Click on the first link under the “LINK” column to view entire lists
Clear Lake players selected:
Josh Carlson - Running Back
Lukas Matheson - Running Back
Zach Lindquist - Offensive Line
Paul Dorseth - Offensive Line
D.J. Wilhelm - Punter
Jake Kopriva - Defensive Back
Ethan Tindall - Inside Linebacker
Steve Scarrow - Outside Linebacker
Patrick Kolker - Interior Defensive Lineman
Joe Bieber - Utility (Defensive Back)
Zach Mueller - Utility (Split End)
Drew Dickson - Running Back
Ryan Wilcke - Defensive Line
Jake Plagge - Quarterback
Zach Mueller
Alex Uhlenhopp
Drew Dickson
Levi Kellogg
Zach Lindquist
Ethan Tindall
Ryan Emerson
There is a reason Sioux City Heelan’s (#1)(13-0) Brandon Wegher is going to play college football at the Division I level. He is simply that good. He was by far the best running back the Lions have faced all year and the Lions could flat out not stop him. Wegher, who has indicated he will be in an Iowa Hawkeye uniform next fall, rushed for 252 yards on 34 carries and had 3 touchdowns. He also started the 2nd quarter with a 43 yard field goal. He was just too much for the Lions to handle. And, if Wegher wasn’t enough to worry about, the Crusader defense put the clamps on the Lion offensive attack limiting it to a season low 110 rushing yards. The Lions had only 2 first downs in the first half and struggled all night to move the ball.
The Crusaders took a 27-0 halftime lead into the locker room but were held scoreless in the second half. The Lions capitalized late in the 4th quarter and finally put some points on the scoreboard with a 28 yard pass completion from Jake Plagge to Steve Scarrow. D.J. Wilhelm came in and booted the PAT making the score 27-7 Crusaders. The final score would be 27-7 Sioux City Heelan. Heelan was the better team tonight and it will take a great effort by Decorah (who beat Pella Monday night) next Saturday in the championship game to knock the Crusaders off. My thoughts are the Lions played the eventual state champions tonight.
The Lions (#2) finish the season with an impressive 12-1 record. The Lions have qualified for the playoffs for 11 consecutive years. A huge Lion crowd was on hand in the UNI-Dome tonight to cheer on and support the Lions. Actually every game had a great Lion following this year. The Lions have much to be proud of. They were District 2 Champions, undefeated in the regular season, and made an 11th straight playoff appearance. Congratulations on a great year!
The Lions will return to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls to play in the semi-finals for the 5th time in school history. The Lions have played in the semi-finals in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 and now in 2008. The 2000 and 2006 teams played for the state championship with the 2000 team claiming top honors.
Bishop Heelan (Sioux City) (#1) (12-0) will be the Lion opponent. The Crusaders have held the #1 ranking since the first week of the season. They are the Class 3A state runner-up from a year ago losing to Keokuk in the championship game. This semi-final game pitts the #1 Crusaders against the #2 Clear Lake Lions (12-0) so it will have all the implications of a championship game. Both teams are undefeated and both teams have solid defenses and run oriented offensive attacks.
The Lions will have to find a way to stop, or at least slow down, University of Iowa recruit Brandon Wegher. Wegher has rushed for 2743 yards this year with 44 touchdowns. Against Harlan, Wegher rushed for 178 yards on 39 carries and 4 touchdowns which was a season low in game yardage but a season high in number of carries per game. The Crusaders will need to find ways to stop or slow down the multiple threat offense the Lions have.
This should prove to be a very exciting game in the confines of the beautiful UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Monday Novemeber 17th.
The snow fell the entire game but that didn’t seem to bother the Clear Lake Lions (#2) (12-0). The Lions defeated previously undefeated Carrroll (#8) (11-1) 27-12 Friday night at Lion’s Field. The snow probably favored the Lion running attack much more than the Carroll passing attack. The Lion defense held the Tiger offense to 119 total yards with 98 yards of that total coming through the air according to KRIB’s Bob Fishers statistics.
The Lions put points on the scoreboard first with a Lukas Matheson 2 yard run. D.J. Wilhelm connected on the PAT kick and the Lions led 7-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. Lukas Matheson would again find the end zone early into the 2nd quarter this time on a 13 yard scamper. Wilhelm’s PAT kick was good again and the Lions silenced the Carroll crowd leading 14-0. Carroll finally put some points on the board with 4:04 left in the half making the score 14-6 Clear Lake. The Lions used their timeouts effectively and added one more score with :28 left in the half with a Josh Carlson 2 yard plunge up the middle. Wilhelm again split the uprights sending the Lions into the halftime break leading 21-6. The Lions extended their lead early into the 3rd quarter when Lukas Matheson cut loose for a 37 yard race to the end zone. Wilhelm’s kick was just outside the uprights this time breaking a string of 20 consecutive PAT kicks. (However, Wilhelm did break the 33 year old school record for consecutive PAT kicks tonight. The previous record was 18 consecutive PAT kicks held by Erling Halle a foreign exchange student on the 1975 team.) The Lions now led the Tigers 27-6. Late in the 4th quarter the Tigers would put one final score up with a 5 yard pass completion on 4th and goal. The game would end with a 27-12 Lion victory.
