The Ryan and Ross show took center stage Friday night at Linn-Mar Stadium.

Junior quarterback Ryan Schmidt tossed three touchdown passes and ran for another while hard-nosed senior tailback Ross Lembeck rushed for four scores as Linn-Mar got its first win of 2013, downing Waterloo West, 59-35.

Coach Bob Forsyth’s Lions raced to a 42-6 halftime lead, then survived some anxious moments in the third quarter to secure the win.

After two tough losses to open the season, Linn-Mar came out with a renewed spirit against the Wahawks and rolled up 564 yards of total offense.

“I think it is a real credit to our kids and our assistant coaches,” said Forsyth. “We really challenged the kids and challenged the coaches to get in there and work hard this week and put the last two games behind us. I think we did a great job of that.”

Lembeck echoed his coach’s sentiments.

“I thought we had a really good week of practice,” he said. “We had high intensity and high energy all week.  We converted that onto the field Friday night and stuck it to them.”

Schmidt and Lembeck were in the starring roles for the Lions. In just his third varsity start, Schmidt completed 19-of-27 passes for 314 yards and rushed for 42 more. Lembeck churned out 152 yards on 15 carries and caught four passes from Schmidt for 40 more yards.

Schmidt said the difference Friday night from the losses to Iowa City West and Dubuque Senior was simple.

“Our line blocked really well tonight,” he said. “We just came out and executed right from the beginning.”

The Lions took the opening kickoff and drove right down the field. After having a 24-yard scoring run from Logan Benter called back due to a penalty, Schmidt dropped back and found Griffin Brennecke wide open in the end zone on a 36-yard scoring toss.

Brennecke continued to show his ability to make the big catches down the field. He later scored on a 26-yard pass from Schmidt and finished with four catches for 132 yards.

After stopping West, which played without injured running back Lance Dunn, Lembeck capped off a quick drive with a 1-yard plunge to put the Lions up 14-0.

Alex Young, who moved from quarterback to running back to replace Dunn, scored the first of his four touchdowns on West’s next drive, cutting the lead to 14-6.

Then came the second quarter where the Lions took control, scoring four touchdowns to take a commanding 42-6 lead at the break.

“The thing is that we cautioned them, threatened them and everything else about coming out and playing hard after halftime,” Forsyth said. “We had a letdown and I think some of that had to do with Waterloo West.

"Their kids rallied up and we just didn’t match them intensity-wise."

The third quarter started with a continuous clock, but three scoring runs from Young, who finished with 239 yards on 28 carries, brought the Wahawks back to within 42-27 with a little more than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“No, we didn’t get too nervous,” said Schmidt. “We just had to get our intensity back.”

Schmidt led another solid drive, capping it with a 4-yard scoring run. Lembeck got loose midway through the fourth quarter on a 47-yard scoring run where he broke several tackles on the way to the end zone.

“We knew we had to start taking it to them again,” Lembeck said. “Once we did that, we got back in control.”

Austin Wolter capped the Lion scoring with a 33-yard field goal after hitting on all eight of his PAT kicks. Linn-Mar also welcomed back track star Perrion Scott, who missed the first two games with a foot injury. He carried the ball three times in limited duty.

Although pleased to come away with the win, Forsyth knows the Lions are far from a finished product.

“It’s kind of an ebb and flow,” he said. “On defense, we have to make plays to make sure we get off the field and on offense we have to make sure we make the plays to complete drives.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, believe me,” he continued. “We’re better than we were, but we’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to win some more games.

"I’m sure there a lot of things on the film tonight we’re going to like and a lot of things we’re not going to like.”

Next up for the Lions is a trip to Kingston Stadium next Friday night to play Cedar Rapids Washington.

“We know they are really going to play hard against us,” Forsyth said, “but we’re really going to just try and focus on us and hopefully be a better football team next week.”

LINN-MAR 59, WATERLOO WEST 35

WW        L-M
First downs                19               23
Rushes-yards            36-302        41-250
Passing yards             100             314
Comp-Att-Int          10-25-0       19-27-1
Fumbles-lost              2-2              0-0
Punts-avg.               5-32.2          1-36
Penalties-yards          8-55           12-98

Waterloo West      6    0  21   8 – 35
Linn-Mar              14   28  7  10 – 59

LM – Griffin Brennecke 36 pass from Ryan Schmidt (Austin Wolter kick)
LM – Ross Lembeck 1 run (Wolter kick)
WW – Alex Young 9 run (kick failed)
LM – Lembeck 6 run (Wolter kick)
LM – Brennecke 26 pass from Schmidt (Wolter kick)
LM – Lembeck 24 run (Wolter kick)
LM – Andrew Gassman 28 pass from Schmidt (Wolter kick)
WW - Young 19 run (Nevzad Osmanecevic kick)
WW – Young 7 run (kick blocked)
WW – Young  7 run (Mitchell Paeper run)
LM – Schmidt 4 run (Wolter kick)
LM – Lembeck 47 run (Wolter kick)
WW – Paeper 4 run (Paeper run)
LM – FG Wolter 33

Individual Statistics

Rushing
Waterloo West – Alex Young 28-239, Mitchell Paeper 15-67, Lajashiene Williams 1-(minus 2), Dylan Boorseth 1- (minus 2)
Linn-Mar – Ross Lembeck 15-152, Ryan Schmidt 11-43, Tristan Freese 5-16, Logan Benter 7-48, Perrion Scott 3-minus 5.

Passing
Waterloo West – Mitchell Paeper 10-25-0-100
Linn-Mar - Ryan Schmidt 19-27-1-314

Receiving
Waterloo West – Jaelon Jones 2-34, Christan Burt 1-13, Lincoln Conrey 1-8, Trey Burt 4-25, Dynal Draeger 1-0, Elijah Evans 1-20
Linn-Mar – Trevor Noble 3-33, Griffin Brennecke 4-132, Andrew Gassmann 4-62, Ross Lembeck 4-40, Tristan Freese 1-13, Jon Schlotterback 3-34.