Gehlen Catholic junior Jordan Sitzmann rips through a Marcus-Meridan-Cleghorn arm tackle as he scoots for a first down in the Jays' 20-6 Homecoming win. Sitzmann helped Gehlen improve to 3-1 in the district as he ran the ball 18 times for 95 yards and two scores in the win. [Click to enlarge]

The Le Mars Gehlen football team kept themselves near the front of the district race with a 20-6 win over Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn.

After dropping a rough game at Akron-Westfield a week ago, the Jays rebounded with a big win in front of a large Homecoming crowd.

"I think we handled the game pretty well," said coach Tony Gunter. "The kids were focused and really wanted to get that win. It was really a slugfest and the kids ran the ball extremely well."

Gehlen's Chris Gabriel pulls in a pass from Taylor Wurth during Friday bight's win over Marcus-Merdan-Cleghorn. The senior receiver caught six passes for 57 yards and one touchdown in the win. [Click to enlarge]

"We only had seven possession all night and one was just before halftime," he continued. "We were very happy with the way we were able to move the ball. We had a bunch of nice drives."

Gehlen (4-2, 3-1) racked up 17 first downs while utilizing the running game to put up 178 yards on 34 carries. Jordan Sitzmann carried most of the load as he had 18 rushing attempts for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

Quarterback Taylor Wurth had 14 carries for 77 yards on the ground while going 11-17 in the passing game with 108 yards and a score.

Homecoming king Chris Gabriel hauled in one of those touchdown passes from Wurth as he finished with six catches for 57 yards. Cody Campbell had 46 yards on four catches and Adam Nemmers had one catch for five yards.

Campbell also led the defense with 16 combined tackles, including eight solo stops, to hold the Eagles to just 186 yards of total offense.

With four solo tackles and 11 assists, Drew Kellen finished second on the team in tackles with 15. Micah Neary and Trevor Bouma each had seven total stops while Gabriel added six on the night. Austin Sitzmann also had six tackles for the Jays.

Campbell and Kellen also both had interceptions for Gehlen. Campbell returned his pick for 25 yards while Kellen had a 10-yard return on his interception.

Gehlen kicked off the scoring with 10 seconds remaining in the first quarter when Sitzmann found a hole in the Eagles' defense and scooted 10 yards for the Jays' first score.

However, just a few minutes later, MMC answered with a five-yard touchdown run by Lukas Nelson. Nelson finished with 21 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown for the Eagles. The extra point attempt was no good.

With less than six minutes remaining in the first half, Sitzmann added his second touchdown of the night on a one-yard plunge to make it 14-6 in favor of the Jays.

Gehlen was able to add an insurance touchdown early in the fourth quarter as Wurth found Gabriel streaking towards the end-zone and found the senior for a 10-yard touchdown pass as the Jays went on to win 20-6.

Up next for the Jays is a trip to Correctionville as Gehlen will take on River Valley. The Wolverines (2-4, 1-2) are coming off a 36-6 loss to Class A eighth-ranked Alta.

"We should be able to run the ball successfully in the next couple of games but we need to shorten our game and get our drives going," said Gunter. "We know that eventually we're not going to be able to run the ball against some of the really physical teams so we're going to keep working on the passing game."

"I like going to River Valley - I think it's a nice atmosphere to play in," he continued. "We seem to play well there and if we can win, it should sew up a play-off spot. But we need to take care of our business. We're kind of Akron fans right now because if the top three teams (A-W, Alta and Gehlen) all end up at 5-1, it doesn't really work out for us too well."