LONE TREE

Similar to last week it was a tale of two halves for the Lions, putting together a strong performance in the first half, but letting their foot off the gas pedal in the final two quarters. While last week those mistakes did not prove costly, this time around was a different story. 

“We’ve kind of had two second half collapses the last two weeks,” Lone Tree coach Joe Donovan said after Lone Tree’s 36-34 home loss to Springville on Sept. 20. “We got to get stops in the second half and we’re not doing that the last two weeks. Last week, we were lucky. This week, we weren’t.”

Scoring 14 points in both the first and the second, Lone Tree went into the half with a 16-point lead. 

Those scores came from Maddox Jondle catching two TD passes, Domonic Garcia with a receiving TD, and Emmett Burke with a rushing TD. On the night Jondle had four catches for a team high 64-yards.  

The Orioles began their comeback trail by scoring a quick touchdown to decrease their deficit to 10 and they held the Lions scoreless in the third. 

“It starts with our first series of the second half. We’ve been on defense, and we let them score on us, and then the momentum goes to the other team. We got to stop doing that,” coach Donovan said. 

In the final quarter, Springville found the endzone again with a rushing TD to come within four of the Lions. Coming to life in the second half for the Orioles was their rushing attack. On the day they rushed for over 300 yards with juniors Mason Holy (204) and Luke Lansing (114) leading the way. 

“Controlled the line of scrimmage,” coach Donovan said about what Springville was able to do well in the game. “I wasn’t expecting them to push us around the way they did, but they just controlled the line of scrimmage. I just thought they did a good job up front.”

Springville took its first lead of the day with a short passing touchdown but missed their extra point to only go up by two with less than seven minutes left in the game.   

“During the second half, I felt like we lost our identity on what was working in the first half,” coach Donovan said. 

It seemed everything was going the way of the Orioles, but after losing their lead, the Lions found a spark on offense. 

A big throw and catch from Burke to Brody Magruder set the Lions up near the 20-yard line. It was Magruder’s lone catch of the day, but it went for 53-yards and occurred when Lone Tree needed it the most. 

The big catch and run from Magruder eventually led to a Burke go-ahead rushing TD. Burke excelled as a passer and rusher against Springville. 

Through the air the junior completed eight passes on 16 attempts for 156 yards and three TDs. On the ground he rushed for a team high 117 yards on 21 carries and one TD. He also led the team in tackles (10). 

“Our red zone offense is something we’ve been talking about and stressing. I thought it was a little better tonight.” coach Donovan said. 

With four minutes left, Lone Tree held a four-point advantage, but it didn’t take long for Springville to answer. 

On a direct snap to Lansing, the Springville junior broke tackles and burst onto the open field for what ended up being a game winning 59-yard TD run. 

Trailing by two and with under two minutes left in the game, the Lions faced a fourth down. A wild snap got past Burke and when he was eventually able to corral the ball, two Springville defenders brought heavy pressure, leading to an errant throw which was intercepted, icing the game for the Orioles. 

“We do things that beat ourselves, just unacceptable things we didn’t do last year. I’ve always stressed you have to learn how not to beat yourself before you can become successful,” coach Donovan said. “We’re not doing that this year. We’re getting the lead, and we get complacent, and then things come back to haunt us and it came back to haunt us tonight.”

Up next for Lone Tree (2-2) is a road game against the Edgewood-Colesburg Vikings (4-0) on Sept. 27.