LONE TREE

Homecoming festivities were in full swing last Friday when Lone Tree hosted Calamus-Wheatland for district play, but through two quarters it was the Warriors who were celebrating as they held a 23 point lead over the Lions at the half. 

Cal-Wheat sustained its lead in the second half to eventually secure the win, but the Lions did not make it easy for the Warriors. Battling back to turn the contest into a high scoring affair, Lone Tree showed tremendous fight and growth on homecoming day.  

“After the game, I told them I was probably the most proud I’ve been of them in a while,” Lone Tree coach Joe Donovan said after Cal-Wheat defeated Lone Tree, 59-42 on Oct. 4.

“There was growth tonight. There was improvement tonight, and I don’t feel like we saw that last week, and the weeks prior to this. That’s always a good thing. Proud of them. They fought to the end.” 

Cal-Wheat started the contest with three straight touchdown drives to go up 21-0. A Lone Tree interception in the second quarter led to another Warriors TD to pump up their lead to 27 after a missed extra point.

Lone Tree, now down by four scores, found a spark on offense by the name of Domonic Garcia. 

With under seven minutes left before the half, Garcia found the endzone on a 54-yard TD run. Lone Tree quarterback Maddox Jondle scored the subsequent 2-point attempt. The Warriors returned the favor with a rushing TD of their own on their next drive but failed the 2-point play. 

Scoring became contagious at this point as Lone Tree scored on their next drive, a receiving TD from Jondle to Garcia. Another successful Jondle 2-point attempt brought Lone Tree’s score to 16 in under three minutes of play. 

Matching their blow, in the closing seconds of the second quarter the Warriors scored again to bring their score to 39. Now, both teams were humming on offense and coming out of halftime Garcia continued his excellent night.

On the Cal-Wheat kickoff to begin the third quarter, Garcia took the ball to the house on the return. For the dynamic junior it was his third TD of the night and he still wasn’t done. 

“Dom’s very explosive. He gets his hands on the ball and when he gets to the seam  no one’s going to catch him,” coach Donovan said about Garcia. “Dom has been that way all year. He’s been very productive for us, and just proud of him. Last year Dom got a little bit of action as a sophomore, and he’s really come a long way this year.” 

Lone Tree started off the third on a strong note but was unable to score again before the quarter ended while the Warriors rushed in two TD’s to bring their score over 50. 

In the final quarter it was Jondle who provided the spark for Lone Tree, The senior began the fourth with a goal line rushing TD and then when he got the ball back he showed his speed with a 65-yard TD on the ground. 

“Jondle, the kid does everything for us,” coach Donovan said. “Obviously we’re missing a few guys, so he had to shoulder even more tonight, him and Jack Patterson both, and I just couldn’t be more proud of those two seniors.”

Jondle (starting at QB in place of junior Emmett Burke who broke his thumb in Lone Tree’s previous game) ended his night by tossing his second TD to Garcia. 

Despite winning the final quarter 20-6, Lone Tree could not completely erase their deficit and fell to the Warriors by 17. 

Leading Lone Tree through the air and on the ground, Jondle threw for 122 yards with two TDs and rushed for 80 yards with two TDs. 

Garcia led the Lions in receiving yards with 93 on four catches. The junior scored four TDs in total, two receiving, one rushing, and one kickoff return. 

“We had some contributions by a lot of young guys that haven’t had a chance to play on Friday night very much,” coach Donovan said. “I thought they really grew up some tonight. There’s some good things even though we didn’t win the game, as long as we can move forward from here or two games ago, that’s all we can ask.”

Up next for Lone Tree (2-4) is a road district game against Central City (4-3) on Oct. 11.