Lions blank Indians; clinch playoff appearance

A shutout win over Forest City has set the stage for a Class 2A, District 2 showdown this Friday in Clear Lake.  The top ranked Lions will take on unbeaten and fifth ranked Hampton-Dumont in a 7:30 p.m. contest between unbeaten teams.  The winner will be in the driver’s seat for the District championship.

The Lions (7-0, 5-0) clinched their 17th straight playoff appearance by simply overwhelming Forest City (2-5, 1-4) from start to finish Friday.  The Lion offense was propelled by quarterback Brock Adams, who was 6/10 passing for 177-yards and a touchdown.  He also ran for three scores.  Meanwhile the Lion defense kept the Indians in check, allowing just 76-yards through the air and 87 on the 

ground.

Coach Fred Wieck said his offensive line had a few mixups against Forest City, a team that likes to load the box with 11 players within five-yards of the ball. It’s something they will work on this week, said the coach.  “It’s a big one next Friday and we will be ready.”

Much more often than not, the Lions made the Indians pay for packing the box.  

The onslaught started with a 60-yard run by Chandler Diercks which set up the first score within minutes of the opening kickoff.  Adams scored his first TD running the ball in from two-yards out.  He struck again in the same quarter to give his team a 14-0 lead after one quarter of play.

Another big play, a 64-yard run by Adams, gave the Lions a 21-0 lead at the break.

Ernie Miszewski set the tone for the second half by taking the Indian kickoff 70-yards to the endzone.  

On their next series, Luke Maring grabbed a 56-yard pass from Adams to cap a four-play, 84-yard drive and make the score 35-0.  A five-yard run by Diercks later in the quarter stretched the lead to 42-0 at the end of three quarters.  The score held up as the Lions reserves made some impressive defensive stands in the final minutes.

Through seven games, the Lions have outscored their opponents 289-65.  With all that scoring, extra points have sometimes been unpredictable this season, but against Forest City M.J. Mixdorf stepped up.  The senior was six-for-six in the game.

As a team, the Lions collected 251-yards rushing, led by Adams and Diercks with 96 and 94-yards respectively.  Adams carried eight times and Diercks toted the rock six times.  Miszewski ran five times for 19-yards.  Tamarik Lee rushed three times for 12 and T.J. Hauser ran three times for 10-yards.  Jarod Anderson ran the ball twice and gained 10-yards.  Ryan Leisure and Parker Pitzen both rushed once and each gained four-yards. Christiano Gonzalez and Dustin King each carried once for one-yard.  Miszewski also had a fumble recovery.

Fullback Carter Garrington is out for the season with a leg injury.

Luke Maring finished with 110-yards on two receptions from Adams.  Diercks had one catch for 46, Mitchell Keeran caught one pass for 15-yards and Lee caught one for four-yards.  Thomas Miller got into the scorebook with one reception for two-yards.

Justin Sholly had a standout game for the Lion defense.  The Lion junior figured in 16 tackles, with two of them being solo tackles for a loss.  Tavian Coleman had three solo and eight tackle assists.  Zach Zwiefel also figured in eight tackles.  Other defensive leaders included Logan Wilcke with one solo and six assisted tackles.  Zach Tatum was credited with four solo and three assisted tackles.  Trapper Wubben made three solo tackles, two of them solo sacks, as well as two tackle assists.  Mitchell Keeran made three tackles, Tamarik Lee had two and one-half and MaKean Bang and Nathan Benson each had two.