Photo Courtesy of Lone Tree Football Social Media

The Lone Tree football team puts their early season unbeaten streak on the line tonight, facing their stiffest challenge of the year to this point, a road trip to No. 14 English Valleys. The Lions are 2-0 after wins over Midland and Central City to start the campaign by a combined 60-14 score. In a 38-8 win over the Wildcats last week, Lone Tree was led by Cade Shield with 149 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns. He was eight of 12 through the air for 76 yards with 15 carries for 73 yards on the ground. Tyler Bell also added a rushing touchdown. Cade Patterson made seven catches for 68 yards. Matthew Hemsted led the Lion defense with 10 stops. Mitch Koedam recovered two fumbles and Patterson one. On the year, Lone Tree is led by Shield at 15 of 27 through the air for 101 yards. He’s the leading ground gainer with 177 yards on 39 carries and four scores. Patterson is the leading receiver with 11 catches for 86 yards. Defensively, Hemsted has 18.5 tackles.

English Valleys comes in at 1-0 on the year. The No. 14 ranked Bears opened the season with a 42-20 win over Midland. They rolled up 382 total yards including 319 on the ground and forced five turnovers. Beau Flander had 26 carries for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Ty Moore and Josh Osborn added rushing scores. Osborn also had a passing touchdown. Kaden Hall pulled in the aerial score. Moore led the Bears defense with eight and a half tackles. Hall and Flander each picked off a pass while Treyton Shaw recovered two fumbles and Osborn one. This week, Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr talked about getting ready for the Bears. “Midland lost to English Valleys by about the same margin that we beat them by. We know this is going to be our toughest competition of the year to this point and our most meaningful game since it’s the first one in district. The first thing with stopping English Valleys is finding Beau Flander and getting defensive players to him. He was the 100m champion in the state last year, so he’s a huge threat with the football. They have some very good guys up front on their defensive line that can penetrate.”

These two teams have played seven times all-time with Lone Tree winning six of them. The Bears only win in the series was a 39-22 victory last year. Action begins tonight at 7p.m. at English Valleys High School.