The Lone Tree Lions fell to the Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves, 32-22, on Friday, Sept. 24. The Lions were trailing 32-0 at the end of the third quarter but scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including two in the final minute of the game. 

After trailing the entire game, Lone Tree quarterback Cade Shield managed to find the end zone with a rushing touchdown with eight minutes left in the game. Shield completed a pass to Matthew Hemsted for the two-point conversion to finally put the Lions on the board. 

Then, kicker Drew Gauley executed an onside kick, which was recovered by junior Braden Viers. 

Momentum continued to shift in the Lions’ favor when Shield completed a 20-yard pass to senior Cade Patterson on second-and-23, but then the Lions took a blow when Winfield-Mt. Union’s Noah Sparrow intercepted Shield’s pass. 

However, Patterson was able to find the end zone with a long run with 33 seconds left in the game and Shield found junior tight end Caden Smith for the two-point conversion. 

The Lions recovered a second onside kick, this time with sophomore Ethan Bockelman diving on top to secure the football.

“Drew [Gauley] hasn’t exactly kicked for us for a long time, but he did a terrific job,” Lone Tree head coach Aaron Bohr said. “And we did a good job recovering those [onside kicks], too. They really got there. It’s all about desire when you want to get those onside kicks because it’s just a race to the football. It was really good to see us executing on those.”

Shield completed a long pass to Hemsted, who was tackled inside the one-yard line with 17 seconds left in the game, then Shield was able to punch through the Wolves’ line to score Lone Tree’s third touchdown of the quarter.

“It’s such a game of momentum,” Bohr said. “During the fourth quarter we were able to make some things happen… When you’re playing hard, you make your own luck. In the second half, we just had to basically check ourselves and get back to playing Lion football, and I think we did that by the end of the game.” 

Winfield-Mt. Union completed five of nine passing attempts for 95 yards and rushed for 318. Lone Tree’s Shield completed 11 of 18 passes for 141 yards but the Lions only rushed for 129 yards, with 116 of those coming from Shield. 

Bohr said he thought his team was stunned by Winfield Mt. Union early in the game, but once the Lions started playing more aggressively, things started to happen in their favor. 

“I think one thing we’ve got to get better at it that we can’t get too high or too low because, especially in eight-man football, the score is going to fluctuate quite a bit and we can’t let the situation dictate how hard we play,” Bohr said. “We really did a great job in the fourth quarter, but we need to do a better job when things aren’t going good so we can make our own luck in quarters one through three.” 

Lone Tree will next travel to WACO on Oct. 1 with kickoff at 7 p.m.