The Lion defense would hold the potent Tiger offense to 119 total yards and only 8 first downs. The Tigers had been averaging 395 yards per game. Tiger standout Quarterback Blake Haluska was 12-22 -1 for 98 of those 119 yards. The Tigers simply could not get things going. The Lion defense put pressure on all night virtually shutting the Tigers down.
The Lion game plan stayed on course, as it has all year, with a ball control, ground oriented attack. The Lions racked up 363 total yards of offense with all but 2 of those yards coming from the ground attack. Lukas Matheson led the Lion rushing attack with 111 yards on 12 carries and 3 touchdowns. Josh Carlson also topped the 100 yard mark with 109 yards on 21 carries and 1 touchdown. Quarterback Jake Plagge added 56 yards on 6 attempts. Plagge was 1-2-1 for the 2 yards of passing and Zach Mueller had the 1 catch for 2 yards for the Lions.
The Lions will advance to the Class 3A semi-final game on November 17th at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. The opponent will be Bishop Heelan Crusaders game time is 4:30 p.m.
(Click on first link under “LINK” column for updated Class 3A bracket)
Quarterfinal Game Results
Bishop Heelan 38 Harlan 21
Clear Lake 27 Carroll 12
Decorah 21 Crestwood (Cresco) 7
Pella 19 Mt. Pleasant 5
The Carroll Tigers are the next stop on the way to the Dome for the Clear Lake Lions. The Tigers are making their 8th playoff appearance. The Tigers qualified in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, and now in 2008. Until this year, the Tigers were ousted in the first round. This year the Tigers beat Algona 35-0 in the sub state game to qualify for the playoffs and Monday night won their first ever playoff game 41-26 knocking Webster City out of the race.
The Tigers are a pass oriented team. Quarterback Blake Haluska has thrown for 2279 yards completing 117 of 191 attempts with only 7 interceptions and 25 touchdowns. His average completion is around 19 yard per catch.
The Lions run oriented offense has averaged 36.6 points per game so far this year. The Tiger defense has only allowed 10.5 points per game.
The winner of Friday’s game will play either Sioux City Heelan or Harlan in the semi-final game at the UNI-Dome Monday November 17th.
Carroll’s Road To The Quarterfinals
Carroll 35 Carroll Kuemper 7
Carroll 40 Carlisle 0
Carroll 15 JSPC (Jefferson) 5
Carroll 24 Perry 10
Carroll 34 Dallas Center-Grimes 0
Carroll 55 Saydel 0
Carroll 35 Ballard (Huxley) 7
Carroll 58 Boone 39
Carroll 46 Nevada 14
Carroll 35 Algona 0
Carroll 41 Webster City 26
Lukas Matheson became the first Lion on the 2008 team to surpass the 1000 yard rushing mark Monday night at Charles City. Matheson’s 64 yards on 12 carries was enough to vault him over the 1000 yard mark. To be exact, he now has 1035 yards rushing on 118 carries according to Bob Fisher’s KRIB stat software. Matheson became the first Lion to reach the milestone since Ryan Molencamp rushed for 1672 yards on 248 carries and now assistant 9th grade coach, Brian McIntire rushed for 1011 on 127 carries in 2000. Lukas joins an elite crew of only 8 Lions to ever reach such an accomplishment.
Lion 1000+ Season Rushers (Updated 11-22-08)
1) Ryan Molencamp (1672 on 248 attempts, 33 TDs) (2000) (13 Games)
2) Ryan Molencamp (1530 on 226 attempts, 20 TDs) (1999) (11 Games)
3) Dan Hansen (1507 on 264 attempts, 16 TDs) (1992) (10 Games)
4) Lukas Matheson (1198 on 180 attempts, 17 TDs) (2008) (13 Games)
5) Aaron Marken (1188 on 174 attempts, 14 TDs) (1990) (9 Games)
6) Tim Secory (1150 on 169 attempts, 22 TDs) (1998) (11 Games)
7) Dave Ward (1137 on 178 attempts, 13 TDs) (1974) (9 Games)
08) Dale Snyder (1044 on 246 attempts, 6 TDs) (1976) (9 Games)
9) Brian McIntire (1011 on 127 attempts, 14 TDs) (2000) (13 Games)
Updated Class 3A bracket - Click on first link under the “LINK” column.
Clear Lake (11-0) advanced to the quarterfinals Friday night with it’s second straight shutout defeating Charles City (8-3) 35-0 at Comet Field. The Lions have qualified for the quarterfinal round 10 of the last 11 years with last years 1st round loss to South Tama the only blemish in the streak. Clear Lake will host the quarterfinal game Friday against Carroll (11-0) who beat Webster City 41-26.
