Pierz held off a spirited upset bid by Minnewaska Area during a 26-21 victory, Friday night at Pierz.  The Lakers outscored Pierz 14-6 in the second half, but the 20-7 halftime deficit was too much to overcome.

Carter Meyer, Asante Adams and Zach Gugisberg had the touchdowns for the Lakers, while Gugisberg also booted three extra-points.

“The guys played great,” coach Jared Lyle said.  “Pierz is a great team and we played with them the entire night.  I’m really proud of the guys.”

Minnewaska Area fell to 1-2 overall heading into this Friday’s game at 7 p.m. at home against Howard Lake-WW, which is also the Lakers’ Homecoming game.  HLWW is 2-1 overall after edging Rockford this pasta Friday, 14-7.

Pierz 26, Waska 21

The Lakers played a great game at Pierz, Friday, losing to the perennial top-notch football program, 26-21.  The Lakers held Pierz to just 249 total yards, but Minnewaska had three turnovers (two fumbles and one interception), which was too much to overcome.

Pierz was penalized 11 times for 85 yards, had possession of the ball for 33:04 compared to 14:56 for the Lakers.  Pierz utilized a good running attack, piling up 182 yards on 43 carries.

Minnewaska Area had 196 total yards on 35 plays, while Pierz ran 51 offensive plays and had 249 total yards.   The Lakers’ offense didn’t start out the best as Minnewaska turned the ball over on a fumble on its first possession and threw an interception on its third drive of the game.

Pierz scored the first touchdown, but the Lakers took a 7-6 first-quarter lead when Carter Meyer hauled in a 15-yard pass from Levi Johnson and Zach Gugisberg booted the first of his three extra-points on the night.

Aiden Jones, who ended the game with 96 yards on 18 totes, had two touchdown runs in the second quarter as Pierz went into halftime with a 20-7 lead.

The Lakers scored another touchdown on their second possession of the second half as Asante Adams ran in from 16 yards and Gugisberg kicked the extra-point, pulling the Lakers within 20-14 going into the final quarter.

Pierz came right back with a 10-play, 60-yard touchdown drive to score early in the fourth quarter and increase its lead to 26-14, but Minnewaska Area didn’t give up, scoring again on a 2-play, 65-yard drive as Levi Johnson connected with Meyer for a 39-yard gain on the first play and then Johnson hit Gugisberg for a 26-yard touchdown on the second play to cut the Pierz lead to 26-21.

The Laker defense came through with a stop of Pierz on their next possession, but the Lakers fumbled the ball away on the punt return with about four minutes left in the game and Pierz was able to run out most of the remaining clock to hold on for the win.

•  Johnson completed 9-of-14 passes for 157 yards with one interception.  Meyer had four catches for 64 yards and Gugisberg had three for 54, while Owen Meulebroeck (30 yards) and Tristan O’Neil (9) also had one reception each.

Adams ran nine times for 51 yards and Pierz held a 14-8 first-down edge.

at Pierz 26, Waska 21

Minnewaska (1-2) 7 0 7 7 — 21

Pierz (3-0) 6 14 0 6 — 26

Pierz — Jaxsen Hardy 35-pass from Liam Hennessy (pass failed)

Min — Carter Meyer 15-pass fr. Levi Johnson (Zach Gugisberg kick)

Pierz — Aiden Jones 5-run (pass fail)

Pierz — Jones 36-run (Joust run)

Min — Asante Adams 16-run (Gugisberg kick)

Pierz — Jones 7-run (run failed)

Min — Gugisberg 26-pass from Johnson (Gugisberg kick)

Team stats Min PIERZ

First downs 8 14

Rushes-net yards 21-53 43-182

Pass-cp-int-yds 14-9-1-143 8-5-0-67

Total yards 196 249

Fumbles lost 3-2 1-1

Punts-average 2-36.5 4-27.8

Penalties-yards 5-54 11-85

Minnewaska statistics

Rushing — MIN-Asante Adams 9-51, Levi Johnson 4-(-3), Kearri Dickens 3-3, Riley Dell 3-1, Carter Meyer 2-6 . . . PIERZ-Aiden Jones 18-96, Liam Hennessy 17-55, Braden LeBlanc 7-19

Passing (attempts-comp-intercept-yrds) — MIN-Levi Johnson 14-9-1-157 . . . PIERZ-Liam Hennessy 8-5-0-67

Receiving (catches-yards) — MIN-Meyer 4-64, Zach Gugisberg 3-54, Owen Meulebroeck 1-30, Tristan O’Neil 1-9 . . . PIERZ-Jaxsen Hardy 3-35, Bo Woitalla 2-9, Aiden Jones 1-10, Braden LeBlanc 1-0, Carter Young 1-13

Punts — MIN-Connor Frey 2-36.5

Returns — Kickoff-Miles Wildman 2-33, Kearri Dickens 1-25. . . Punt-Wildman 3-3

Defense — Fumble Rec-MIN-UA . . . Inter-MIN-None . . . Sacks-Min-None

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