Photo Courtesy of Lone Tree Football Social Media

A slow start didn’t derail the Lone Tree football team in their week 0 season opener against Midland. The Lions fell behind 8-0 in the first quarter but scored 22 unanswered to take down the Eagles 22-8. Midland had won the previous three in the series and looked poised to keep the streak intact when Brayden Grau found paydirt on an opening quarter touchdown run.

The Lions took over from there. They scored in each of the final three quarters to erase the lead and seal the win. Tyler Bell found the endzone twice on the ground and Caden Smith returned a Midland punt for a touchdown. This week on the KCII Radio Coaches Corner, Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr talked about what he saw from his team in the first game of the year. “We found some matchups that we liked on the offensive line. We have a lot of depth compared to other teams and that is in part to a lot of these guys starting or getting significant game experience a season ago. We ran a lot more I-formation and power sets than I thought we might but once we found something that worked we stuck with it. On defense, with this squad we have so many guys that I would classify as alpha personalities, dogs, guys that have a lot of pride in what they do. They are physical, natural defenders. Chad Shield, our defensive coordinator, there is not a better guy in 8-man at doing what he does.”

Lone Tree outgained the Eagles 233 to 186 on the night including 208 to 146 on the ground. Cade Shield led the Lion rushing attack with 104 yards on 24 carries. He was also seven of 15 through the air for 25 yards. To go along with his two touchdowns, Tyler Bell had 72 yards on 12 carries. Cade Patterson made four catches for 18 yards. Matthew Hemsted led the Lion defense with eight and a half stops including seven solo. With the win, Lone Tree is 1-0 on the young season. They host Central City on Friday. Midland falls to 0-1 and they will host English Valleys this week.