Clear Lake wasted no time in lighting up the scoreboard visitors light bulbs. With just over two minutes gone in the 1st quarter, Drew Dickson busted through the middle and raced 40 yards to the end zone for the first Lion score. D.J. Wilhelm added the PAT kick and the Lions were in the lead 7-0 with 9:51 left in the 1st quarter. Near the end of the 1st quarter, Lion Jake Kopriva scored from 1 yard out and Wilhelm again added the PAT kick to put the Lions ahead 14-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. The 2nd quarter was all Clear Lake as Charles City’s offense could not get much going. Josh Carlson scored on a 5 yard run and once again Wilhelm booted the PAT to extend the Lion lead to 21-0 with 8:20 left in the first half. Charles City tried the passing attack all night against the Lion defense with little success. Midway through the 2nd quarter Jake Kopriva picked off a Comet pass and demonstrated his speed and quickness and literally outran the Comet defense 75 yards for yet another Lion score. Wilhelm stayed perfect on the night with another PAT kick and the Lions led 28-0 with 6:08 left in the first half. With just :31 left in the first half, the Lions would add one more insurance touchdown with a 10 yard pass completion to Drew Dickson from Jake Kopriva. Wilhelm split the uprights again going 5-5 on the night sending the Lions into the halftime break in the lead 35-0. With the 35 point lead the clock ran continuous. The Lions maintained possession the entire 3rd quarter running 17 plays and moving the ball 74 yards to the Comet 6 yard line. The first play into the 4th quarter the Lions turned the ball over on downs after the Comet defense held on a fourth and goal from the six yard line. Charles City once again could not get the offense moving and the game would end with a 35-0 Lion shutout victory.
The Lions rushed for 258 yards on 47 attempts and were 1-4-0 for 10 yards passing for a total of 268 yards. Lion rushing leaders were Drew Dickson with 68 yards on 5 carries, Josh Carlson 66 yards on 16 carries, Lukas Matheson 64 yards on 12 carries, and Jake Plagge 30 yards on 4 carries. Kopriva was 1-2-0 passing for 10 yards and a touchdown and Plagge was 0-2-0 passing. Dickson caught the lone pass for 10 yards and a touchdown.
The Lion defense again flexed it’s muscles by allowing just 161 total yards. The Comets were held to 62 yards rushing on 15 attempts and were 10-21-2 for 99 yards passing. Obviously the Comets game plan was to throw against the Lions but the Lion defense shut that down early in the game.
Clear Lake (11-0) will host Carroll (11-0) Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at Lion’s Field in a battle of undefeated teams for the right to play in the semi-final game at the UNI-Dome Monday November 17th.
The road to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls will have to go through Charles City. The Lions will battle the Comets at Comet Field Monday night in the 1st round of the playoffs. The Lions had little trouble with the Comets earlier this year defeating them 38-8 on the Lion’s Homecoming. However, the Comets have put together a 8-2 season with their only losses coming to Clear Lake and playoff qualifier Webster City.
Last Wednesday the Comets upset a Boone team to qualify for the playoffs for the 4th time in school history. The Comets qualified in 1996, 1997, 2003 and now in 2008. They made it to the quarterfinals in 1997 before Decorah knocked them out. Lion fans will remember the 2003 game well. In the regular season the Comets beat the Lions 19-18. However, in the playoff game at Charles City the Lions would prevail in the game that mattered and leave with a 10-7 win
Clear Lake is making it’s 14th playoff appearance in school history and 11th in a row this year. The Lions are one of only 10 schools that have made more than 10 straight playoff appearances, and one of 5 schools that have a current streak of at least 10 playoff appearances. The Lions became the 8th team in school history to finish the regular season undefeated joining the 1926, 1934, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004 teams. The Lions have put together a 10-0 season outscoring thier opponents 368-103.
Clear Lake and Charles City have previously met 31 times on the gridiron. The Lions have a 16-15 overall win advantage. At home the Lions are 8-7 against the Comets and on the road the Lions are tied 8-8. The Lions have won the last four games with the Comets.
The winner of the game Monday night will play either the Carroll Tigers or the Webster City Lynx. A Lion win will ensure a home game at Lion’s Field Friday night (Nov. 7th) with either the Tigers or the Lynx.
Clear Lake Football Lion Tamers and Stat Girls
This week the Lion Tamers and Stat girls are the special feature of the Lion Football Website. You will see these girls doing a multitude of things on game night. Some are busy with equipment issues while others have a clipboard in hand and are writing down every play that is run. Still others are busy filling water bottles and getting ready to head out onto the field during a time-out. These girls also assist the officials with duties as necessary and are sideline help. The girls also work very hard during practice doing basically anything the coaches want done. The Lion Tamers were first introduced during the 1975 season and have been an important part of the football program ever since. The Lion Tamers used to throw mini-footballs (see picture below) into the stands with every Lion touchdown.
The 2008 Lion Tamers are Katie Ginapp, Steph Hensley, Rebecca Roseenthal, and Holly Thorpe. Stat girls are Macy Harty, Stephanie Olk, and Taylor Frerichs.
1975 Lion Tamers