Photo by Heather Kleiboer
The South-East sub-district looks completely open to start the 2026 season. A game one matchup of Grand Meadow, a two-win team last year, and Mabel-Canton, the section champ and a 10-win team a year ago, is evidence of said observation. In a game that featured 81 run plays and just 12 attempted passes (four completions), the Larks interior defensive stiffened in the second half, holding M-C’s offense at bay, leading to a win. The halftime score was 8-8. M-C got a 48-yard Kale Eiken touchdown run (plus Eiken conversion run) to lead 8-0 with 4:16 left in the first quarter. GM got a 35-yard Blake Hubbard touchdown run (plus Jackson Soltau conversion run) to tie the game 8-8 with 4:21 left in the second quarter. At the half, Eiken, M-C’s top returning back off last year’s state qualifier, had 18 carries for 138 yards. GM held him to five carries for 16 yards in the second half. They held the Cougars without a first down in the stanza, until M-C’s final drive. Josh Bain’s Larks used a mostly late third quarter series (11 plays, 58 yards) to go ahead. A Soltau 2-yard run plus Hubbard conversion made it a 16-8. M-C’s final drive, with the clock ticking down, yielded two first downs and made the GM 35 yard-line. But on 4th and 14 from the 40, Lark end Logan Grafe deflected a Nolan Garness pass and GM’s other defensive end Graham Eastlee intercepted it with 1:42 left. The Larks ground out a couple first downs, and last year’s 7-seed in the Section 1 9-Man playoffs topped the 1-seed by 16-8 final. Hubbard (12-111, TD rushing; 3-19 receiving) made the big plays for GM. Soltau added the other rushing TD. The Larks ran for 159 yards on 39 carries, but passed for just 19 yards. Eiken (23-160, TD, conversion rushing) led the Cougars. Carter Hershberger (13-46 rushing) helped, as M-C ran for 205 yards on 42 carries. Ends Grafe and Eastlee plus interior defensive lineman Marshall Bleifus and Knut Johnson, linebackers Armagost, Brayton DeCook, and Soltau held M-C’s rushing game in check after intermission. M-C had just one completed pass but missed a couple opportunities in the passing game. The teams combined for just 40 yards passing. GM is 1-0 in the South-East and overall. M-C is 0-1, 0-1.
Leave a Reply