Another Friday night, another convincing victory for the Clear Lake Lions varsity football squad.  The #3 Lions took down the Webster City Lynx 35-0 on the road to move to 7-0 overall, and 5-0 in the district.  The Lions offense started clicking early, with a 40 yard pass in the first quarter from Ozzie Adams to Drew Sorenson.  Paxton Farmer capped off the drive with a 26 yard TD run.  The ensuing Lynx drive ended promptly with an interception by Michael Keeran on a 3rd and 10.  That played spurred on stellar defensive play the remainder of the evening with physical play from Brady Horner, Logan Kellogg, and Jordan Kruger, among others.   Quarter two saw scores from Ozzie Adams (8 yard TD run), Nick Kruger (40 yard TD catch from Adams) and Brent Tarr (1 yard TD rush).  The first half saw tremendous defensive pressure on the quarterback resulting in 3 Lion sacks.  The scoring was capped off by Adams in the 4th quarter with a 19 yard TD run.  The Lions, which have won 24 straight district games, return to action next Friday at Hampton-Dumont and wrap up the regular season at home against Boone Oct. 22.  “We just need to keep playing the way we’ve been playing,” Adams said.

The freshman team used a strong running game and stingy defense to beat Ballard 30-12 Friday evening.  The Lions got things started on the opening kickoff when Alex Gonzalez returned the kick into Ballard territory.  A few plays later Clear Lake scored on a 28 yard touchdown run by Chase Lester.  Gonzalez ran in the 2 point conversion making score 8-0.  At the five minute mark of the second quarter Lorin Jones came up with a sack to help stop a Ballard drive.  Moments later Clear Lake would score on a 61 yard touchdown run by Lester.  Gonzalez ran in the two point conversion making the score 16-0.  Ballard would find the endzone just before the half and their two point conversion failed making the halftime score 16-6.  Clear Lake would create two turnovers in the third quarter.  Alex Webb intercepted a pass and Carter Hand would come up with a fumble recovery for the Lions.  Clear Lake would make the most of the extra possesions and put two scores on the board in the third.  At the 4:03 mark Lester would find the endzone again on a 41 yard run.  Two point conversion failed to make the score 22-6.  Just before the end of the third quarter Lester would run in from 62 yards out for the Lions final score.  Gonzalez ran in the two point conversion to put Clear Lake up 30-6.  Ballard would score again with less than two minutes left in the game and failed on their two point conversion.  This made the final score 30-12.  Coach Mike Lester said,”Offensively we moved the ball well.  Offensive line did a nice job up front.  The offensive line stayed on blocks which gave Chase Lester the opportunity to spring a few long touchdown runs!”  The offense had 340 yards of total offense.  Lester had 216 yards rushing and 4 rushing touchdowns.  Lester also was 3-6 passing for 51 yards and 1 interception.  Gonzalez had 47 yards rushing.  Hand had 36 yards rushing and 2 receptions for 31 yards.  Webb had 1 reception for 20 yards.  On defense Coach Lester said,”Defense made some big stops to keep Ballard out of the game.  They had a solid running back which our defense was able to contain.”  Pete Swenson had 4 solo tackles, 7 assists and 1 interception.  Lester had 3 solo tackles and 5 assists.  Jack Abbas had 1 solo tackle and 11 assists.  The Lions freshman are now 4-1.  Their next opponent Webster City is 5-0.  They will travel to Webster City to play on Friday October 8th at 4:45.

On Monday night September 27 the Lion J.V. Football team headed to Humboldt and took their first defeat of the year 20-8 to the Wildcats.  Some big play runs led to Humboldt jumping out to an early 14-0 first quarter lead.  The Lions had a nice drive of their own deep into Humboldt territory but the drive stalled and they turned the ball over on downs.  The lion defense played well and got the ball back for the offense.  The Humboldt defense came up strong, forced the Lions to punt and it was blocked and taken into the end zone for a touch down, 20-0 Wildcats.  The second half was a defensive struggle and both teams had a hard time moving the ball.  The Lions would score late in the fourth on a 31 yard touchdown pass from Luke Monson to Gavin Sheakley.  Brice Wilcke would take in the 2 point conversion for the final score of 20-8 Humboldt.  ”We came out a little flat and unfortunately some mental errors hurt us early.”  ”I’m proud of the way we battled back and shut them out the second half.”  ”If we can get that for a full 4 quarters we’ll be in good shape.” commented Coach A.J. Feuerbach.  The Lions will take their 4-1 record on the road again Monday October 4th at Ballard of Huxley.

After giving up double digit points the week before against Humboldt, the #3 ranked Lions were back to their defensive best in shutting out the Ballard Bombers 35-0.  The shutout was the 4th of the season for the varsity squad.  The action opened with teams exchanging punts on consecutive possessions.  The scoring opened toward the end of the first quarter with a Paxton Farmer 5 yard TD carry off right tackle.  Elliot Neuberger did much of the heavy lifting on the drive with some nice runs.  After stopping the Bombers on the next possession, Ozzie Adams opened the 2nd quarter with a nice swing pass to Brent Tarr to keep the defense off balance.  The Lions brought it to Ballard’s 37 yard line and on a 4th and 1 Brent Tarr provided the highlight of the night.  Adams handed the ball to Tarr up the middle and he appeared to be stopped short of the first down.  Tarr kept churning and escaped the pile, sprinted to the right flat and scrambled 37 yards for a TD to the delight of home crowd.  The Lions defense shut down the Bombers the rest of the half with Tanner Tusha, Brady Horner, and Logan Kellogg playing well all night shutting down Ballard runners.  Tusha and Josh Brood also chipped in defending the pass, both providing an interception on the evening.   Tarr even got in the act defensively with 4 tackles for loss on only a handful of plays.  “You got a little look at Tarr at defensive end,” Wieck said.  “He did a nice  job coming in there spot-playing and you’ll see some of that when we get into the tough ball games.”

The 2nd half was more of the same, the Lions ground game dominating and defense shutting down Ballard runners and passers.  The wind and rain also became factors as well, as Ballard struggled with their punts against the wind, setting up the Lions with excellent field position for multiple drives.  Tarr and Farmer provided running TD’s in the 3rd quarter to put the Lions up 28-0.  Farmer capped off his excellent evening with another running TD in the 4th quarter to bring the final score to 35-0.

The Lions travel to Webster City next Friday to take on the Lynx in an important district match up.  Both squads are 6-0, so first place in the district is on the line.