Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
SPRING GROVE — The Lyle/Austin Pacelli football team won its first ever Southern Confederacy, East Division game on Friday night.
This is the second year playing in the East Division for Lyle/Pacelli and after losing all of its conference games last season, the first win finally came on the road against Spring Grove. The L/P Athletics capped off a high-scoring contest with a 36-30 win.
L/P quarterback Sam Stier threw four touchdown passes and ran for another. The biggest pass of the game erased a two-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.
Dusty Riste hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Stier for the decisive score. Ryan Fett then caught a pass from Stier for the two-point conversion with about nine minutes left.
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The Athletics defense then hung on for their first win of the season as the Spring Grove Lions failed to score in the fourth quarter.
This was a back-and-forth affair right from the start. L/P marched down the field on the opening possession and scored in nine plays.
Zeb Henaman returned to top form and caught a short touchdown pass from Stier to get the scoring started. The Lions then answered with a pair of touchdowns for a 16-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
"We got the early momentum, but we missed the two-point conversion, and then they scored," L/P coach Mark Buntje said. "They got up by 10, but then we answered with another nice drive. They came back, then we scored again midway through the second quarter and the momentum started to turn."
The Lions had a long drive to open the second half and consumed nearly half of the third quarter. The home team had a couple of fourth down conversions and a penalty kept the drive alive. The lead was back to 10 for the Lions, but those were their last points of the game.
L/P answered again after a long run by Riste. Brady Stier caught his second touchdown pass of the game to finish the drive and with the conversion, it was once again just a two-point game heading into the fourth quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, Riste caught a screen pass from Sam Stier and eluded the Spring Grove defense to score the winning touchdown.
"We had a penalty that put it at third-and-long, but the screen pass was there and Dusty took it the distance," Buntje said. "Fett made a nice catch for the conversion, and our defense held out."
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Winning on the road is never easy and the Athletics had to fight to the very end. A late fumble gave Spring Grove the ball in L/P territory.
The Lions got it inside the 10-yard line, but on a fourth-and-1 play, their pass attempt fell incomplete as Sam Stier batted the ball away. Despite having Adel Hundorf run for 109 yards on 17 carries and quarterback Colin Kurk throw for four touchdown passes, the Lions fell to the Athletics.
"We still had to get one first down to seal it and we ran a pass to Zeb," Buntje said. "His ankle is still bothering him, but he was well enough to play and did a good job.
"Our interior linemen, Steven Troupe, Josh Stadheim and Bryce Orth, played well and wore down the Spring Grove defense. We had nice balance and the kids were happy with the win. We stayed together and played as a team."
Lyle/Pacelli (1-2, 1-1 East) plays at LeRoy-Ostrander on Friday night.
LYLE/PACELLI 36, SPR. GROVE 30
SCORING BY QUARTERS
Lyle/Pacelli 6 14 8 8 — 36
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Spring Grove 16 6 8 0 — 30
FIRST QUARTER
LP — Zeb Henaman 5 pass from Sam Stier (run failed), 8:07.
SG — Ryan Ostern 18 pass from Colin Kurk (Adel Hundorf pass from Kurk), 6:11.
SG — Hundorf 7 pass from Kurk (Chris Connelly pass from Kurk), 2:52.
SECOND QUARTER
LP — Sam Stier 2 run (pass failed), 11:06.
SG — Connelly 19 pass from Kurk (run failed), 9:56.
LP — Brady Stier 21 pass from S.Stier (Henaman pass from S.Stier), 7:39.
THIRD QUARTER
SG — Ryan Mehus 11 pass from Kurk (Connelly pass from Kurk), 6:47.
LP — B.Stier 2 pass from S.Stier (Ryan Fett pass from S.Stier), 3:26.
FOURTH QUARTER
LP — Dusty Riste 35 pass from S.Stier (Fett pass from S.Stier), 9:18.
L/P SG
First downs 20 15
Total scrimmage yards 426 295
Total yards rushing 239 144
Total yards passing 187 151
Passes attempted 24 20
Passes completed 15 11
Passes had intercepted 1 2
Fumbles/fumbles lost 2/1 0/0
Number of penalties 5 5
Yards penalized 50 55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Lyle/Pacelli — Riley Marsolek 13-81, Sam Stier 15-70, Nate Williamson 9-46, Dusty Riste 6-42.
Passing
Lyle/Pacelli — Sam Stier 15-for-24, 187 yards, 4 TD, int.
Receiving
Lyle/Pacelli — Brady Stier 4-78, Zeb Henaman 6-48, Dusty Riste 1-35, Ryan Fett 3-17, Nate Williamson 1-9.
Report compiled by Scott Kolb
