Sports

GOOSE LAKE The North Cedar Knights were a winner in the coaching debut of new coach Charlie Feller in a 28-0 road win at Northeast Goose Lake last Friday night. The win snapped an 11-game losing streak dating back to the second to last game of the 2011 season. North Cedar showed off a new, exciting spread offense that put a lot of points on the scoreboard and racked up the yards. The Knights had 40 yards of total offense in the game. The football game matched two first year coaches with North Cedars Charlie Feller and Northeast Goose Lakes Jared Block. The kids did a marvelous job all the way around and I am very pleased, said North Cedar football coach Charlie Feller. They saw all their hard work they put in this summer and in the preseason camp pay off in a victory, he said. North Cedar scored on two first quarter possessions. Jayden Johnson scored the Knights first touchdown of the season on a 6-yard touchdown run with 6:05 left in the opening quarter. The touchdown capped a 58-yard drive. After a short Rebel possession, the Knights went to work again and scored again, this time, putting together a 53-yard drive that took 1:41 off the clock. Derrick Gray crossed the goal line with 2:52 left in the opening quarter from 5 yards out and after a twopoint Gray conversion run, the Knights led 14-0. Gray scored his second touchdown of the game, just six seconds into the second quarter (11:54) and after a PAT kick the Knights led 21-0. The weather then forced a delay in the game due to lightning. A delay of 53 minutes was taken. Once play resumed, the Knights resumed moving the football. North Cedars final points of the half came with 5:18 before halftime. That is when Johnson connected with Seth Hamilton for a 7-yard touchdown pass, giving the Knights a 28-0 lead at halftime. The two teams had hoped to continue play in the second half, but, more lightning derailed that plan as the game was called due to weather. Feller said that he and the Knight coaches wanted to see how his team would respond to game situations against another team because it is hard to create that intensity in practice. One of our (coaches) concerns was not knowing them in game situations or how they would play when the lights came on. There is no way possible that we could emulate that in practice. I thought that we handled ourselves well and we (coaches) got a lot of information on our guys to take back and study, he said. Jayden Johnson turned in a nice game at quarterback, going 8-for-16 for 82 yards and rushed for 70 yards on 11 carries with 1 touchdown. Derrick Gray rushed for 125 yards on 16 carries and scored twice in one-half of play. Jacob Hay was the top North Cedar receiver with four receptions for 40 yards. Northeast Goose Lake had only one ball carrier rush for positive yards out of five ball carriers. Nick Bailey rushed for one-yard on one-attempt. Will Hasken passed for 15 yards on two completions. Jack Murphy caught both passes for those 15 yards. North Cedar will play at home for their 2013 home opener when they play the North Linn Lynx. North Linn fell to Alburnett 39 to 6 last Friday. North Linn will be hungry for a win when they come in here. They are quick and physical on offense. We will take this game very seriously, said Feller.
North Cedar NEGL 1 2 3 4 14 14 - 0 0 - Final 28 0

September 4, 2013

Page 13

Knights Win Opening Game After Lighting Delay

North Cedars Hunter Smith carries the football during the Knights 28-0 win over Northeast Goose Lake last Friday. Photo by Ross Eberhart, DeWitt Observer.

Wyatt Helmle (40) of Durant breaks through the line for a 1st down during the 1st quarter of the Wildcats season opening game with Louisa-Muscatine. Helmle rushed for 46 yards in the game. Photo by Dave Chesling.

