The Lone Tree football team gets the season underway on Friday when they host the Midland Eagles. The Lions were 4-5 a season ago, finishing the year with three straight wins. Lone Tree had 2,401 total yards of offense including 1,363 on the ground. The Lions will have to replace Bryce Houser and his team leading 627 yards and 12 touchdowns on 116 attempts. They do return quarterback Harmon Miller as who went 70 of 139 through the air for 1,005 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions last season. Miller is also the team’s leading returner on the ground with 357 yards and seven touchdowns a year ago. Keegan Edwards is back as Miller’s favorite target, he accounted for 16 catches 335 yards and three scores last season. The Lions return their top three tacklers in Will Hotz, Cale Yoder and Brady Dauber who accounted for a total of 136.5 tackles. The Lions saw live action last week when they scrimmaged Central City.

Midland was 9-2 a year ago, making the postseason before being bounced by Iowa Valley. The Eagles had 4,702 total yards including 3,042 on the ground with 83 total touchdowns. Midland returns their top two ground gainers from last year in Britan Martens and Alex Smith for their senior seasons. The duo finished with 1,806 yards and 33 touchdowns. Through the air Martens was 77 of 153 for 1,292 yards 22 touchdowns and two picks. His favorite target was Jensen Dodge who is also back for his final season after pulling in 35 passes for 801 yards and 16 touchdowns last season. The Eagles have to replace their top three tacklers from last year with Dodge the best from last year with 36 stops. This week, Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr talked about the match up. “Midland the last couple years has been a really physical team. I have never seen a team with so many big bodies across the board. Last year they lined up in a phone booth in I-formation and said you try and stop us. They have the big guys that can  make that work. Their quarterback is a big dude. They do have some skill guys also on the outside so they aren’t just one dimensional. They have been one of the best teams in 8-man for the last four or five years.”

These two teams faced off to open the year last season with Midland taking a hard fought 50-47 win. The Eagle has over 350 yards on the ground led by Carter Mohr with 106 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns. Harmon Miller had a monster game for the Lions, accounting for 200 yards of total offense and five touchdowns. The Lions hurt themselves with three turnovers in the loss. Action begins at 7p.m. Friday at Lone Tree High School.