Football: Bombers capitalize late against Wildcats

A 6-6 tie between Cannon Falls and Goodhue turned on the opening kick of the second half Friday in Goodhue.

Bombers’ junior Jordan Lundell caught the kickoff at the 5-yard line and broke toward the right sideline, returning it all 95 yards for a touchdown to jumpstart Cannon Falls en route to a 26-6 victory.

“That helped set up a much more productive second half,” Cannon Falls head coach Josh Hofstedt said.

Lundell also caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from junior Hunter Johnson for the Bombers’ only points in the first half. He finished with eight rushes for 47 yards, three catches for 29 yards and had an interception.

The Wildcats were able to hang around for much of the game, scoring first with 5 minutes, 25 second remaining in the first quarter on a 35-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Tyler Schumacher to senior Tyson Dicke to take a 6-0 lead after the failed extra point. Dicke had three catches for 73 yards.

With nine minutes left in the second quarter, Cannon Falls (2-0) struck back on the touchdown to Lundell and turned the ball over on downs later in the quarter to keep the scored tied into halftime.

“We turned over the ball a few times in the first half and that killed us,” Hofstedt said.

Coming out of the break, Lundell’s kick return started a string of 20 unanswered points for Cannon Falls. Johnson scored on a 5-yard run with 9:06 left in the fourth quarter and Ian Althoff added a 30-yard touchdown run with 5:23 remaining to seal the victory.

While the Wildcats gave up 337 yards of total offense, most of it came after halftime.

“I thought our defense did really well tonight,” Goodhue head coach Tony Poncelet said. “Our offense gave them a short field sometimes. We took some chances and it didn’t work out. … We played well for a half.”

Ryan Tipcke led the Wildcats (1-1, 1-0 HVL Gold) with 11 tackles and Alex Weckerling forced two fumbles.

Schumacher finished 12 of 30 for 243 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Dillon Huemann had 17 carries for 81 yards, but Goodhue also lost two fumbles.

The Wildcats travel to Hayfield next Friday, and the Bombers play at Kasson-Mantorville.

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