.

It happened quickly. Bettendorf tailback Chris Sanders took the first play after the kickoff 64 yards to set up Joey Trizzino’s 4-yard touchdown run.

The Muskies went three-and-out on their next possession before Cam Brown, who didn’t even carry the ball in the opening half, scampered 43 yards for a touchdown.

Just like that, Muscatine found itself in a 15-point hole with 3:50 left.

“I think we wore down a little bit from their size at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Napierala said.

Bettendorf’s offensive line has three players 255 pounds or more, while Muscatine’s defensive front averages 227 pounds.

“The defense was out on the field a lot,” Shellady said, “and they started wearing us down.”

Wiley said Bettendorf, which had four runs of 38 yards or more in the second half, didn't alter its approach.

“As the game wore on, our offensive line did play better and we gave those guys some holes,” he said. “And with the speed those guys have, if they get a crease, they're dangerous.”

Sanders finished with 184 yards rushing – 152 of those coming on four carries. Brown had 99 yards – 81 coming on two touches.

“We really stepped up and made some really big plays,” said Muscatine’s Derick Minch, who was in on two fumble recoveries. "We had a few mental errors at the end of the game, but we were in this game the whole time."

Thanks to the leg of Ozzy Carrillo, Muscatine scored first on a 29-yard field goal in the second quarter. After Minch recovered a Bettendorf high center snap seconds later, Muscatine took advantage of a short field and made it 10-0 on Donovan Barber's 1-yard touchdown run.

The Bulldogs regrouped with two touchdowns — the second a 57-yard run by Sanders — to grab a 14-10 lead, but Carrillo booted a 38-yard field goal to trim the deficit to one.

Bettendorf jumped back ahead by eight after Sanders' second touchdown of the night, but Muscatine clawed within 21-19 after Jindrich lofted a 30-yard touchdown strike to Jeff Failor.

Muscatine elected to go for two, but had to burn two timeouts to get a play set up. Once it did, Jindrich optioned right and pitched to Tanner Bohling, but he was stopped short.

"We should have gone the other direction," Napierala said.

Jindrich connected with five different receivers, including a team-high nine receptions for 75 yards by TJ Husar.

"I don't think the score is indicative of the way we played," Napierala said. "Bettendorf is a good football team, but I think our inexperience grew up a lot tonight."

It left the players eager for next week's home tilt against Davenport Assumption.

"This was huge," Minch said. "This meant a lot for the rest of our season. We're planning on coming back with a 7-2 season.

"We're going to improve and get better yet. We're still going to have a good season."

Bettendorf 40, Muscatine 19

Muscatine 0 10  3  6 — 19

Bettendorf 0  7 14 19 — 40

Second Quarter

M - Ozzy Carrillo 29 field goal, 8:44

M - Donovan Barber 1 run (Carrillo kick), 6:07

B - Travis Stinson 11 pass from Dylan Jones (Adam Vesole kick), 1:18

Third Quarter

B - Chris Sanders 57 run (Vesole kick), 6:15

M - Carrillo 38 field goal, 2:52

B - Sanders 15 run (Vesole kick), 2:16

Fourth Quarter

M - Jeff Failor 30 pass from Paul Jindrich (run failed), 7:18

B - Joey Trizzino 4 run (kick failed), 6:30

B - Cam Brown 43 run (Vesole kick), 3:50

B - Ryker Fox 65 interception return (kick failed), 2:48

TEAM STATISTICS

Mus. Bett.

First downs 17 17

Rushes-yards 32-102 38-305 

Passing yards 234 83

Comp-Att-Int 20-35-2 7-17-1

Punts-avg. 6-28.3 3-38.0

Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-2

Penalties-yards 6-67 5-33

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

MUSCATINE — Tanner Bohling 13-81, Donovan Barber 7-16, Paul Jindrich 10-5, TJ Husar 2-0.

BETTENDORF — Chris Sanders 13-184, Cam Brown 6-99, Joey Trizzino 6-12, Adam Vesole 2-7, Collin Nelson 2-6, Travis Stinson 3-2, Dylan Jones 3-2, Gage Ridenour 1-(-3), Zack Edwards 2-(-4).

Passing

MUSCATINE — Jindrich 20-35-2, 234 yards, TD.

BETTENDORF — Jones 7-17-1, 83 yards, TD.

Receiving

MUSCATINE — Husar 8-75, Griffin Gaeta 3-46, Bohling 4-45, Jeff Failor 3-41, Nick Clemens 2-27. 

BETTENDORF — Bryce Ewan 3-42, Stinson 2-23, Ryker Fox 2-18.