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Football: Young Lancers roll past West

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By Sean Moeller | Saturday, September 06, 2008 |

ELDRIDGE, Iowa — There on the green and unblemished turf of Lancer Stadium was the new-blood North Scott High School football team, the new breed. They were as green as the turf and lacking game experience.

The new blood made coach Kevin Tippet and the rest of the North Scott staff gasp and shudder for all of three minutes against Davenport West on Friday night.

After that, all those new guys hardly were new anymore. They operated like veterans and prevailed 42-7, getting an early Mississippi Athletic Conference victory.

The Lancers returned two players on offense and another two on defense from a 2007 squad that went 6-3.

At the outset of the game against the Falcons, there was some shakiness in the North Scott pads as West’s Shawn Murphy returned the opening kickoff 58 yards to the North Scott 29-yard line

Five plays later, the Falcons stalled on the 12 before missing wide left and short on a 31-yard field-goal attempt. From that point on, North Scott was steeled, and it went to work.

“We came out of the gate OK,” Tippet said. “We had a little adversity there at the beginning of the game on special teams. That’s just unacceptable, but we have a very young team game-wise.

“I thought it was huge for our defense to shut them down on that first drive and then get some big plays.”

The biggest plays came from senior quarterback Jimmy DeFrieze, tailback Connor Dahlstrom and sophomore Travis Anderson. DeFrieze, who got some valuable playing time last season, hit Anderson for 37- and 86-yard touchdown passes in the first and second quarters respectively.

“We had kids step up and make big plays,” Tippet said. “(Dahlstrom) was our No. 2 tailback last season and he’s just one of the kids who we think has big-play potential. Jimmy made some good checks and audibles.“

Dahlstrom finished the game with 129 yards on just nine carries and Anderson caught three balls for 131 yards. DeFrieze was in the middle of it all, running a strong offense, hitting on eight of his nine attempts for 198 yards and three scores.

The only Falcons touchdown came late in the fourth quarter, with a running clock. Quarterback Andrew McNamara found Adam Cunningham from 20 yards out.