Lions cap off perfect regular season

Lions cap off perfect regular season

By KIRK HARDCASTLE, kirk.hardcastle@globegazette.com
CLEAR LAKE — Clear Lake left no doubt who the Class 3A, District 2 champion is in 2008.

No. 2 Clear Lake dominated Webster City 31-6 on a soggy Lions Field on Friday in the district title contest.

“It wasn’t our best game last week,” middle linebacker Ethan Tindall said of the Lions’ 32-16 win over Hampton-Dumont in Week Eight. “We wanted to come out (Friday) with the home game and the district championship on the line and show who was best.”

Clear Lake also completed the sixth perfect regular season in school history and host a substate game on Wednesday night.

Clear Lake held Webster City’s single-wing offense to 131 total yards.

The Lynx were averaging 370 yards of total offense through the first eight games.

“When we first watched it on tape, we were a little suprised,” Tindall said. “We’d never really seen it before.

“The more we watched the film the better we got at it. Coach (Curt) Charlson prepared us very well. He’s a very good defensive coach.”

Clear Lake, which led 3-0 after the first quarter, added three touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 24-0 lead at the half.

Senior halfback Lukas Matheson, who rushed for 135 yards, scored two touchdowns in the second quarter (38 and 34 yards).

“We got it together there,” said Clear Lake coach Fred Wieck, who has his team in the postseason for the 11th straight year. “Offfense, defense, the field goal, the extra points, the kickoff teams — it was all-around a good half of football.”

Clear Lake compiled 356 yards of total offense, including 298 rushing.

Matheson led the way with his 135 yards. Drew Dickson was next in line with 61 yards.

“I don’t defend us, but I think it’d be hard to defend us because we have so many weapons.

“(Jake) Plagge had some nice throws. (Jake) Kopriva had a completion. Lukas had some great runs, again. (Josh) Carlson runs harder than heck.”

Webster City, which will also host a substate game on Wednesday, scored on its first drive of the second half to trim the deficit to 24-6.

Clear Lake answered on its ensuing drive with a 5-yard touchdown run from Dickson, his second of the night, to push the lead to 25 points.

Neither team scored in the final 11:53 of the contest and the Lions remained one of a handful of undefeated teams in Class 3A.

“It’s all we can do in the regular season,” Wieck said. “We had a couple of games we’d like to play again, but 9-0 is all you can do.”

Now, Clear Lake gets to play a home game against another district’s No. 4 seed at Lions Field, where the Lions are 25-5 since the 2003 season.

“It’s awesome,” Tindall said. “We’ve played our best games this year at home.

“We get a No. 4 seed coming into our house so we’re pretty confident.”

clear lakE 31, WEBSTER CITY 6

Webster City 0 0 6 0 — 6

Clear Lake 3 21 0 7 — 31

Scoring

CL — D.J. Wilhelm 32 field goal, 5:32.

CL — Lukas Matheson 38 run (Wilhelm kick), 11:31.

CL — Matheson 34 run (Wilhelm kick), 7:48.

CL — Drew Dickson 7 run (Wilhelm kick), 3:24.

WC — John HIll 2 run (kick failed), 4:27.

CL — Dickson 5 run (Wilhelm kick), 11:53.



TEAM TOTALS

WC CL

First downs 10 18

Rushes-yards 38-91 44-298

Passing yards 40 58

Comp-att-int 4-6-0 5-5-0

Total yards 131 356

Punts-avg. 3-34.3 0-0

Penalties-yards 2-15 5-50

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing — Webster City, Hill 21-54, Kevin Kannuan 7-39, Bret Hilpipre 1-6, Ross Haren 1-5. Clear Lake, Matheson 12-135, Dickson 10-61, Josh Carlson 6-29, Jake Plagge 2-20, Steve Scarrow 2-20, Grant Mickelson 4-19, Jake Kopriva 4-7, Tucker Weber 4-7.

Passing — Webster City, Brent Nelson 4-6-0 — 40. Clear Lake, Plagge 4-4-0 — 56; Kopriva 1-1-0 — 6.

Receiving — Webster City, Nate Treibel 2-24, Brandon Roberts 2-16. Clear Lake, Kevin Lu 2-38, Kopriva 1-8, Weber 1-6, Mickelson 1-6.