Hawks finish regular season strong, head to Class A playoffs

MARTENSDALE — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks had already knew they were the Class A District 8 champions. They knew they were headed to playoffs.

The Hawks did not take their final regular season and district game lightly on Friday night. They kept moving forward to get ready for the playoffs with a 49-7 dominance of winless Martensdale-St. Marys.

“It was a challenging game for young people to stay focused, but our kids handled it well,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Mike Parkinson said. “It was a good game for us in several ways. We ran the ball and our rushing defense was outstanding.”

Senior Ty Breeden recorded six solo tackles and four assisted tackles for Lynnville-Sully’s defense. He had two tackles for loss.

Gage Schilling, a junior, had five solo tackles and two assisted tackles. Junior Jacob DeHoedt had three solo tackles and two assisted tackles.

Parkinson said the game also told the Hawks the things they need to work on as they prepare for the playoffs. Lynnville-Sully is in the Class A playoffs for the seventh time in eight years.

Early Saturday morning the Class A playoff pairings and brackets were announced by the Iowa High School Activities Association. The District 8 champion Hawks (7-2) travel to District 7 champion and top-ranked Hudson (9-0) to open the playoffs on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Hudson.

It’s a rematch of a 2017 Class A quarterfinal game between the Hawks and the Pirates. The Pirates won 30-0 and went on to reach the 2017 Class A championship game. Hudson lost 35-14 to West Sioux and was the 2017 state runner-up.

“We knew we had one more game to play. Our kids did not overlook Martensdale-St. Marys as an opponent,” Parkinson said.

Lynnville-Sully had 389 yards on 37 carries on the ground. The Hawk defense held the Blue Devils to minus-23 yards on 20 carries on their home field. The Blue Devils did get 14-of-39 passing for 234 yards.

The Hawks led 37-0 by halftime. Senior Tyson Vander Linden had three TD runs — 5 yards, 76 yards and 26 yards — in the first half. Vander Linden finished with 152 yards on nine carries. Senior Evan Squires had a 14-yard TD run in the first quarter.

To end the first-half scoring for the Hawks, senior Rylan James blocked a Blue Devil punt, scooped up the ball and scored on a three-yard return. Senior Nate Stock had two 2-point conversion runs and junior Slater Young kicked an extra point.

The Blue Devils scored on a 20-yard pass play from William Amfahr to Trey Baker with 10:33 left in the third quarter.

Lynnville-Sully answered with a 30-yard TD run by junior Ethan Wyma to make it 43-7 after three periods. Young had a 6-yard TD run with 10:38 left in the game. Wyma had 122 yards on 11 carries.

Wyma also had two quarterback sacks on defense. Junior Kinnick McFarland made three solo tackles and three assisted tackles.

Senior Grant Wehrle had two solo tackles and three assisted tackles.

Senior Nick Rea, Wyma and freshman Chance Stock had fumble recoveries. Junior Zane Fraker and Vander Linden each had an interception.

Martensdale-St. Marys (0-9, 0-5 in district play) had Amfahr complete 14 passes for 234 yards. Baker made seven catches for 113 yards.

“We got some big plays early with Tyson running the ball. Ethan Wyma had a big night running the ball well for us also,” Parkinson said. “What I love about our team right now is if one guys goes down from some reason, we have guys who rally around them and step up. We have some things to figure out before Friday night.”

Lynnville-Sully should have their leading passer and rusher — senior Gage Vander Leest — back at full strength. He has been hampered by an injury, seeing limited action recently and not playing at all against the Blue Devils.

“He’s been hurt and we’ve just been holding him out to get him healed up. Gage should be good to go on Friday,” Parkinson said.

Vander Leest was the starting quarterback, going 31-of-47 passing for 429 yards and four TD passes. He also has rushed for 1,052 yards on 159 carries this season with 10 TDs.

Junior Bray Noun Harder stepped in as quarterback. Noun Harder was 2-of-5 for 17 yards against Martensdale-St. Marys.

Vander Linden, who is the Hawks’ leading receiver, has been running the ball more. Vander Linden has 587 yards on 47 carries and has had 32 catches for 398 yards this season.

Squires finished the regular season with 491 yards on 64 carries and Wyma has 324 yards on 40 carries. Lynnville-Sully is sixth among Class A teams in rushing with 2,680 yards in nine games.

Lynnville-Sully won its final six games of the regular season to go 7-2. The Hawks went 5-0 in Class A District 8 play.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com