Fri - 17 Oct
Written by Mike Condon
WATERLOO - When a football player puts in the time over the summer, working to get better, they think about having the perfect game.
Linn-Mar's senior duo of Ryan Schmidt and Trevor Noble had that kind of night Friday at Memorial Stadium in Waterloo.
Noble caught three touchdown passes from Schmidt and returned an interception for a score for a 24-point performance.
Schmidt finished with four TD tosses and ran for three of his own as the Lions dropped Waterloo West, 63-28, earning the Class 4A District 5 title and first-round home game in the playoffs.
The No. 6 Lions (7-1, 4-0) host Jefferson next Friday in the regular-season finale, but even if they were to lose, they hold the tiebreaker over second-place Cedar Falls, whose only district loss was last Friday at Linn-Mar.
"The district championship has been our goal since the beginning," Noble said. "Nobody thought (after going 2-7 in 2013) that we could do it. Look today, we did it. I'm proud to be a part of this team. It's a great group of guys."
The game was an offensive carnival. There was over 1,000 yards of total offense as both teams moved the ball up and down the field. The difference was the key turnovers forced by the Lions, twice taking the ball away inside the red zone.
Noble had the third takeaway and it gave the Lions a much-needed cushion.
West took the opening kickoff and drove the ball down the field to score. Schmidt tied the game on a 59-yard run and then connected with Perrion Scott on a 16-yard swing pass to give the Lions a 14-7 lead. West tied it on a 2-yard Devon Moore run early in the second quarter.
Schmidt tallied his second touchdown on a 3-yard run with 6:59 left in the first half. Then it was Noble's time to shine. On the first play after the kickoff, he jumped a corner route and picked off a Moore pass. He raced untouched 55 yards for the score.
"Our defense didn't play the best tonight," Noble said, "but we have relied a lot this year on turnovers and it helped us again tonight.
Last Updated on Friday, 17 October 2014 23:52
Read more...