The LeRoy-Ostrander defense forced nine turnovers in leading the Cardinals to a 20-0 shutout of Medford Saturday in a Section 1 nine-man semifinal action.

Sunday, October 31, 1999

The LeRoy-Ostrander defense forced nine turnovers in leading the Cardinals to a 20-0 shutout of Medford Saturday in a Section 1 nine-man semifinal action.

Top-seeded and host LeRoy-Ostrander recovered five fumbles and intercepted four Medford passes. Fourth-seeded Medford, which beat Cleveland 24-7 on Tuesday to earn the right to play the Cardinals, fumbled seven times, but kept the game knotted 0-0 at halftime.

"Our offense came out lethargic," Coach Stan Olson said. "Our defense kept us in the game and gave us a chance."

The Cardinals broke the game open in the third quarter, when sophomore QB Ryan King passed for a pair of touchdowns.

Justin Stevens caught a 55-yard pass from King to open the scoring. King then hit Clint Hodgdon with a 30-yard strike later in the quarter.

Hodgdon capped the scoring with a 1-yard TD plunge in the fourth quarter.

LeRoy hosts No. 2 Alden-Conger in the Section 1 title game Saturday.

Alden-Conger 26,

Grand Meadow 20

The Grand Meadow Superlarks season ended on a sour note. The Larks did not play their best, but still led 20-18 with less than two minutes remaining in their contest with the Alden-Conger Knights.

The Superlarks went up by two when Randy Breitbarth ran it in from four yards out.

After a squib kick the Knights took the ball over at midfield. They went down the field and scored on a nine-yard pass by Vinnie VanEnglenburg to Derek Thorson.

The Superlarks moved the ball down to the Knights’ 20 with more than a minute to play but then fumbled the snap and Alden recovered.

"We had too many mistakes today," Grand Meadow coach Gary Sloan said. "We had five penalties that gave them first downs and besides the fumble we had two interceptions. You can’t do that against a good team."

Three Superlarks had big days running the ball. Quarterback Ben Thorsen ran for 106 yards including a 45-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Freshman Kyle Breitbarth went for 77 yards for a touchdown, also in the first quarter, and ended up with a total of 99. Randy Breitbarth went for 89 yards. Grand Meadow had a total of 306 yards on the ground, but only 13 through the air.

Grand Meadow ends the season with a 4-5 mark

Other Saturday Area Scores

In the Class 2AA section semifinals NRHEG defeated the Hayfield Vikings 6-0.

In Class 1A the Southland Rebels (5-5) again came up just short in their attempt to up end the Rushford-Peterson Trojans. The top seeded Trojans defeated the Rebels 20-13 in Rushford.