(Council Bluff) Lewis Central has won six straight games by at least 35 points. That includes their 57-7 first round playoff win over LeMars on Friday.
The #1 ranked Titans roll into the Class 4A quarterfinals with a 10-0 record. They’ll have a rematch on their hands against a Glenwood squad that they topped 58-22 in the regular season. Lewis Central head coach Justin Kammrad addresses the key priorities for this week. “The biggest one is start fast. We have to start better than what we did last time. We are going to have to be disciplined. They jumped out on us early and had multiple big plays. We had penalties and didn’t give ourselves a great shot in the first half to get much going.”
Glenwood was in front 22-20 at halftime of their October 7th meeting before the Titans scored 14 unanswered in the 3rd quarter and put the game away with a 24-0 4th quarter. “They played really well. They executed at a really high level in the first half. Sort of punched us in the mouth a little bit and I’m not quite sure we were ready for that. They brought their ‘A’ game to us and thank God we were able to respond late in the first half and the second half. They were ready to go and prepared. We just have to be ready in all aspects for the game on Friday.”
In the first round, Lewis Central held LeMars to just 65 rushing yards and an average of 2.3 yards per attempt. The seven points matched a season low for the Bulldogs. “Our defense executed really well. LeMars is a really good football team that had really good team speed and likes to get to the perimeter. Our guys suffocated the run game and forced them to do something they didn’t want to do and that was throw more than they wanted to. Our guys did a great job on the defensive side and our coaches did a great job getting a scheme in place to be able to be successful. They did some good stuff in the run game to prevent some of our big plays. They played some coverage we hadn’t seen all your and we were able to get guys running past some DB’s and hit some big plays in the passing game. It was just a great all around effort by our guys on Friday.”
Braylon Kammrad completed 12/18 throws for 298 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions. Seven different players had a reception. Curtis Witte caught three passes for 132 yards and two scores. Lual Maker added three receptions for 81 yards and two touchdowns. In the running game there were four different players with at least 20 yards rushing as they tallied 121 yards as a team on 22 attempts. They were good in all three phases as the defense forced three turnovers plus Boston Hensley returned a kickoff 94 yards for a score and Witte averaged 17.3 yards on his four punt returns.
Through the 2007 season the Titans had only four playoff appearances. Since then they’ve only missed the postseason two times in 15 years. More recently they’ve made two trips to the dome including their first state championship last year. “It’s about player development. Buying in to everything that we do as a program from our weights program to our speed and agility program to being a multi-sport athlete and competing year round. Then when football season rolls around just diving in head first and wanting to be successful and doing everything the coaches ask them to do. The kids have been very coachable. They’ve bought into that. That’s a trait that was instilled into this program by coach Jim Duggan that we have been able to continue and and it’s just been able to multiply for our guys.”
Lewis Central has won 19 straight games. They haven’t lost since a 14-9 decision at Indianola in Week 3 last season.
Lewis Central coach Justin Kammrad:
