Knights come up short to Lenox

TABOR - Spencer Brown’s touchdown catch with 25 seconds left gave state ranked No. 6 ranked Lenox a 40-34 victory over previously No. 2 ranked Fremont-Mills and sole possession of first place in Eight-Man, District 8 Friday night in Tabor.

For the better part of 47 minutes the two previously unbeaten, state ranked teams battled to a draw until the Tigers marched 55 yards in eight plays in the final 2:42 to seal the win on the Carson Cline to the 6-foot-8, 240 pound Brown pass from seven yards out.

Christiansen spoke to his team in a tight, emotional huddle for a long time after the game. The coach shoulders a lot of the blame for the loss, he said.

“I told them to keep their heads up. Put the blame on me,” Christiansen said after the game. “We marched the ball down there and struggled with an exchange, we hadn’t done that all game. A lot of things happened in the game we’d like to take back but this one is on me.”

The things Christiansen would mostly likely want to take back include the Knights 11 penalties and four turnovers, one coming inside the Tigers’ two yard line midway through the fourth quarter when quarterback Sam Phillips bobbled a snap from center which the Tigers recovered. A touchdown would have given the Knights the lead with just over seven minutes to go.

“There was a 100 percent momentum flip there,” Christiansen said. “We beat ourselves. Turnovers wise, we haven’t done that in a while. We played  well at times and then at other, we just didn’t.”

Following the costly fumble, the Knight defense held, with Lane Goodman sacking Cline for a three yard loss on a fourth-and-16 at the Knight  34 yard line. Fremont-Mills, however, was not able to capitalize on the stop and, after gaining just one yard on three plays, punted the ball back to the Tigers for the game clinching drive.

Lenox opened the game by marching right down the field on the Knight defense with a seven play, 68 yard drive capped by Jared Hensley’s 30 yard touchdown run. The two point conversion made the score 8-0 just over two minutes into game.

The Tigers looked poised to extend their lead after holding the Knights to a three-and-out on defense and then having Cline connect with Hensley on a 55 yard TD dart. But the play was negated by a Tiger penalty. Two plays later Lenox punted by Phillips blocked it to set up the Knights at the Tiger 24 yard line. Seven plays later Phillips raced in for four yard touchdown. The two-point conversion knotted the score at 8-8.

After trading punts, the Knights took a 16-8 lead on a 74 yard touchdown run by Jaeger Powers late in the first quarter.

Lenox responded with three straight touchdown drives in the second quarter to take what appeared to be a commanding 28-16 lead in intermission. But the Knights had one more drive in them as Phillips engineered a seven play, 51 yard drive just before half he capped himself from one yard out.

With the ball and the momentum after halftime, the Knights put together two straight touchdown drives sandwiched around a Lenox punt to go up 34-28 with 5:38 to go in the third quarter.

But the Tigers, as they would do all night, responded.

Cline capped a five play drive starting from their own 15 yard line when he hit Dawson Tulberg with 29 yard TD toss to knot the score at 34-34.

The score would remain that way until the Tigers final drive.

Offensively, Phillips was a workhorse for the Knights, running 205 yards and three TDs on 29 carries and throwing for 74 more yards and a TD. In all, Fremont-Mills finished with a slight offensive advantage, gaining 400 yards off offense  to the Tigers’ 397

Cline threw for 242 yards on 8-of-19 attempts with four touchdowns. Brown finished with four catches for 106 yards and the game-winning TD.

“We played well on defense for the most part,” Christiansen said. “We gave up a few big plays, which has kind of been our Achilles’ heal. Teams haven’t been able to really make the long drives on us so it’s the big plays here and there that have hurt us.”

To add insult to the loss the Knights also were hit with a potentially big injury. Fremont-Mills quarterback Sam Phillips fell awkwardly in a pile on the play’s final pass. The junior was helped off the field with a knee injury into a waiting Tabor Rescue ambulance. The severity of his injury was not known at press time.
    
Scoring Summary
FM 16  06  12  00  - 34
L     08  20  06  06  - 40

Game Summary
    L – Jared Hensley, 30 run (two point conversion good).
    EM – Sam Phillips, 4 run (two point conversion good).
    EM – Jaeger Powers, 74 run (two point conversion good).
    L – Hensley from Carson Cline, 55 pass (conversion failed).
    L – Sam Donaldson from Cline, 20 pass (conversion failed).
    FM – Parker Powers from Phillips, 10 pass (conversion failed).
    FM – Phillips, 10 run (conversion failed).
    L – Dawson Tulberg from Cline, 29 pass (conversion failed).
    L – Spencer Brown from Cline, 7 pass (conversion failed).