Photo Courtesy of Lone Tree School District Social Media

The Lone Tree Lion football team couldn’t slow down the rushing attack of Calamus-Wheatland Friday night, as the Lions dropped their third straight gridiron contest on homecoming night by a final score of 59-42.

Calamus-Wheatland had things humming early on with their offense, scoring on all three first quarter drives while holding the Lions scoreless in the process to take a 21-0 lead into the second. Then, in a lightning strike, Lone Tree’s offense was sparked by Junior Domonic Garcia’s 54-yard touchdown run midway through the second frame to inch slightly closer on the first play of a new drive. The Lions would find the end zone once more in the first half to cap off another one play scoring drive when Senior Maddox Jondle found Garcia to slice into the Warrior lead again. The Lone Tree defense was still struggling to find ways to get stops on the effective rushing attack of Cal-Wheatland, and gave up three second quarter scores to the Warriors to see their lead grow to 39-16 by halftime. Lone Tree’s only third quarter score came straight out of the locker rooms by Garcia once again, bursting through a gap in the kickoff defense of Calamus-Wheatland to draw closer. The Warriors weathered the storm the rest of the third quarter as well as the three Lone Tree touchdowns in the fourth to hold on for the victory to spoil the Lion’s homecoming.

Unofficially, Calamus-Wheatland won the yardage contest 438-253, and won the rushing battle 432-131. Lone Tree was led on the night by Maddox Jondle and Domonic Garcia. Jondle finished the night as the leading passer and rusher, throwing for 122 yards on a 6/12 mark and two touchdowns. Jondle added 80 more yards on the ground on 16 carries, including two more touchdowns, one being a 65-yard burst down the middle of the field. Garcia finished as leading receiver for the Lions, tallying 93 yards on four catches and two touchdowns. Garcia had two more scores on the night including the 54-yard touchdown run and kickoff return out of the halftime locker rooms. Calamus-Wheatland was led by Brayden Svejda and Brody Koch’s combined 60 carries for 366 yards and a whopping eight touchdowns. Koch had 41 total carries for 245 of those yards and six of the eight touchdowns. Svejda ended with 121 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns.

Lone Tree Head Coach Joe Donovan joined KCII Sports on the Area Game of the Week postgame show to discuss his team’s homecoming loss to Calamus-Wheatland. “They [Calamus-Wheatland] controlled the line of scrimmage just like Springville did a couple of weeks ago. We just gave up too many chunk plays,” Donovan said.

With the loss, Lone Tree moves to 2-4 overall on the season and 1-3 in district play ahead of a road matchup with Central City. With the win, Calamus-Wheatland moves to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in district competition ahead of a home game with Edgewood-Colesburg. The KCII Area Game of the Week will travel 15 minutes southwest into Washington County next week, with a third-straight homecoming matchup on tap between the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons and the homecoming Highland Huskies.