DAILY GLOBE
MOUNTAIN LAKE - With each passing week, the Mountain Lake Area Wolverines are forcing area 9-man high school football teams to sit up and take notice.
More heads may have been turned Friday night as the Wolverines thumped previously unbeaten Edgerton/Ellsworth, which advanced all the way to the state championship game in 2014.
MLA dumped a solid Hills-Beaver Creek team 32-20 last week, and on Friday the Wolverines evened their record at 4-1 - while making the Flying Dutchmen 4-1 in the process - led by a strong performance by junior quarterback Levi Stoesz and his cast.
Stoesz completed 14 of 22 passes for 267 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. He also returned an interception 40 yards for a score.
MLA scored the first two TDs of the game on 57 and 15-yard passes from Stoesz to Chris Boyd.
Edgerton/Ellsworth answered on a 24-yard Trevor Van Dyke run. MLA answered back with a three-yard Jake Suess TD run, then E/E closed out the first half with a 20-yard Landon Buckridge pass to Trey Gilbertson.
The Dutchmen scored the first touchdown of the second half as Van Dyke pushed it in from eight yards out. The ensuing two-point conversion knotted the score at 22-22.
But Mountain Lake Area scored three more times after that. Suess pulled in an 18-yard TD pass from Stoesz. Hunter Dayna recovered a blocked punt in the end zone (it was blocked by Christian Hampel), and Stoesz moved to defense to make his TD return of an interception.
Boyd caught five passes for 178 yards and Suess caught five for 47.
E/E 0 14 8 0 - 22
MLA 14 8 16 8 - 46
Canby 9, Adrian 8
CANBY - Class A No. 6-ranked Adrian lost in gut-wrenching fashion Friday when Canby’s William Schmitz made a 23-yard field goal as time expired.
The kick pushed the 13th-ranked Lancers to a 9-8 victory after the Dragons led the entire game.
“It was just a sloppy-played game by us,” Dragons head coach Randy Strand said.
Adrian took the lead in the first quarter when Michael Preuss punched in a 1-yard touchdown run. The 2-point conversion was good with Preuss running that in as well and the Dragons had an 8-0 lead that held until midway through the third quarter.
Justin Merritt got Canby within two points when he plunged in from a yard out.
Late in the game, the Lancers drove 50 yards deep into Adrian territory but faced 4th-and-3 on the 6-yard line. A tough personal foul call on the Dragons helped put them there. Adrian used all three of its timeouts in an attempt to ice Schmitz, but he was unfazed. He made the game-winner as the clock hit zero.
Preuss finished the game with 57 yards on 17 carries. Matthew Slater recovered a pair of fumbles.
Adrian 8 0 0 0 - 8
Canby 0 0 6 3 - 9
JCC 58, Windom 21
WINDOM-Keegan Moore rushed for 168 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries, as the JCC Huskies dismantled the Windom Eagles.
The Huskies rushed for a team total of 274 yards and added 224 yards through the air.
Moore busted the game open for the Huskies on the first drive of the night, pushing in a touchdown from three yards out. From there the scoring floodgates blew open, and when time expired at the end of the first quarter JCC had a 31-0 lead.
Quarterback Easton Bahr and wide receiver Ryan Salzwedel were on the same page all night. The duo connected for 134 yards and two touchdowns on five pass attempts. Ryan Christopher also made a great play in the second quarter for the Huskies. The junior wide receiver hauled in a long 62 yard pass from Bahr for his lone touchdown of the game.
Windom struggled all night on the offensive side of things and could never capitalize on the few defensive stops they had.
One bright spot for the Eagles was Wyatt Minion’s 56 yards rushing and one touchdown off five attempts. Senior quarterback Sam Huska had 36 yards through the air and one passing touchdown.
JCC advances to 3-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big South Conference, as Windom falls to 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the Big South Conference. The Huskies are at home next Friday as they take on the MCW Mavericks. The Eagles will be on the road next Friday taking on Blue Earth Area Buccaneers.
JCC 31 21 0 6 - 58
Windom Area 0 7 0 14 - 21
W-WG 32, HL-O 22
HERON LAKE - In a game marred by 18 penalties (nine on each team), Westbrook-Walnut Grove opened up a 32-12 lead with 2:03 remaining in the third quarter and held on for a 10-point win.
The Anthony connection - Ross to Koch - was big for the Chargers (2-3) as the pair teamed up on several long pass plays, including a 56-yard touchdown off a well-designed screen with 7:32 left in the third period.
Ross (10-of-15 passing for 203 yards) scored two rushing touchdowns for W-WG, crossing the goal line from 10 yards out with 11 seconds remaining in what had been a scoreless first quarter and scampering to the end zone on a 14-yard run with 32 seconds left in the second quarter.
Koch finished the night with five catches for 150 yards, while Ross gained 47 yards on the ground on seven carries.
Jake Otto (10 carries for 65 yards) scored W-WG’s second touchdown on a six-yard burst after HL-O’s Austin Hietbrink completed a three-yard TD pass to Travis Behrends which knotted the score at 6-6 with 5:46 showing on the second-quarter clock.
Ross passed to AJ Quade for the two-point conversion following Otto’s touchdown.
W-WG’s final TD was set up by a 39-yard run from freshman backup quarterback Andrew Quade (five carries for 52 yards), who later delivered a 22-yard pass to Matt DePrez for the Chargers’ fifth six-pointer of the game.
Dawson Iverson (14 tackles, including a sack) and Matt Kleven (eight tackles with two sacks) sparked W-WG’s defensive effort.
