Cougars pour it on over Collins-Maxwell

ACKLEY –The eight-player game lends to high scoring and the AGWSR football team won a shoot-out over Collins-Maxwell, 72-46 here Friday during District 5 play.

The Cougars piled up 10 touchdowns led by junior running back Jaden Penning’s five and improved to 2-1 on the season.

The 72 points bettered the 70 put on the scoreboard last fall against Colo-NESCO. AGWSR also scored 69 points against Baxter a year ago and had 68 against North Iowa in 2016. This is the fourth season of the Cougars in eight-player football.

The two teams started the contest racing up-and-down the gridiron, combining for 36 points in the first quarter’s 12 minutes and showed the hosts up 22-14.

AGWSR stretched the advantage to 36-22 at halftime and pulled away with a dominating third quarter, outscoring the visitors 30-8.

“I was pleased with our second half,” said AGWSR coach James Koop. “The first half should have been cleaner, but I thought we came out and played a much better third and fourth quarters. We were just not consistent in areas in the first half.”

The contest was a battle of AGWSR’s ground game against Collins-Maxwell’s air attack. The Cougars rushed the pigskin 52 times for 373 yards while the Spartans countered with 327 yards on 22-of-43 passing. 

“87 (receiver Brett Livesay) is a good ball player and we knew that coming in,” said Koop. “And we knew 86 (quarterback Kadin Bennett) was going to throw the ball and most of the time to 87. We were not ready for it at the beginning, but got better covering them.” 

Bennett threw for the 327 yards and all six Spartan touchdowns while Livesay had 16 receptions for 283 yards and four touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Penning and sophomore Cale Culver provided a potent one-two punch for AGWSR. Penning rushed 20 times for 157 yards and the five scores with Culver 11 carries for 78 yards and five two-point conversions.

“This was the best Culver and Penning have ran all year,” said Koop. “They hit the holes hard and lowered the shoulder. And they have some good guys blocking up front for them. 

“Our kids condition hard and it showed tonight.”

Penning’s touchdown parade featured runs of 13 and eight-yards along with a 52-yard touchdown catch-and-run from QB Titan Opperman in the first quarter, a 24-yard dash for six in the second and a nine-yard run in the third.

Opperman added short touchdown runs in the third covering three-yards and later one. Fullback Brody Roder scored on a seven-yard run in the third, and in the fourth, barreled 65-yards on a kickoff return, breaking numerous tackles. The final six was a 45-yard sprint by Trey Lashbrook in the fourth.

“Roder, god bless that kid,” said Koop. “I keep telling him to save his body and run out of bounds sometimes, but instead he cuts inside and runs three more kids over. But that is just his mindset.” 

The Bennett to Livesay scoring strikes covered 29 yards in the first period, 70 yards in the second, 34 in the third and 28 in the fourth. Eight of Livesay’s catches were for 11 or more yards.

Bennett also connected with Lucas Huntrods on eight yards in the first and had a 15-yard toss to Caleb Dvorak in the game’s final minute.

Defensive leaders for the Cougars were Penning 7.5 stops, Lashbrook and Chase Harms six and Opperman 5.5. The hosts collected four turnovers with fumble recoveries for Tanner Weichers on the second play of the game and Zach Johnson and picked passed for Penning and Harms.

One concern of Koop’s was the penalties as the Cougars were flagged a dozen times for 102 yards.

The loss left the Spartans at 1-3 overall.

AGWSR plays Colo-NESCO at Colo Friday and returns to Ackley Sept. 27 to battle Meskwaki for Homecoming.

C-N climbed into the win column beating Twin Cedars, 39-20 Friday to stand 1-3.

AGWSR 72,

Collins-Maxwell 46

Team Statistics

                                    C-M      AGWSR

First Downs        14         18

Rushing            4          15

Passing            9          3

Penalty              1          0

Rushes-Yds       19-61    52-373

Passing2          2-43-2   4-6-0

Passing Yds       327       103

Total Yards        388       476

Fumbles-Lost     2-2       2-0

Punts-Avg         3-29.0   3.36.3

Penalties-Yds     9-62      12-102

Scoring by Quarters

Collins-Maxwell  14         8          8          16         -           46

AGWSR             22         14         30         6          -           72

Scoring Summary

First Quarter:

AGWSR – Jaden Penning 13-yard run (Cale Culver run); C-M – Brett Livesay 29-yard pass from Kadin Bennett (pass failed); AGWSR – Penning 8-yard run (run failed); C-M – Lucas Huntrods 8-yard pass from Bennett (Bennett to Livesay pass); AGWSR – Penning 52-yard pass from Titan Opperman (Culver run)

Second Quarter:

AGWSR – Penning 24-yard run (run failed); C-M – Livesay 70-yard pass from Bennett (Bennett to Caleb Dvorak pass); AGWSR – Opperman 3-yard run (Culver run)

Third Quarter

AGWSR – Penning 9-yard run (Culver run); AGWSR – Brody Roder 7-yard run (run failed); AGWSR – Opperman 1-yard run (Culver run); C-M – Livesay 34-yard pass from Bennett (Bennett to Dvorak pass); AGWSR – Roder 65-yard kickoff return (Culver run)

Fourth Quarter:

AGWSR – Trey Lashbrook 45-yard run (run failed); C-M – Livesay 28-yard pass from Bennett (Jace Huntrods run); C-M – Dvorak 15-yard pass from Bennett (J. Huntrods run)

Individual Stat Leaders

Rushing:

            C-M – Kadin Bennett 7-23, Jace Huntrods 4-21, AJ Smith 7-20.

            AGWSR – Jaden Penning 20-157 4 TDs, Cale Culver 11-78, Titan Opperman 12-42 2 TDs, Trey Lashbrook 1-45 TD, Brody Roder 3-32 TD.

Passing:

            C-M – Bennett 22-of-43 for 327 yards, 6 TDs, 2 INTs.

            AGWSR – Opperman 4-of-6 for 103 yards, 1 TD.

Receiving:

            C-M – Brett Livesay 16-283 4 TDs, Lucas Huntrods 3-27 TD.