Football: Lake City knocks off ranked team

If Lake City wasn’t already respected, its 54-13 thrashing of ninth-ranked Stewartville served notice.

Lake City (4-1, 3-0 HVL Gold) went up 28-0 by the end of the first quarter and went a second consecutive game without a turnover.

“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Lake City head coach Trevor Narum said. “The most important thing is we’re getting better and better each week.”

The Lake City offense piled up 465 yards of total offense, 294 coming on the ground. Senior Ben Schramski was 4 of 10 passing for 171 yards and two touchdowns, junior Will Balow had 17 carries for 98 yards and two touchdowns, senior Mitch Kuchinka carried the ball 14 times for 11 yards and junior Elliot Cox had 24 yards on five carries with three touchdowns. Senior Coleman Sweeney had two catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns while senior Jake Griebenow had two grabs for 73 yards. Both had an interception.

“I’ve got to think we’re sort of a ‘D’ coordinator’s worst nightmare,” Narum said. “Balow up the middle and we have two guys who can scoot in Kuchinka and Cox on the outside. … That makes us really hard to defend with guys like that.”

On the fourth play of the game, Schramski found Sweeney for a 72-yard touchdown to put Lake City up 7-0 after the extra point by junior Matt Glasenapp with 10 minutes, 21 seconds left in the first quarter.

Schramski found Sweeney again for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 7:37 left in the first, and after two touchdown runs by Cox to end the first quarter, the rout was on.

Stewartville finally scored with 7:56 left in the half on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Quandt to Will Gisler. Quandt and Gisler combined for the majority of Stewartville’s offense in the loss. Quandt was 20-for-35 passing for 225 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, while Gisler had 11 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Cox added another touchdown run before halftime after a field goal by Stewartville.

Stewartville made another field goal to start the second half but Balow scored twice and sophomore Shane Siewert added another with 4:10 left in the fourth quarter for the final touchdown.

Lake City hosts Winona Cotter next Friday to stay atop the Hiawatha Valley League Gold standings.

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