'Dogs throttle Spirit Lake

Anne Grady had 13 sets and 3 assists (Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) [Click to enlarge]

In a repeat performance from a year ago, in which LCS defeated Spirit Lake 55-0, the Le Mars Bulldogs decimated the Indians in a mercy rule-shortened contest Friday, September 26, 54-0.

The game started much as expected with the Bulldogs getting a quick score and the early lead, but Spirit Lake showed some gamesmanship, halting Le Mars drives on their second and third possessions. Bulldog head coach Jim Boyd says that he may have tried to do too much too early against the Indians.

"We jumped off early with a nice drive-we scored-we're thinking this is a cake-walk," said Boyd. "I got a little too cute with my play-calling. We wanted to look at trips and see how they adjusted to it. They didn't really adjust to it. They kept blitzing us and caused us some problems. Then we made some mistakes and got poor field position and you know how that snowballs. We started making some poor decisions, some poor reads, and we wound up in trouble."

The Bulldogs refocused, made some adjustments and scored on their next seven consecutive possessions to put the game away, stopping play with 1:39 remaining in the third quarter. Boyd says that the second and third Le Mars drives were a wake-up call to his players.

"They (Spirit Lake) shouldn't have made us mad. We were embarrassed. We knew what we could do," said Boyd. "Really, the line took over. In this particular game, the defensive and offensive lines just dominated the line of scrimmage. Once we figured out what they were trying to do on defense and we handled that blitz a little bit better, things started to click for us."

For the game, Le Mars racked up 312 yards of total offense to only 89 for the Indians. The Bulldogs rushed for 259 yards, with seven different players getting carries.

Kent Varenhorst was the top rusher for the game with 104 yards on 11 carries. Aric Riedemann had eight carries for 77 yards and two touchdowns, quarterback Craig Hector ran eight times for 25 yards and a touchdown, Jon Acres carried the ball four times for eight yards and one touchdown and Todd Caswell, Tony Haack and Dan Krienert also had carries for the Bulldogs.

Hector was only 3-7 passing for 48 yards, but all three completions were for touchdowns. Rob Kolar caught one ball for 19 yards and a touchdown, Acres had one catch for 22 yards and a score and Kyle Brooks caught a seven-yard touchdown pass, his first. Back-up quarterback Tony Haack came in and threw just one pass, a five-yard touchdown to Matt Gabel. Boyd says that it's just a glimpse of things to come from junior Haack.

"He threw a pass to Matt Gable to clinch the game for us," said Boyd. "That was a big catch for Matt-that was Matt's first touchdown. He was pretty excited and had a good game all around. Haack is one of those kids maybe a little unorthodox in his style, but he's an athlete. So you just give him the ball and let something happen and he makes it happen."

Although the offense for Le Mars eventually won out, the defense and special teams stepped up when the offense was out of sync and stifled any Spirit Lake hopes to make it a game.

The Bulldogs recovered four Indian fumbles, with Jordan Fischer, Jared Augustine, Varenhorst and Gabel all recording recoveries. Tyler Phelan led Le Mars in tackles with eight, five unassisted. Jordan Fischer had six and Kye Kolpin, Jared Penne, Blake Ahrendsen and Tyler Koopman all had five.

The special teams continues to put the team in excellent situations on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, according to Boyd.

"Our number one priority is special teams play and we're really fortunate that we have good coverage on our punts and on our kickoffs," said Boyd. "We kicked off eight times and our kids were down the field so fast. They (Spirit Lake) were trying the criss-cross stuff in the backfield and you don't do that against us, because you're not going to get any yardage. If we didn't put it in the end zone, we pinned them inside the 15-yard line three or four times. That's just outstanding play."

The Bulldogs will need to continue their outstanding play in the special teams facet of the game if they intend on having any success this season, as every team is bringing their 'A' game against Le Mars, according to Boyd.

"It seems like everybody we play, it's like a championship game," said Boyd. "These teams (like Spirit Lake) have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they can knock us off, it's a feather in their cap."

The Bulldogs (3-1, 2-0) will try to remain hot as they return home Friday, October 3 for homecoming against Storm Lake.