Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted scored four touchdowns in its first five drives on the way to a 43-16 victory at Minnewaska Area, Friday night on Veterans Field at Glenwood State Bank Stadium.  Minnewaska, which fell to 0-7 overall, did score on its final possession of the first half and first drive of the second half to pull to within 29-16, but HLWW went on to score the final two touchdowns for the 27-point victory.

The Lakers were set to close out the regular-season at undefeated Eden Valley-Watkins, Wednesday, Oct. 19 before opening up the Section 6AAA playoffs, Tuesday, Oct. 25, most likely at second-seeded NLS or Morris Area-CA.

HLWW 43, Minnewaska 16

HLWW rushed 33 times for 359 yards and five touchdowns to win the battle of the Lakers, Friday night, 43-16.  Minnewaska Area did have 136 passing yards from PJ Johnson and 110 yards rushing from Jack Majerus, but it wasn’t nearly enough to beat HLWW, which improved to 5-2 overall.

HLWW scored on four of its first five possessions to take a 29-0 led early in the second quarter.  Minnewaska countered with a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to end the first half to cut the deficit to 29-8 and then went 55 yards in 12 plays to score again to open up the second half to cut the HLWW lead to 29-16.

PJ Johnson threw a 9-yard pass to Austin Ballhagen for the Lakers’ first touchdown, with Ballhagen also taking in a pass from Johnson for the two-point conversion.

Majerus scored the second touchdown on a 4-yard run and Johnson connected with Austin Weber for anther two-point conversion.

HLWW scored two more touchdowns on their next two possessions, while Minnewaska was forced to give up the ball on downs on its final two drives.

•  Majerus ended the game with 110 yards rushing on 26 carries while also catching one pass for 18 yards.  Chase Boelke added 37 yards rushing on six carries, while Ballhagen had four catches for 63 yards while also carrying one time for a 15-yard gain, Hunter Kloos had two receptions for 39 yards, and Austin Weber had two for 16 yards.

Collin Boese led HLWW with 133 yards rushing on eight carries with two TDs.

HLWW 43, at Waska 16

HLWW 14 15 6 8 — 43

Minnewaska 0 8 8 0 — 16

Team stats Min HLWW

First downs 16 18

Rushes-net yards 42-161 33-359

Pass-cp-int-yds 25-9-1-136 3-1-0-15

Total yards 297 374

Punts-average 0-0 1-0

Fumbles-lost 3-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 9-58 6-40

Minnewaska statistics

Rushing — MIN-Jack Majerus 26-110, PJ Johnson 9-(-1), Chase Boelke 6-37, Austin Ballhagen 1-15 . . . HL-Colton Long 12-87, Collin Boese 8-133, Cam Jones 2-90, Wiley Wiegert 3-24

Passing (attempts-comp-intercept-yds) — MIN-PJ Johnson 25-9-1-136 . . . HL-Mitchell Malak 3-1-0-15

Receiving (catches-yards) — MIN-Austin Ballhagen 4-63, Hunter Kloos 2-39, Austin Weber 2-16, Jack Majerus 1-18 . . . HL-Mason Mochinski 1-15

Punts-average — MIN-None

Returns — MIN-Kickoff-Weber 1-26, Majerus 4-26 . . . Punt return-Jack Larson 1-4

Defense — Tackles-Unavailable . . . Sacks-None . . . Interceptions-None . . Fumble recoveries-None