The Lone Tree Lion football team hosts the Central City Wildcats Friday in a week one contest. The Lions officially opened the season last week, knocking off Midland 22-8 in a week 0 tilt. After falling behind early, Lone Tree scored 22 unanswered to secure their first victory over the Eagles in their last four tries. KCII JET Physical Therapy Athlete of the Week Tyler Bell was a big reason why. The Lone Tree senior posted 72 rushing yards on 12 carries and scored two of the Lions three touchdowns. He also accounted for eight tackles in the victory. Cade Shield also had a big night on offense in the Lone Tree win, putting up 129 yards of total offense, 104 on the ground on 24 carries. Matthew Hemsted led Lone Tree with eight and a half tackles, seven solo.

Central City is opening their 2021 season tonight. The Wildcats were 2-6 last season with wins over West Central and Central Elkader. They lost five seniors from last year’s team including leading passer Ethan Tye who was 10 of 32 for 188 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Their leading receiver has also departed with Marshall Van DeVegte making 11 catches last season for 276 yards and four touchdowns. The Wildcats top tackler Cole Silver has moved on through graduation after a senior season with 47 tackles, 22 solo and 6.5 for loss in 2020. Central City scrimmaged Winfield-Mt. Union last week. This week, Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr talked about the keys for his team. “I’m counting on a big improvement from week one to week two. Our guys are happy to get the win, as am I, but there are a lot of things that we could have done better. This team is going to want to work hard and come out to get that stuff corrected. Central City did a pretty good job against Winfield-Mt. Union last week in their scrimmage. It will be interesting to see because they run a lot of things that are unique to most in 8-man football. We’ll have to be disciplined.”

These two teams have met twice previously with the Lions winning both including a 26-18 win in the last matchup in 2017. Action starts tonight at 7p.m. at Lone Tree High School.