Looks like that VanDerWerff kid might still be at Lansing....probably a different kid tough. Pretty common name.
Lansing, Kan. —
The Lansing football team needed this.
After starting the season 1-3, the Lions were desperate for a victory Friday night. But after a lethargic start against a winless Bishop Ward team, wherein the two squads were tied 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, uneasiness started to creep into the bleachers at Frank Graham Field.
All that worry was washed away though as Lansing went go on to score 34 unanswered points, 20 in the second quarter, to secure a 54-13 homecoming victory.
“Our kids lost a tough one last week and we really needed to have a big win,” Lions head coach Bill Pekarek said. “It was great to see a lot of good defense and a lot of scoring on offense. It was overall a good night for us.”
Lansing started the game in dominant fashion. Ward received the opening kickoff and went three and out. The Lions then drove 40 yards before failing on a fourth down attempt deep inside Cyclone territory. However, Ward could do nothing with the following possession and punted three plays later.
The Lions again drove the ball deep into the visitor’s terrain and this time Lansing would not be denied. On a fourth and long, Lions quarterback Litton VanDerWerff sailed a ball down the right sideline that dropped comfortably into the waiting arms of Lansing receiver Lucas Mein. The 30-yard strike put the home team up 7-0 with four minutes remaining in the period.
Back came the Cyclones though using four minutes and 11 plays, one of which was a 46-yard pass completion, to set up a three-yard TD run by quarterback Luke Slupski. At the end of the quarter, the scoreboard read sevens for both squads.
“You know they have played everybody pretty well for the first quarter this year,” Pekarek said. “We had three possessions in that first quarter where we only scored one time so we needed to execute better. But our guys came back and kept fighting.”
To start the second, VanDerWerff lead the Lions on another successful series. The senior accounted for 50 yards of the 63-yard drive, which was capped off by Tyler Ayres on a three-yard TD rush up the gut at 7:14. The corresponding extra point was missed.
The counter-strike put Lansing up 13-7 and the Lions had the ball again 90 seconds later when the Cyclone offense stalled once more. On this drive, Nick Hughes took charge as the Lion running back blew through the right side of the Ward defense for a 39-yard TD scamper. The possession put the Lions up 20-7 with 4:40 left before half.
“We thought we could run in-between the tackles because they were taking the outside runs away,” the Lansing head coach said. “That was the game plan coming in by what they were doing defensively.”
Facing its first double-digit deficit of the contest, Ward took its next possession down into the Lion’s 20-yard line. But a poorly executed screen pass allowed Lansing’s Justin Lozenski to intercept the throw. The home team then ran its two-minute offense to perfection and with 0:00 flashing on the scoreboard, VanDerWerff hurdled over a cluster of Cyclones to finish off a four-yard TD run as well as the 82-yard drive.
The score gave Lansing a commanding 27-7 advantage as well as a huge chunk of the game’s momentum heading into the break.
“I think we are playing better and better each week on defense,” Pekarek said. “I think we have improved a lot since game one, we just don’t have the W’s to show for it. But we have kept working and I’m proud of our kids and the improvement they’ve made.”
From then on, the Lions simply ran away with the game. On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, VanDerWerff ran a quarterback keeper 64 yards for a touchdown. Six minutes later, VanDerWerff again found the end zone on a 11-yard option run to the pylon. To finish off a 21-point third quarter for Lansing, Hughes punched in a two-yard run with 2:40 left, putting the Lions on top 48-7.
To wrap up the contest Slupski found Angel Rodriguez for the Cyclones on a 54-yard pass that was good for the visitors’ second score of the game. Yet, it would be Lion running back Aiden McLoughlin that got the last TD of the evening when the sophomore rushed in a three-yard score at 5:59, pushing the score to its final of 54-13.
“We felt like it was important to score a lot of points tonight,” Pekarek said. “Not to run up the score, but because we needed to get that feeling of what it is like again. We were just trying to execute our offense better.”
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