Balanced attack leads L-S football to blowout win over Cardinal

ELDON — Four different players completed a pass, 10 Hawks carried the ball at least one time and the Lynnville-Sully football team cruised past Cardinal on Friday night.

The Hawks scored all of their points in the first two quarters, rushed for 180 yards as a team and hammered the Comets 50-0 in non-district action.

L-S led 29-0 after one quarter. Dawson James scored on his only two carries of the game. He opened the scoring with touchdown runs of 36 and 7 yards and Gavin Fisk made it 22-0 following a 17-yard touchdown run.

James threw his first career touchdown pass when he hooked up with Jace Johnson on a 2-yard scoring play late in the first quarter.

Johnson added a 36-yard TD catch from Connor Deal early in the second and then Deal scampered 11 yards for a TD midway through the period. That was the first rushing TD of his prep career.

The final touchdown of the game came from Burt Johnson. He rushed for 22 yards on two carries and his 20-yard TD run with 2:34 left in the half was the first scoring play of his prep career.

The two teams played for the first time since L-S defeated Cardinal 74-0 in 2017. The Hawks also won 56-0 in 2016.

Lynnville-Sully (1-1) had a 13-6 advantage in first downs, and Cardinal committed eight penalties for 52 yards.

James rushed for 43 yards on two carries and two scores, Fisk gained 37 yards and scored one TD on six carries and Henry Sharp ran for 27 yards on two carries.

While 10 players had at least one carry, none of them ran the ball more than six times. The Hawks averaged 8.2 yards per carry.

Johnson hauled in four passes for 60 yards and two scores, JD Richards rushed for 12 yards on one carry and caught one pass for 11 yards and Jack Bowlin caught two passes for 13 yards.

James Roberts grabbed one pass for 11 yards in his prep debut and Jaxson Merten rushed for 12 yards on three carries.

Deal was 6-of-11 through the air for 82 yards and one TD, and he gained 13 yards and scored one TD on two carries.

Fisk led the defense with 6.5 tackles, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. James added four tackles and Johnson contributed three tackles.

Wyatt Mathis totaled one sack, recovered one fumble and snagged his first career interception. Ben Squires recovered a fumble for the first time in his prep career and Ashton Rozendaal grabbed his first career interception.

Alijan Frase led Cardinal (0-2) with 102 passing yards and two picks and Cayden Courtney grabbed three passes for 52 yards.

The Comets rushed for 31 yards on 18 carries, and Zach Luedtke highlighted their defense with 10.5 tackles.