LCC Bears roll to big opening-season win over Homer Knights

HOMER — It was hard to figure out what was more impressive Friday night — the newly-tooled LCC rushing attack or the Bears’ stingy, swarming defense.

Both were operating at full capacity in the Bears’ season opener at Homer, and it was too much for the Knights to handle as the Bears ran away with a 78-14 blowout win to debut the 2020 campaign.

LCC shifted from its passing attack of years past to a running game, and the switch worked almost to perfection as the Bears racked up 46 points in the second quarter alone, 32 of them coming in the final three minutes of the opening half.

The teams traded touchdowns in the early going. LCC scored on its first possession with the first of five Evan Haisch touchdowns, a 2-yard surge that gave the Bears an 8-0 advantage.

Homer would answer when Jon Munoz got open in the secondary and took a 60-yard pass from Austin Baker to the house to make it 8-7, but LCC countered later in the period with Haisch’s second score, a 5-yard run that made it 14-7.

LCC’s defense joined in the scoring party late in the period with the first of two safeties to make it 16-7 after one period, setting the stage for their big quarter that saw them find the end zone six times in the second period.

Quarterback Evan Schmitt scored twice on 1-yard sneaks to get the big period going, with Sutton Ehlers scoring on a 15-yard run in between. Schmitt’s second tally came with just over three minutes to go in the half, starting a run that saw LCC put up 32 points in that final three minutes to take a commanding 62-7 halftime advantage.

The LCC defense scored its second safety of the half, and Haisch ended the half with scoring runs of 22, 26 and 51 yards to give LCC the 55-point halftime advantage. Schmitt added a 12-yard run in the

Schmitt added a 12-yard run in the third period and Lucas Rasmussen closed out the scoring in the final period with a 26-yard run to help the LCC gridders to a 1-0 start.

Haisch led the LCC ground attack with 183 yards on just 15 carries. Rasmussen had 74 yards on eight carries, Schmitt finished with 36 yards on seven tries and Nolan Ohlrich and Ehlers each had 32 yards on seven carries.

Schmitt finished 4-of-8 passing for 62 yards, with Ehlers and Cael Hartung both catching two passes for 30 and 28 yards, respectively.

Defensively, Haisch had five solo tackles, Deagan Puppe had three solos and two assists and Austin Hall had two solos and three assists. Hartung had three tackles for losses, including both safeties.

The Bears will host Wisner-Pilger on Friday.

PASSING LCC - Evan Schmitt, 4-8-62; Deagan Puppe, 1-1-6. Homer - Austin Baker, 9-18-177; Landon Gilster, 0-2.

RUSHING LCC - Evan Haisch, 15-183; Lucas Rasmussen, 8-74; Evan Schmitt, 7-36; Nolan Ohlrich, 7-32; Sutton Ehlers, 7-32; G. Erwin, 2-5. Homer - Landon Gilster, 5-22; Avery Overfelt, 5-23; Jon Munoz, 2-0; Angel Parades, 0-2; Austin Baker, 5- -13.

RECEIVING LCC - Sutton Ehlers, 2-30; Cael Hartung, 2-28; J. Rath, 1-11; Nolan Ohlrich, 1-3. Homer - Jon Munoz, 3-78; Landon Gilster, 4-66; Avery Overfelt, 2-33.

TACKLES LCC - Evan Haisch, 6; Deagan Puppe, 5; Austin Hall, 5; Cael Hartung, 5; Nolan Ohlrich, 4; Lucas Rasmussen, 3; D Puppe, 3; K Casey, 2; Sutton Ehlers, 2; Homer - Avery Overfelt, 14; Keaton Sell, 14; Carson Gardner, 7; Landon Gilster, 6; Joseph Coffin, 5.

Stay in the know!

To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or  in the Google Play Store.