Falcons Wear Down Wildcats In Second Half Of Opener

DURANT At halftime, Durant coach Greg White knew that his team was giving it all they had and for one half it was enough as the score was nearly tied, 16-14 in favor of state rated Louisa-Muscatine. However, the second half the Falcons wore down the Wildcats with a far larger offensive line while racking up over 400 yards of offense to score 30 unanswered second half points to get a 46-14 win. White said that he was as happy as he could be for a loss, knowing that his team played very well with a state rated team in the first half. We were matching the #9 team in the state and we were excited about that at halftime. We basically were doing what we wanted to do on offense it seemed and we were moving the football, said White. It boils down to that they wore us down and we didnt have a rotation that could keep up with that and it took a toll on us. They are just a big tough football team, he said. Durant got the ball first and took advantage of it. The Wildcats had four first downs and three big plays on their opening drive that ended with their first touchdown of the season. It started with a 19-yard run by Wyatt Helmle on their sixth play from scrimmage and was followed by a 13-yard scamper by Alex Rouse. That set up a leaping grab by Alik Lorenz a few plays later for a 20-yard gain. On the next play at the 12-yard line, Henry Hansen took the ball almost untouched into the endzone. After a Nathan Paulsen PAT the score was 7-0. Louisa-Muscatine didnt waste time when they had the football, scoring quickly on their first drive on a Ryland Crawford 2-yard touchdown and after a Brandon Toomer two-point run the Falcons held a 8-7 lead with just over five minutes left in the opening quarter. Durants defense then took over, playing inspired football in the second quarter, allowing no more points on the scoreboard by the Falcons. For the Wildcats, however, they also didnt score, but Durant stayed close at halftime, trailing 16 to 14. The second half was the Falcons running the football all over. Louisa-Muscatine scored two touchdowns in each of the third and fourth quarters and had over 400 yards of offense in the half. Durant responded with more big plays. Rouse completed a pass for 20 yards and after a short run, found Alik Lorenz streaking down the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown. Another Paulsen PAT gave Durant a 14-8 lead. L+M came back and took a 16-14 lead after a 31-yard touchdown run by Blake Kemp with 1:33 left in the opening quarter. Durant had 200 yards of total offense at halftime including 120 passing from Alex Rouse added to 80 rushing yards. The Falcons had 277 yards of total offense in the first half. Louisa-Muscatine had 648 yards of total offense, all coming on the ground. Brandon Toomer rushed for 320 yards on 33 carries and had two touchdowns. Blake Kemp rushed for 264 yards on 14 carries and also scored three times. Durant had 318 yards of total offense in the game with 163 of them coming on the ground. Henry Hansen rushed for a team high 68 yards on eight carries and scored a touchdown. Wyatt Helmle rushed for 46 yards on 13 carries and Nick Keiming rushed for 61 yards on four carries. Alex Rouse passed for 120 yards on 6-of-9 completions with a touchdown and an interception. Will Bentley also got in for a few snaps and completed 3-of-9 pass attempts. Keimig caught six passes for 66 yards including a one-handed catch in the first quarter that made the highlight reels on TV stations in the Quad Cities. Alik Lorenz caught two passes including a long touchdown pass. Defensively, Jay Randolph led four players with at least 10 tackles with 14. Conrad Hoover had 12 while Nick Keimig and Alik Lorenz each had 10 tackles. On special teams, Nathan Paulsen made two PATs and had 107 yards on three kick-offs while Rouse aver

#2 Nicholas Keimig of Durant gets past #30 Ryland Crawford, on the ground, of LM to get the 1st down during the 1st quarter. Keimig had 6 receptions for 66 yards and a touchdown in the game. Photo by Dave Chesling. aged 30.5 yards on punts. Heading into this weeks football game at another state rated team in West Branch, the Wildcats have plenty to work on. We have to tackle better on defense. We let a few plays get extended because we didnt get a guy down. On offense, we are still looking at what we can do and what we cant do. I think that we surprised some people tonight, said White. Durant will travel to West Branch Friday to face the 9th ranked Bears (class 1A). Kick-off is scheduled for 7. The Wildcats will travel to Tipton on Friday, September 13 to open district play.
L+M Durant

Scoring Summary: 1Q (6:05) NC Jayden Johnson 6-yard run (PAT Kick Failed) 1Q (2:52) NC Derrick Gray 5-yard run (Gray 2-pt. Run) 2Q (11:54) NC Derrick Gray 16-yard run (Oliver Skov-Thuesen PAT Kick) 2Q (5:18) NC Seth Hamilton 7-yard pass from Jayden Johnson (Oliver Skov-Thuesen PAT Kick) Individual Statistics: Passing: North Cedar: Jayden Johnson 8-16 82 yards 1 TD. NEGL: Will Hasken 2-8 15 yards; Tevin Bormann 0-1 0 yards.

