March 29, 2024

Tigers rip past Cardinals in district play; area football roundup

All five area high school football teams opened district play Friday night. Three captured wins — Colfax-Mingo Collins-Maxwell/Baxter and Prairie City-Monroe — Newton and Lynnville-Sully, which played Colfax-Mingo, took losses in Week 3 of action.

Grinnell 39, Newton 21

Newton High’s Cardinals had an opening touchdown march of 59 yards on 13 plays Friday night. Senior running back Joseph Banfield bulled over from one yard out to put the Cardinals up 7-0 over visiting Grinnell Tigers in Class 3A District 6 action.

Banfield rushed for an unofficial 144 yards and scored three touchdowns for Newton. But it wasn’t enough.

On Grinnell’s first offensive play, junior running back Jake Simon busted loose on an 71-yard touchdown run. The Tigers tacked on a two-point conversion to take an 8-7 lead with 5:43 left in the first quarter.

Simon, unofficially, finished the game with 190 yards and three touchdowns. Simon’s running combined with quarterback Cade McKnight’s 8-of-19 for 104 yards passing and two touchdown passes guided the Tigers to a 39-21 win over the Cardinals.

There was no scoring in the second quarter with Grinnell taking its 8-7 lead to the locker room at halftime. The Tigers ripped through Newton’s defense for three touchdowns in the third quarter by the 5:38 mark.

Newton had two long touchdown drives in the third and fourth quarters with a touchdown run by Simon sandwiched in between.

“Our margin for error is so small,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said. “We allowed big plays again tonight on defense. We, as coaches, have to figure out what we can do to help our guys make the plays.

“We will keep grinding. These guys don’t give up. Right now, it’s not about our record. It is about finding ways to be successful with the players we have.”

Newton is 0-3 for the first time in eight years and is 0-1 in district play. The Cardinals go to Benton Friday in 3A District 6 action.

Grinnell scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes to beat the Newton freshmen, 20-14.

Colfax-Mingo 40, Lynnville-Sully 15

COLFAX — Jared Myers threw for 321 yards and rushed for 128 during a rout of Lynnville-Sully in Class A District 7 play Friday night.

Myers scored two touchdowns on the ground and threw two more to Colin Lourens and Jarod Nichols.

Lynnville-Sully took advantage of a Colfax-Mingo turnover and used a short field to go up 8-7 early in the first quarter, but the Tigerhawks scored the next 20 points and led 27-8 at halftime.

"We got some momentum early and our boys played the way they are capable of playing tonight," Colfax-Mingo coach Jeff Lietz said. "The big key was defensively. We played very well on that side of the ball. To hold those guys to two touchdowns was big."

Myers threw for 193 yards in the first half and his touchdowns included a 35-yarder to Lourens and two short rushing scores.

"I thought we had better athletes in space tonight and we won the matchups 1-on-1," Myers said. "This is a statement game for us. We are here to play and we should be ranked with the best teams in Class A."

The Hawks needed one play to get back in the game on the first drive of the third quarter as Sage Ehresman rumbled 67 yards to make it 27-15.

Colfax-Mingo, though, scored on its next play as Myers ran for 20 yards then fumbled and Blake Summy recovered and took it the rest of the way for a 25-yard touchdown run.

"This game announces that we are in the district race and we are not here to get fourth," Lietz said. "We are here to win it and hopefully we can keep the momentum going."

Neither team scored again until Jacob Buehrer put the Tigerhawks' win away with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:58 to play in the game.

Myers and Jacob Lietz both had interceptions on defense for Colfax-Mingo (2-1, 1-0) and Myers and Buehrer also recovered fumbles. Lynnville-Sully Caden Dunsbergen picked off Myers in the first half as well.

There were seven turnovers in the game — four by Lynnville-Sully and three by Colfax-Mingo.

"We can't turn the ball over, period," Lynnville-Sully coach Mike Parkinson said. "We gave up too much in the return game and had poor field position all night, too. Offensively, we didn't make the plays we needed to make all night. We have work to do."

Lynnville-Sully starting quarterback Kobe Fisk was injured in the fourth quarter and did not return.

Ehresman rushed for more than 100 yards in the loss for Lynnville-Sully (1-2, 0-1).

Colfax-Mingo travels to Belle Plaine next Friday, while Lynnville-Sully hosts Montezuma in Sully.

PCM 42, Centerville 14

CENTERVILLE — Logan Gilman threw for 275 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for another score as the Mustangs started Class 2A District 7 play with an easy win over Centerville.

The Mustangs broke open a close game with a 21-0 advantage in the second quarter and then outscored their hosts 14-0 in the third quarter.

Gilman was 18-for-22 in the game and 14 of those completions went to Noah Clark and Luke Greiner. Clark and Greiner both caught seven passes for 116 yards and two scores.

Logan Littrell also scored an 11-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to give PCM (2-1, 1-0) an early lead. Littrell rushed for 61 yards in the win and had two catches for 25 yards.

The Mustang defense forced Centerville (0-3. 0-1) into three turnovers. Sheldon Speers had a pick and Tyler Dredge and Austin Sneller each recovered a fumble.

Reid Jenkins led the defense with eight solo tackles, two assisted tackles and two tackles for loss. Sneller had three solo tackles and six assisted tackles.

PCM travels to Davis County next Friday.

CMB 52, Davis County 20

BLOOMFIELD — The Raiders scored 27 unanswered points in the first half and cruised to the Class 2A District 7 win on Friday night.

Blake Coughenour tallied 203 total yards and five touchdowns in the victory, while Nate Bishop and Hunter McWhirter combined to throw for 180 yards and three scores.

Davis County (0-3, 0-1) got on the board first following a Ben Kincart 2-yard run, but CMB answered with 27 straight points and led 33-14 at halftime.

Brady Stover got on the Raiders (3-0, 1-0) on the board with a pick six and then made it 15-6 following a 6-yard touchdown run.

Bishop hit Coughenour for a 76-yard touchdown late in the first quarter to make it 21-6 and then Coughenour gave CMB a 27-6 lead after an 11-yard scoring run.

Coughenour added a 10-yard touchdown run at the end of the first half and then began the second-half scoring with a 2-yard rushing score.

McWhirter connected with Coughenour on a 41-yard touchdown pass play to put CMB up 45-14 and then Bishop found Stover on a 20-yard passing strike to extend the lead to 52-14.

CMB had 357 yards to Davis County's 165. Hunter Gunderson led the CMB defense with 6 1/2 tackles, while Brad Ritter had six tackles and Charles Robertson tallied 5 1/2. The Raider defense forced Davis County into four turnovers.

CMB heads to Nevada next Friday.