Crowning Achievement: Athletics beat Houston to continue historic run

Published 10:01 pm Friday, September 30, 2022

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LYLE — The Lyle-Pacelli football team is enjoying its best season in a decade and it showed the length of its growth early on as it handled Houston by a score of 30-6 on Homecoming night in Lyle Friday night.

The Athletics (3-2 overall) fumbled on their first play from scrimmage and the Hurricanes (0-5 overall) went 27 yards on nine plays to get a fourth and goal on L-P’s one yard line. That’s when the momentum turned as the Athletics stuffed the Hurricanes for no gain and Houston never had the ball inside L-P’s 20-yard line again until the final play of the game when the Hurricanes reserves scored against Athletic’s reserves.

After a slow start, L-P’s offense eventually found its footing behind the rushing of Trey Anderson, who finished with 165 total yards and two TDs. 

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Much like L-P itself, Anderson has shown vast improvement on the field this season as he has added strength and explosiveness.

“I got in the weight room and I’m playing with a different mentality,” Anderson said. “I didn’t want to go my senior year without winning any games. I know how L-P football has been in the past and I wanted to go out with a bang.”

Jake Truckenmiller didn’t throw a lot, but he stayed cool in the pocket as he tossed an 11-yard TD to David Christianson in the back of the end zone and he found Anderson for a 16-yard score on a jump ball in the back corner of the end zone with just 28 seconds left in the half. He added a third TD pass to Anderson in the second half to ice the game.

L-P has now won three games in a row and the team is showing up on Friday nights with the expectation of winning.

“We’re rolling right now and getting wins gets you confident. We’re playing well and we’re getting better every day,” Truckenmiller said. “Winning football games is different and it’s really amazing. It’s been a tough few years, but it’s nice to be winning.”

Before this season, the Athletics had won just three total games in their previous six seasons combined.

Truckenmiller said the team knew it had a chance to make history before the season even began.

We always have a positive mindset every year. But when we went to a preseason scrimmage in Grand Meadow, everything was different and you could see that our line was a lot better,” Truckenmiller said.

The last time L-P won three games in a season was in 2008 and the Athletics have a solid chance at surpassing that total. The Athletic’s remaining games are against Kingsland, Grand Meadow and LeRoy-Ostrander.

“We’ve got to turn the ball over less and we’ve got to keep stepping on team’s throats,” Anderson said. “We don’t stop until the game is over and we’ve got to do a better job of that.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Houston 0  0 0   6  –  6

Lyle-Austin 6 8 16  0  –  30

First quarter

(LP) David Christianson 11 pass from Jake Truckenmiller (pass failed) (7 plays, 58 yards) 1:31

Second quarter

(LP) Trey Anderson 16 pass from Truckenmiller (Anderson run) (7 plays, 57 yards) :28

Third quarter

(LP) Trey Anderson 5 pass from Truckenmiller (Truckenmiller run) (7 plays, 29 yards) 6:29

(LP) Truckenmiller 36 run (Truckenmiller run) (4 plays, 67 yards) :25

Fourth quarter

(H) No. 10 21 run (9 plays, 70) 0:00

L-P STATS

Rushing: Trey Anderson, 24-for-135; Hunter Bauer, 12-for-58; Truckenmiller, 4-for-29, TD; Cayden Hansen, 1-for-9

Passing: Truckenmiller, 5-for-13, 37, 3 TDs

Receiving: Anderson, 3-for-30, 2 TD; David Christianson, 1-for-11, TD; Mac Nelson, 1-for-6

Defense: Hunter Bauer, 1 fumble recovery; Cayden Hansen, 1 fumble recovery; Mac Nelson, 1 interception; Dylan Christianson, 1 sack

Penalties: 6-for-40

HOUSTON STATS

Rushing: 178

Passing: 65

Penalties: 3-for-30