It was a completely different showing for the Lion football team last Friday night in Charles City where they faced the Comets just a week after being blanked by the Humboldt Wildcats.
The loss meant that in order to win the district title, the Lions would need to beat Charles City and then hope Webster City (who the Lions defeated 10-2 back in September) could take care of business against Humboldt.
The Lions, took care of business on their end first, defeating the Comets 56-7 after four quarters of play.
Lion quarterback, Cael Stephany, found success in the passing game, throwing for 106-yards on eight completions and four touchdowns, three of which went to junior Thomas Meyer.
Meyer caught four passes for 52-yards and three touchdowns in the victory, while Sam Dodge had one catch for 44 yards and a touchdown.
Titan Schmitt stayed busy on the ground, rushing for 207-yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns, while Blake Enke had four carries for 16-yards and a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
Kinnick Clabaugh had a great night for the Lions as well, with nine kickoffs, three touchbacks and a perfect night on point-after-touchdown kicks, going eight-for-eight on the night.
“We are clicking on all cylinders which is great, because it gives us confidence,” said Lion head coach Aaron Stensland. “If we need to throw next week, it looks like we can throw with confidence, if we need to run, it looks like we can run with confidence, special teams were fantastic, defense, besides the one first play of the game, was fantastic so I hope the kids have tons of confidence moving into next Friday.”
Starting the game, however, the Lions had a bit of a scare as the Comets came out with a trick play that had the Lion fans worried that the Humboldt loss had carried over into the final week of the season.
The Comets started the game from their own 20. The first play saw Charles City quarterback Jordan Foster pitch the ball to Kaden Littleton who in turn launched it through the air to Keenan Wiley for an 80-yard touchdown catch and run.
The Comets were on the board.
The Lions started off strong after a Sam Dodge kick return put Clear Lake at their own 44.
The Comet defense was stout, and forced a fourth down, but the Lions converted to stay alive.
Cael Stephany was under center for the Lions and would connect with Thomas Meyer for 15-yards to set up running back Titan Schmitt for a 29-yard rushing touchdown to put the Lions on the board.
It was all downhill from there as the Lions would hold the Charles City Comets off the board for the remainder of the game, forcing five punts throughout the contest.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lions were up 14-7 and by halftime, Clear Lake had jumped ahead 42-7 as they found rhythm in both the passing and ground games.
By the end of three quarters, the mercy rule was in effect (running clock after falling into a 35-point deficit) and the Lions put the reserve players in.
Leading 49-7, the Lions scored once more with two minutes left in the contest. The Lions awaited the outcome of the Webster City-Humboldt game, that saw the Lynx defeat the Wildcats and hand the district championship to the Lions.
“These kids have earned it. To go 8-1 this season has been tremendous. We needed some help and I don’t like having our fate in other people’s hands, but we got the help we needed and these kids earned an 8-1 season regardless of what happened tonight. To be able to call ourselves district champs is just fabulous.” said coach Stensland.
The Lions will now host Bishop Heelan (8-1) on Friday and the winner will go on to face the winner between Algona (6-3) and Sioux Center (8-1).
Stats
1 2 3 4 F
CL 14 28 7 7 56
CC 7 0 0 0 7
Team Stats
CL CC
Passing 9-13 4-13
Pass Yards 110 108
Pass TDs 4 1
Rushing 43 12
Rush Yards 340 20
Rush TDs 4 0
Tackles 23 47
Sacks 0 0
PAT 8-8 1-1
2-pt 0 0
FG 0 0
Individual Stats
Passing
Att Yds TDs
Stephany 8-11 106 4
Theobald 1-2 4 0
Rushing
Att Yds TDs
Dodge 6 36 0
Hartl 6 22 0
Stephany 2 15 0
Kerr 1 20 0
Enke 4 16 1
Schmitt 16 207 3
Otto 2 0 0
Theobald 6 24 0
Receiving
Rec Yds TDs
Erpelding 2 5 0
Dodge 1 44 1
Kerr 1 5 0
Enke 1 4 0
Meyer 4 52 3
Tackles
Total Sacks TFL
Dodge 1.5 0 0
Hartl 3 0 0
LeFevre 0.5 0 0
Cavett 2 0 1
Kerr 1 0 0
Enke 1 0 0
Otto 0.5 0 0
Larson 0.5 0 0
Allsbrook 3.5 0 2
Bieber 1 0 0
Bunn 0.5 0 0
Orchard 1.5 0 1
Litzel 3 0 0
Johnson 1.5 0 0
Meyer 2 0 1
Fumble Recoveries
Rec Yds TDs
Bieber 1 0 0
Interceptions
INTs Yds TDs
Fuhrman 1 31 0
Punt Returns
Ret Yds Avg
Dodge 2 49 0
Kick Returns
Ret Yds Avg
Dodge 1 24 0
Field Goals
FG PAT
Clabaugh 0-0 8-8
