•  Morris Area-CA scores three TD’s in fourth to earn victory

Morris Area-CA scored three touchdowns in the final quarter to beat Minnewaska Area in the high school football opener at Morris, Thursday night, 46-27.

The Tigers led 28-13 at halftime, but the Lakers scored the only touchdown of the third quarter to close the gap to 28-21.

Morris Area would go on to score three touchdowns in the final quarter while the Lakers added one more score.

Minnewaska Area, coached by Jared Lyle, went 2-7 last fall and 2-5 in the Mid State NW White Division.  The Lakers outgained the home team, 319-304 in total yards, but Minnewaska Area also turned the ball over three times.

Miles Wildman, Riley Dell, Levi Johnson and Carter Meyer ran for touchdowns for the Lakers, while Drew Huebner threw three touchdown passes for the Tigers.

The Lakers are set to host Sauk Centre for the home opener at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 6 on Veterans’ Field on the MAHS campus.

•  Albany and Rockford tied for top honors in the Mid State Northwest White Football sub-district last fall with 6-1 league records, followed by Pierz (5-2),  Montevideo (4-3), Howard Lake-WW (3-4), Sauk Centre and Minnewaska (both 2-5) and Melrose Area (0-7).

Gone from last year’s team are Austin Ballhagen, Austin Weber, Nathan Dell, Bode DeZelar, Jack Majerus, Myles Reichmann, Austin Hoverud, Cole Kittelson, Kenneth Czech, John Jenson and Ben Jenson, but the Lakers do return a number of key individuals.

Morris 46, Waska 27

The Tigers pounded out a 46-27 victory over Minnewaska Area, Thursday night, running for 143 yards and throwing for another 161.  Morris Area went up 8-0 after one quarter, but the Lakers took a temporary lead with two-straight touchdowns in the second quarter.

Miles Wildman scored on a three-yard run on the second play of the second quarter and Riley Dell added another three-yard run for a touchdown a little later with Zach Gugisberg kicking the extra-point on the second touchdown.

A 70-yard pass play from Levi Johnson to Gugisberg set up the touchdown by Wildman.

Suddenly, the Lakers were up 13-8.  Morris Area would go on to dominate the rest of the first half, scoring three times to go into halftime up 28-13.

In the third quarter, Johnson scored on a six-yard touchdown run and then hit Noah Jensen for the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 28-21.

After scoring, the Lakers were successful with an onside kick, but a couple plays later, the Lakers fumbled the ball back to the Tigers at midfield.

Moments later, the teams traded interceptions with Carter Meyer snaring an intended pass for Morris, but the Lakers throwing an interception on the next play.

The Tigers would go on to score only 59 seconds into the final quarter to increase their lead to 34-21.  Morris Area scored again to go ahead 40-21 before the Lakers scored their final touchdown of the game on a 16-yard run by Carter Meyer.

•  The Lakers struggled running against the Tigers, picking up 94 yards on 27 carries with Meyer running seven times for 31 yards and Riley Dell carrying the ball four times for 22 yards.

Levi Johnson completed 13-of-19 passes for 225 yards with Gugisberg catching six passes for 81 yards, Owen Meulebroeck snaring four for 78 yards, Noah Jensen catching four for 27 yards and Tristan O’Neil hauling in three for 13 yards.

On defense, Jensen had a fumble recovery and Meyer had an interception, but other defensive stats were not available.

at Morris 46, Waska 27

Waska (0-1) 6 7 8 6 — 27

Morris Area 8 20 0 18 — 46

Team stats Min MOR

First downs 12 19

Rushes-net yards 27-94 36-143

Pass-cp-int-yds 20-13-1-225 21-9-1-161

Total yards 319 304

Fumbles lost 3-2 3-3

Punts-average 4-30.5 3-33.3

Penalties-yards 7-53 5-20

Minnewaska statistics

Rushing — MIN-Carter Meyer 7-31, Riley Dell 4-22, Levi Johnson 4-17, Kearri Dickens 2-17, Asante Adams 5-5, Miles Wildman 3-3, Owen Meulebroeck 2-(-1) . . . MOR-Grayson Gibson 10-53, Mitch Moser 16-58

Passing (attempts-comp-intercept-yrds) — MIN-Levi Johnson 19-13-1-225; Marc Gruber 1-0-0-0 . . . MOR-Drew Huebner 20-9-1-161

Receiving (catches-yards) — MIN-Zach Gugisberg 6-81, Meulebroeck 4-78, Noah Jensen 4-27, Tristan O’Neil 3-13, Dickens 1-0, Luke Danielson 1-33 . . . MOR-Riley Asmus 6-111, Jack Kehoe 2-37, Andrew Marty 1-19

Punts-ave — MIN-Riley Dell 4-30.5

Returns — Kickoff-Adams 3-45, Wildman 1-19, Dickens 1-27. . . Punt-Adams 2-12

Defense — Fumble Rec-MIN-Noah Jensen 1 . . . Interceptions-MIN-Carter Meyer . . . Sacks-Min-None