DONNELLSON — Central Lee’s football team won its first four games of the season by a.) controlling the line of scrimmage and b.) not giving up the ball.
The Hawks, who moved into the Class 2A rankings at No. 10 this week, had problems doing both against Albia in Friday’s Class 2A District 5 game, and it led to their first defeat.
The Blue Demons scored twice in the first quarter, then kept Central Lee from getting anything going in a 14-0 win.
Albia (3-2 overall, 1-1 district) got two touchdown runs from quarterback Luke Wynn in the first 5:36 of the game, and that would be all the Blue Demons would need.
Central Lee (4-1, 1-1) had just 169 yards of offense, lost four fumbles, and allowed the opening kickoff to bounce right to Albia’s coverage team, leading to the Blue Demons’ first touchdown.
“I thought defensively, we did really well,” Central Lee coach Doug Dodds said. “We gave up one play (Wynn’s 83-yard touchdown run for his second score) and we got put in a very, very bad situation (on the opening kickoff). Other than that, I thought we played pretty well.”
The Hawks have moved the ball against their opponents to start the season, but couldn’t mount much of an offense against the Blue Demons. Quarterback Kayden Calfee, who had back-to-back 100-yard rushing games, was held to just 23 yards on the ground, a number cut down by 31 yards of loss on three sacks on the final drive. Fullback Chase Johnson, who also was coming off back-to-back 100-yard games, had just 13 carries for 45 yards.
Central Lee’s best drive came in the third quarter, when the Hawks went from their own 10-yard line to the Albia 31 before a fumble ended the drive.
“If you look at that third-quarter drive, I mean, we controlled the line of scrimmage,” Dodds said. “We just didn’t control the line of scrimmage in the first half, and I don’t know what happened.”
The Hawks were hurt by turnovers, the last one coming after they seemed to have a chance to get points in the fourth quarter as they were trying to rally. Bo Herdrich intercepted a Wynn pass and returned the ball deep into Albia territory, but had the ball knocked away and the Blue Demons recovered.
“That would have given us a chance, and we would have had good field position right there,” Dodds said.
Wynn threw for 161 yards and rushed for 115.
“He’s such a good athlete, but I thought we did a nice job on him,” Dodds said. “He had the one big run, where he broke some tackles, but that was about it.”
Central Lee plays host to West Burlington-Notre Dame next Friday. Asked what will be the message this week coming off this first defeat, and Dodds had a two-word answer.
“Move on,” he said.
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