Lions put up 21 straight to down visiting Panthers
MOUNT IDA — Trailing most of the night, Mount Ida put up 21 unanswered points to take a 37-36 win over Magnet Cove at Preston Stidham Field.
Senior John Hoeksema blocked a punt for the Lions (3-3, 1-0 2A-5) with 54 seconds remaining and down by 6. Sophomore quarterback Caleb White connected with John Hoeksema on a 13yard pass to tie the game, and the senior then split the uprights to set the final.
“I was just proud of my guys for fighting back,” said Lions head coach Zack Wuichet. “You know, it’s been a tough season. Faced a lot of adversity. We’re young, we’re starting about seven sophomores on both sides of the ball. I knew we’re going to be good eventually; you just don’t know when sophomores become high school football players. And I think tonight was a big step in that direction.”
While the Lions are known to be a hard-nosed running team, they had to go with a completely different strategy Friday night during that final
drive, reverting to passing.
“Luckily we dedicate just a little bit of time every week to it,” Wuichet explained. “My strategy was getting the ball to one of the Hoeksema boys who seemed to carry us most of the night, and we just wanted to make sure we kept the ball contained to a sideline where we could control the clock and just ease our way down the field — don’t go for the big home run shot — but just do what we do but a little different with the passing game.”
After Magnet Cove (3-2, 0-1) dominated the field much of the night, Magnet Cove head coach Caleb Carmikle said his team’s offense just stalled late in the game.
“We had the ball when we were down on the far end driving and had a chance, I really thought, to put it away, and we just stalled out,” he said. “And that really shifted the momentum. They scored like the next play or two later, and they were right back in it. We put ourselves in bad situations with the pre-snap penalties — things you can’t do to beat a good team. We shot ourselves in the foot a lot, but hats off to Mount Ida. You know, obviously they have a lot of tradition over here and coach Wuichet is doing a good job. I know they’re a really young football team. They played hard and deserve to win.”
Magnet Cove senior running back Landon Stone, who tallied 274 rushing yards on the night, put the Panthers ahead early in the first quarter. Mount Ida later responded and had their first taste of momentum when sophomore Ashton Humphries recovered a Panthers fumble at midfield and sophomore Jack Hoeksema went on a 45-yard dash to set up a 6-yard touchdown from sophomore running back Jacob Woodfield. Jack Hoeksema carried the ball in on the conversion play to knot the score with 2:37 left in the opening quarter.
The 5- 9, 180- pound Stone proved hard to bring down, spinning his way into the end zone early in the second quarter from 46 yards out. He scored again with only 19 seconds left in the half to put Magnet Cove up 20-8 at the half
The Panthers began eating time away time the clock in the third, denying the Lions from gaining an offensive possession. Mount Ida junior Blake Collum helped shift the momentum in the game with a 55-yard scoop-and-score at the 3:49 mark. Junior Baylor Bates added the two-point conversion to make it 20-16 Panthers.
Momentum quickly shifted back to the Panthers with a 34yard touchdown run by Stone, who switched to quarterback in the second half, and a two-point conversion by sophomore Julius McClellan. They got the ball back moments later off a fumble recovery during the kick.
“He’s played quarterback before,” noted Carmikle of Stone. “He was our quarterback when he was in junior high, but he’s one of the kids wherever you put him on the field he’s going to excel. You know, Landon, he’s a competitor, and he’s a winner. … He did a good job there for us.”
Maintaining possession.into the fourth, the Panthers junior Brayden Campbell scored from 6 yards out while Stone drove in the two-point conversion for a comfortable 36-16 Magnet Cove lead. Then came the Lions.
After John Hoeksema fielded the kickoff at the 49-yard line, younger brother Jack broke for
51 yards on the first play for the touchdown. Junior Gavin Summitt tacked on the extra two to make it 36-24.
Halting a long Panthers’ possession and still trailing by 12 with
2:51 remaining, the Lions shocked the defense when Bates hit Jack Hoeksema in the end zone to pull within 36-30 after the failed conversion. Mount Ida regained the ball shortly after when a partially-blocked punt gave them possession at midfield to set up the dramatic ending to the game.
“A lot of momentum shifts, you know,” said Wuichet. “And with both of us kind of playing games with our special teams as far as onside kicking, it’d kind of throw the momentum each way — like we didn’t possess the ball in the third quarter on offense, and we’re down two scores. You don’t win many ballgames like that, so for our kids to stay in there after not even taking a snap in the third quarter showed a lot of drive in them.
“I think defense really stepped up in the second half there. We changed nothing — nothing scheme-wise in the second half — we just simply told the kids the effort wasn’t there in the first half. So you saw a big difference in effort there.”
Carmikle said that despite the loss, he hopes his team can recover and get things going in the right direction.
“We’ve got to get healthy,” he said. “You know, we’re pretty banged up. We lost two more tonight. … Hopefully by when we through towards the end of the season, we’ll have some of our guys back and we’ve got some junior high kids that will move up and help us, and can put a more complete football team on the field. I don’t think our season’s lost. I think we’ve got a lot of young talent. We’ve just got to put it together and find ways to win these conference games.”
Jack Hoeksema finished with
202 rushing yards for the Lions while White went 2 for 5 passing for 20 yards, and Bates finished with 92 yards. Collum led the defense with 12 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery, John Hoeksema had eighth tackles, a sack and two forced fumbles and sophomore Ashton Humphries had nine tackles and a fumble recovery.
Mount Ida will host Poyen (1-0,
6-0) Friday night while Magnet Cove will host Gurdon (4-1).