Photo by Christine Vreeman
A 75-yard interception touchdown return by Knight Sam Howard broke open a previously close game, and state-ranked #6 in 9-Man Kingsland went on to control the second half and #10 Spring Grove for big a 38-13 win. The Knights are 7-0 for the first time since their state title team in 1995 and at 6-0 in league play, have clinched at least a share of the South-East sub-district championship in 9-man football.
The Lions, after a 5-0 start, dropped back to third place. Spring Grove scored first and trailed only 16-13 at halftime, a score that held until Howard’s third-period, pick-six. The Knights denied the home team twice deep in the red zone in the first half. A 15-play, 66-yard Lion drive died on downs at the 10 yard-line, preserving a 16-7 KHS lead. Later, trailing by three points, Grove drove 48 yards in 10 plays before failing on fourth down at the 5 yard-line. Bryce Berns hit Jaxon Strinmoen with a 24-yard TD toss to open the scoring and then scored himself on a 4-yard run one second before halftime. But Kingsland won the second half 22-0 and defeated the Lions for the first time (SG had won the previous four).
KHS senior Beau Wiersma, the league’s leading scorer and 1,060-yard rusher coming in (six games) gained a modest 78 yards on 19 carries, including an 8-yard TD run. But the Knights’ five biggest plays were through the air. Sophomore signal-caller Kaaleem Reiland completed 10 of 17 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns with one INT. His TD passes were an 18-yarder to Parker Johnson and a 26-yarder to Ayden Howard. Howard (4-108, TD receiving, 2-26 rushing) also took a 34-yard reception down to the 17 to set up another TD and took a 42-yard pass to the one yard-line to set up Reiland’s TD run. The 6’1” senior added a 40-yard kick-off return.
SG, after taking a 7-0 lead, fell behind 16-7 before running another offensive play. The Knights went ahead 8-7 and then scored again three plays after recovering an onside kickoff. For SG, Strinmoen had career highs with 10 receptions for 130 yards while Jacob Olerud gained 92 yards on 16 carries. Reiland passed for 170 yards and Berns for 169 (15-30-1). The Knights had 126 yards rushing. SG had only 74, but would have had 98 save a 24-yard loss on a bad snap. But KHS had the big edge in return yardage, two red zone defensive denials, won the turnover battle 3 to 1, and recovered two onside kick-offs. Caden Gerard had an interception for SG one play before Sam Howard’s pick-off TD. After throwing 138 passes, Berns was intercepted only for the second time. Kingsland’s dream season continues.
It will be their first winning campaign since 2006 (when they were 6-4). It is (likely) their first conference/sub-district title since the 1995 undefeated state title team, of which Coach Matt Kolling was the lead running back. Even in the Knights two subsequent state trips in 2002 and 2003, they were just 4-4 and 5-3 to end the regular season battling in the rugged Three Rivers Conference, which produced three champions (including Kingsland) in 2002. And there was a handful of 0-9 seasons since that time. The Knights (6-0, 7-0), LeRoy-Ostrander (5-1, 6-1), and Spring Grove (4-2, 5-2) top the South-East with one game left.
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