On his first carry of the season, Brayden Grau made it look easy. 

The Midland ball carrier broke two tackles and ran away from the Lone Tree defense — 54 yards to the endzone. 

For the rest of the night, the Lion defense made things difficult. 

The Eagles would not score again as Lone Tree opened the season with a 22-8 victory in the week zero contest. 

After Midland’s touchdown, the Lions fumbled the ensuing kick return. They had some costly penalties. They even gave up a few big plays. 

But it would not cost Lone Tree on the scoreboard. The Lion defense didn't allow the mistakes to snowball. 

“We have  a team with a lot of character, and we got a team with a lot of dogs,” Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr said. “They weren't happy after that first touchdown, and they weren't happy with any play that they gave up. They want to dominate all the time. 

“And it's one thing to say it, but it's another thing to do it. It just shows that they’ve got the character, and they’ve got the will. And they’ve got the talent to get the job done.”

Senior linebacker Tyler Bell had a message for his teammates after Midland’s early touchdown. 

“I was just mad,” Bell said. “I basically told everybody that I didn't want them to score again.”

A turnover gave Midland a chance to add to its 8-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Lone Tree defense came up with fourth down stop on its own 10 yard line. 

In the second quarter, Bell had a nine-yard rush followed by a 20-yard carry to move the Lions across midfield. Cade Shield rushed for 11 yards on third-and-8 to move Lone Tree inside the 10 and Bell carried the ball across the goaline.

Shield found Cade Patterson through the air for the tying 2-point play and the Lions would not trail again. 

“It was a bit of a feeling out process,” Bohr said about the Lions early offensive struggles. With less than two weeks of practice before facing the stunting and blitzing Eagles defense, the Lion blockers had to make adjustments. 

“I think our guys were a little bit wound up and I don't think we always did it properly,” Bohr said. “But once we figured things out, and once we tired them out a little bit, I think things got a little bit easier. We still had a lot of drives that we should have finished better than we did. But first game, you know, I'll take the W.”

Bell finished with 72 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Shield led the Lions with 104 yard on 24 carries. Matt Hemsted picked up 23 yards on just two rushing attempts.  Patterson caught four passes for 18 yards. 

Early in the fourth quarter, Midland dialed up a screen pass on second-and-16 from its own 10-yard line. A screen pass had caught the Lions off guard in the first half and went for 30 yards, but this time junior Caden Smith didn’t rush the quarterback. He said the call from defensive coordinator Chad Shield was to “just sit, wait and see what's going on in the area. I saw the running back or fullback go out from the corner of my eye so I just ran out there with him.”

Smith dropped him for a two-yard loss. 

When Midland tried to punt out of its own endzone, Smith blocked the kick and fell on it to put the Lions up by two scores. 

Hemsted led the defense with 8.5 tackles from his linebacker position. Bell had eight tackles, including five for loss and 1.5 sacks. Andrew Hotz had six tackles and 1.5 sacks whileJoe Boxwell had three tackles in the backfield. 

Smith said that the key defensively was “teamwork, people doing their jobs successfully. And when we didn't, it actually hurt us a couple times. But when we got it together, got our angles right and our blitzes right... I guess it's just all teamwork, and how well you do your job.”

The win snapped a three-game losing streak to Midland. The Lions dropped the season opener 50-47 to the Eagles in 2018 and opened the season with a 44-32 home loss to Midland in 2019. 

Bohr said that his team’s conditioning was a big key to breaking the streak. 

“We didn't have that as much of an emphasis as we probably should have,” Bohr explained. “I don't think we did enough running the last couple of years.”

Bohr said that Midland was a good team to gauge his team’s conditioning against. 

“We knew that we'd probably get a four quarter battle, so it was a really good test for us,” he said. “And I was so pleased with the way our guys held up. They've had some hot days, and it's been a bit of a grind to get through practice. 

"But I'm just so happy with how they prepared and how they finished the game off. And that just goes to show how hard they worked over the offseason.”

Bohr was appreciative that Midland was willing to turn the scrimmage they had planned into an official game after Tri-County was dropped from Lone Tree’s schedule. 

The Midland program and community was devastated in June when 16-year old Lincoln Gravel was killed in a car crash. 

They had a tragedy strike them over the offseason... and they didn't have to schedule us,” Bohr said. “They're just a fine program run by fine individuals. And I'm glad that we won, but I wish nothing but the best for their team all season long, because those guys — they do it the right way.”