North Cedar receiver Jacob Hay turns upfield after catching one of his team high four passes last Friday. Photo by Ross Eberbart, DeWitt Observer.
Rushing: North Cedar: Derrick Gray 16-125, Jayden Johnson 11-70, Hunter Smith 7-42. NEGL: Tevin Stoecker 6-11, Will Hasken 3-11, Nick Bailey 1-1, Charlie Bormann 1-0, Mitchell Moehr 1-(-2). Receiving: North Cedar: Jacob Hay 4-40, Seth Hamilton 2-20, Derrick Gray 1-15, Trever Greene 1-7. NEGL: Jack Murphy 2-15.

1 2 16 0 14 0

3 16 0

4 Final 14 46 0 14

Scoring Summary: 1Q (8:19) D Henry Hansen 12-yard run (Nathan Paulsen kick) 1Q (5:57) LM Ryland Crawford 2-yard run (Brandon Tomer Run) 1Q (3:48) D Alik Lorenz 43-yard pass from Alex Rouse (Nathan Paulsen kick) 1Q (1:33) LM Blake Kemp 31-yard run (Brandon Toomer Run) 3Q (9:00) LM Brandon Toomer 7-yard run (Toomer Run) 3Q (3:11) LM Brandon Toomer 3-yard run (Austin Bohling Run) 4Q (9:16) LM Blake Kemp 40-yard run (Bohling Run) 4Q (5:26) LM Blake Kemp 82-yard run (PAT Kick Failed) Team Statistics: First Downs Rushes-Yards Passing Yards Total Yards 648 Comp.-Att.-Int. Punts-Ave. 0-0 Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards L+M DURANT 26 15 67-648 32-163 0 155 318 0-3-1 9-18-3 2-36.5 2-2 1-1 10-80 11-55

Individual Statistics: Rushing: L+M: Brandon Toomer 33-320, Blake Kemp 14-264, Ryland Crawford 9-35, Austin Bohling 7-23, Tristan Rinnert 1-4, Aaron Bohling 1-(1). Durant: Henry Hansen 8-68, Wyatt Helmle 13-46, Nick Keimig 4-61, Alex Rouse 4-8, Brandon Dykes 1-(-5), Will Bentley 2-(-15). Passing: L+M: Austin Bohling 0-3 0 yards 1 INT. Durant: Alex Rouse 6-9 120 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT; Will Bentley 3-9 35 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs. Receiving: L+M: None. Durant: Nick Keimig 6-66, Alik Lorenz 2-71, Henry Hansen 1-18. Tackles: Jay Randolph 2-12 14, Conrad Hoover 2-10 12, Nick Keimig 5-5 10, Alik Lorenz 1-9 10, Brandon Dykes 4-5 9, Tanner Kleppe 0-7 7, Levi Schneider 2-5 7, Levi Novinski 2-4 6, Wyatt Helmle 2-3 5, Dallas Feurbach 0-3 3, Drew Larion 0-2 2, Henry Hansen 0-2 2, Macellen Humphreys 0-2 2,Denver Feurbach 0-1 1. Special Teams Statistics: Kick-Offs: Nathan Paulsen 3-107 yards. Punting: Alex Rouse 2-61 yards, 30.5-yard average.

North Cedar quarterback Jayden Johnson looks to pass to an open receiver while under pressure during the Knights 28-0 win at Northeast Goose Lake last Friday. Johnson threw for 82 yards and rushed for 70 yards. He threw for one touchdown and rushed for another in the Knights win. Photo by Dain Jeppson.