HL-O, which had an apparent 85-yard touchdown run by Behrends (13 carries for 68 yards) negated by a holding penalty on the Wildcats’ first play from scrimmage, scored a trio of touchdowns, one two-point conversion and was given a deliberate safety (with 6:02 left in the fourth quarter) by the Chargers after pinning them deep in their own territory.
Hietbrink (17 rushes for 62 yards) crossed the goal line twice in the second half. His first TD - on a one-yard plunge - capped a 12-play, 57-yard drive with 3:09 left in the third quarter. His second six-pointer came on an eight-yard run after completing a 41-yard pass to Behrends (three catches for 63 yards) and a 27-yard play to Angel Esqueda.
With 52 seconds left in the contest, freshman Andrew Madsen burst into the end zone for HL-O’s two-point conversion following the final drive engineered by Hietbrink (8-of-17 passing for 136 yards).
Hietbrink caught a 45-yard screen pass from Ethan Becker and Marcelo Esqueda hauled in a 26-yard pass from Hietbrink, among HL-O’s other highlights. The Wildcats are 1-4 for the season.
W-WG 6 14 6 6 - 32
HL-O 0 6 6 10 - 22
Minneota 48, MCC 7
MINNEOTA - Garrett Hennen carried 17 times for 186 yards and scored three touchdowns as Minnesota ran to a convincing victory over Murray County Central.
The Vikings rushed for 287 yards altogether, on 33 carries and passed for 122. MCC, meanwhile, rushed for 73 and passed for 90.
But it was MCC that scored first Friday night as Brady Kremer passed to Dakota Thunder Hawk for a 48-yard reception. The extra point made it 7-0 in the Rebels’ favor, but that was all the visitors would muster on the scoreboard.
Zach Aanenson carried 16 times for 38 yards to lead MCC ball carriers. Kremer completed three of 16 passes and had one intercepted.
Patrick Platt got in on seven tackles for MCC.
Alex Pohlen completed five of 14 passes for 122 yards for Minneota.
MCC 7 0 0 0 - 7
Minneota 7 21 13 7 - 48
H-BC 38, GHEC-T 12
TRUMAN - The Patriots kept the GHEC/Truman Jaguars scoreless in the first half.
The Jaguars fought back in the last two quarters, but Hills-Beaver Creek held on.
Leading the Patriots (now 4-1) was junior quarterback Zach Scholten who had 13 complete passes out of 19 throws for 160 yards. He had two scoring passes and a 1-yard touchdown run. Cooper Vaughn was the top receiver for his team. He had six total receptions for 133 yards and two touchdowns.
Starting running back Isaiah Vis returned after sitting last week due to an injury. He was the prominent rusher and carried the ball 22 times for 77 yards. He also returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown.
Stuart Plimpton had nine tackles and one sack, and Logan Leuthold also had nine tackles with an interception for H-BC.
GHEC-T 0 0 6 6 - 12
H-BC 14 0 8 16 - 38
Cleveland 44, Fulda 6
FULDA - The Raiders were severely outmatched at home against Cleveland/Immanuel Lutheran Friday night.
The Clippers prevented Fulda from scoring until the fourth quarter of the game.
Brian Fenske scored the only points for the Raiders on a 56-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Justin Dierks. Dierks went 16-for -13 for 56 total passing yards. The leading rusher was Brandon Everett who had 13 carries for 55 yards.
Cleveland quarterback Carter Kopet had 15 complete passes out of 22 attempts. The Clipper offense had 229 total passing yards and 16 carries for 104 rushing yards.
Fulda falls to 1-4 and Cleveland advances to 4-1.
Fulda 0 0 0 6 - 6
Cleveland 7 17 7 13 - 44
Cherokee 47, Sheldon 29
CHEROKEE, Iowa - Cherokee passed for 272 yards and six touchdowns, outscoring Sheldon 34-0 in the first half.
Sheldon outscored Cherokee 29-13 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Orabs from falling to 0-4 on the season.
Joe Weppler had two of Sheldon’s touchdowns on runs of 34 yards and one yard. Teammate Jaden Kleinhesselink completed two touchdown passes to Colby Kleinhesselink covering 10 yards and 33 yards.
Cherokee rushed for 142 yards to account for 414 yards of offense. Sheldon passed for 46 yards and rushed for 167.
Weppler led the Orabs’ rushing attack with 15 carries for 69 yards. Devon Johnson had eight tackles and one sack for SHS.
Sheldon 0 0 15 14 - 29
Cherokee 27 7 7 6 - 47
H-LP 54, CC-E 0
ROYAL - Harris-Lake Park demolished the Clay Central-Everly Mavericks 54-0 on the road Friday evening.
This is the Wolves’ second straight game winning 54-0 and CC-E’s second time losing 0-54 this season.
Senior running back Thor Larson was instrumental for the high scoring offense as he contributed six of his team’s eight touchdowns. He had four rushing touchdowns on nine carries for 82 yards and two scoring receptions on two catches, one of 50 yards and the other 20.
Senior quarterback Dahlton Burdorf threw 6-for-10 for 151 yards and three touchdowns. The other leading rusher was Cale Hellinga who had four carries for 76 yards and a touchdown.
Harris-Lake Park had 153 total rushing yards and 187 passing yards.
The leading tackler for the Wolves was Keegan Carpenter who had 12, and next was Burdorf who had seven and an assist.
For quarterback sacks, Bret Sohn and Braeton Nitzschke had one each.
CC-E 0 0 0 0 - 0
H-LP 12 22 14 6 - 54
