March 28, 2024

Hawks post second straight blowout, win 70-0

Image 1 of 2

PLEASANTVILLE — After putting up a 61-0 victory two weeks ago, Lynnville-Sully football coach Mike Parkinson had one of the the best concerns a coach could have Friday night.

Rather than worrying about losing on a last-second play or a haunting turnover, Parkinson simply had to clear up that his team wasn’t intentionally scoring too many points on its opponents.

Junior Bailee Samson accounted for four touchdowns and the Hawks were unstoppable on offense, even with a running clock in the second half, on the way to a 70-0 victory over Pleasantville to extend their record to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in Class 1A District 6.

“I have a high respect for Pleasantville, their team and their coach, and you never want to put too many points on a team, but we’ve just really been working with the kids on not backing down or relaxing,” Parkinson said. “It didn’t matter who we put out there, that’s our message to our kids, and you can’t really fault anyone for making good plays.”

Much like the Hawks’ 61-0 victory over Southeast Warren two weeks ago, they got out to a fast start against the Trojans. Samson scored his first touchdown around a minute-and-a-half into the game from 35 yards out. After the Hawks forced a Trojan three-and-out, senior quarterback Cale Van Wyk hit Darin Hofer on an 18-yard touchdown to put L-S up to a quick 15-0 lead.

The Hawks’ next score, a 21-yard run by junior Caden Doll, occurred after a Pleasantville fumble and would be the last one before the game’s longest scoreless stretch. Pleasantville put together its best drive of the game by gaining a few first downs, but the Hawks stopped them when it counted and regained possession as the first quarter expired.

After an unsuccessful red zone trip, Lynnville-Sully was forced to punt. They then forced a punt from Pleasantville on its next possession, which Samson fielded before weaving in and out of Trojan defenders for a 60-yard touchdown to put the Hawks up 29-0 with seven minutes left in the half.

Lynnville-Sully added two more touchdowns on a three-yard plunge by Samson and a 58-yard pass from Van Wyk to senior Nathan Russell, but it also committed a turnover inside the 10-yard line. The Hawks actually took the ball back two plays later, but turnovers and penalties are the two things Parkinson has picked out for improvement in the past two weeks.

And by the way, the Hawks committed nearly no penalties in the game.

“We just need to work on hanging on to the ball a little bit better,” Parkinson said. “As far as penalties go, that was awesome by our guys. I don’t know if we had any penalties in the first half, and we just did a good job of playing clean and staying composed.”

With the running clock mercy rule in effect to start the second half for the second week in a row, the Hawks still put 13 points up thanks to Samson and junior Daniel Zimmerman. They also forced another turnover, which is something that would become prevalent late in the game.

“We take a lot of pride in our defense here and we want people to understand the Hawks play really good defense and it’s going to be a dogfight to score against us,” Parkinson said. “But at the same time, we’re going to see some really good teams that are going to score, so we need to understand how to bend and not break in those situations.”

Junior quarterback Brandon Dunsbergen scored what seemed to be the Hawks’ final touchdown with seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but the Trojans just weren’t able to stay on the field. Then, with less than a minute on the clock, L-S junior Payton Scandridge picked off a pass and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown to energize the Hawk faithful in the stands one more time.

The string of high-scoring games could continue next week when the Hawks host North Mahaska. Not only is it Lynnville-Sully’s Homecoming game, but North Mahaska has been shut out in four of its seven games this season.

Parkinson already has his eye out for overconfidence, however, and took some words out of Hayden Frye’s book to get his team ready for its new opponent.

“Enjoy this one for a little while, but come tomorrow after we watch the film, we need to flush it and get ready for next week.”

Lynnville-Sully 70, Pleasantville 0

Score by quarter

L — 22 21 13 14 — 70

P — 0 0 0 0 — 0

Scoring summary

First quarter

LS — Bailee Samson 35-yard run (Cale Van Wyk to Daniel Zimmerman two-point conversion successful), 10:33

LS — Van Wyk 18-yard pass to Darin Hofer (Jamie Rea kick successful), 6:28

LS — Caden Doll 21-yard run (Rea kick successful), 5:24

Second quarter

LS — Bailee Samson 60-yard punt return (Rea kick successful), 7;39

LS — Bailee Samson three-yard run (Rea kick successful), 3:00

LS — Van Wyk 58-yard pass to Nathan Russell (Rea kick successful), 43.8

Third quarter

LS — Daniel Zimmerman four-yard run (Rea kick successful), 6:11

LS — Samson one-yard run (Rea kick failed), 2:36

Fourth quarter

LS — Brandon Dunsbergen five-yard run (Rea kick successful), 7:00

LS — Payton Scandridge 62-yard interception return (Rea kick successful), 17.6

L-S Individual stats

Passing (Comp.-att., yards, TDs-Ints): Cale Van Wyk 5-8, 107, 2-0

Rushing (Att.-yards, TDs): Bailee Samson 14-112, 3; Caden Doll 8-79, 1; Daniel Zimmerman 9-46, 1; Brandon Dunsberger 2-15, 1; Cale Van Wyk 6-12

Receiving (Rec.-yards, TDs): Nathan Russell 3-75, 1; Darin Hofer 1-18, 1; Doll 1-14

Defense: TJ Cunningham INT; Payton Scandridge INT, TD