PREP FOOTBALL ROUNDUP: Lions beat Wildcats for Lyon County Beef Bowl; H-LP, Sheldon earn victories

ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa — With only seconds remaining in Friday night’s football game, the Central Lyon/George-Little Rock football team faced a four-point deficit against West Lyon and was sitting 57 yards from the end zone.

It turned out the Lions had all the time they needed.

Ross Ackerman completed a 43-yard pass to Eric Schilling to put the Lions in the red zone, after which they spiked the ball to leave two seconds on the clock.

Ackerman then connected with Schilling again for a 14-yard touchdown as time expired, giving CL/G-LR a 16-14 victory in the Lyon County Beef Bowl.

The Lions opened the scoring for the game with 27 seconds left in the second quarter on a three-yard touchdown run from Ryan McCarty (23 carries for 90 yards), which was followed by an extra point by Terron Geerdes to make the score 7-0.

The Wildcats tied the score on a 52-yard touchdown run by Bennett Feuchtenberger with 11:20 remaining in the third, after which there was no scoring until late in the fourth quarter.

CL/G-LR retook the lead on a 20-yard field goal by Geerdes with 2:19 left in the game, but West Lyon responded a little more than a minute later with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Sneider to Adam Teunissen.

Sneider converted the extra point to give the Wildcats a 14-10 lead with 1:14 left on the clock, which was just enough time for the Lions to mount the game-winning drive.

CL/G-LR took a knee on the extra point attempt to avoid giving West Lyon a chance to earn a turnover and a potential scoring opportunity.

The Lions (2-0) will play at Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley on Friday.

West Lyon 0 0 7 7 — 14

CL/G-LR 0 7 0 9 — 16

H-LP 56, Spalding Catholic 6

LAKE PARK, Iowa — Harris-Lake Park has been nearly unstoppable so far this season, with Friday’s game against Spalding Catholic no exception.

Brady Nissen rushed for three touchdowns to pace an eight-touchdown attack for the Wolves in a 50-point victory.

H-LP quarterback Colin Brons (8-for-13 passing, 176 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions) opened the scoring with a 9-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The Wolves ran a fake on the extra point, with Eli Ihnen running the ball in for two points.

Nissen (13 carries for 95 yards, four catches for 45 yards) followed with his first touchdown of the game on a five-yard run, with Nathan Kyle converting the extra point to make the score 15-0.

H-LP scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, the first on a four-yard run by Nissen (extra point by Kyle good).

Sam Bosma then picked off a desperation pass with Spalding Catholic deep in its own territory, returning his interception for a touchdown (extra point by Kyle good) and Brons connected with Ihnen (three catches for 86 yards) on a 10-yard touchdown pass (extra point by Kyle good) to round out the scoring for the half.

Nissen ran in for a 22-yard touchdown to open the scoring in the third quarter (extra point by Kyle good), Bosma followed with a 22-yard touchdown run of his own (extra point no good) and Tanner Hively rounded out the Wolves’ scoring with a one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter (extra point by Kyle good).

Spalding Catholic’s only points came in the fourth quarter.

Kade Heikens had one reception for 34 yards for the Wolves.

Harris-Lake Park (2-0) will host Remsen St. Mary’s on Friday.

Spalding 0 0 0 6 — 6

H-LP 15 21 13 7 — 56

Sheldon 33, South O’Brien 17

SHELDON, Iowa — Chris Balster and Cody Hatting combined to score five touchdowns as the Sheldon Orabs won their second game of the season, defeating South O’Brien by 16 points.

The visiting Wolverines (0-2) scored first with a 26-yard field goal, but the Orabs (2-0) countered with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Balster (five-of-10, 80 yards) to Hatting and a 54-yard punt return to the end zone by Balster, claiming a 12-3 lead after one quarter of action.

Hatting capped a second-quarter Sheldon drive with a four-yard TD burst and — after Zach Kleinwolterink’s extra-point kick — the Orabs held a 19-3 advantage at intermission.

Then, after completing a 17-yard pass to Joe Kuiper on Sheldon’s second play of the third quarter, Balster (16 rushes, 97 yards) broke loose on the next play, streaking 50 yards for his sixth touchdown of the season.

Balster later crossed the goal line for the seventh time when he capped a sustained Orab drive — late in the third quarter — with a touchdown run from four yards out.

Kleinwolterink kicked the point after following both of Balster’s third-quarter TD’s, increasing Sheldon’s lead to 33-9.

South O’Brien, which scored its first touchdown midway through the third period, had the football most of the fourth quarter and scored a touchdown, along with a two-point conversion, to close the final gap to 16 points.

Matt Dykstra (32) and Hatting (26) combined for 58 yards rushing in Sheldon’s wishbone offense, while five different players caught passes from Balster.

Sheldon travels to Orange City next week for a Friday clash with Maurice-Orange City-Floyd Valley.

South O’Brien 3 0 6 8 — 17

Sheldon 12 7 14 0 — 33

Tags: harris-lake park, sheldon, central lyon, george-little rock, sports, prep, football