MARENGO — Battling through four losses to open the season, Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks could have folded their tent for the rest of the games. That’s not in the Hawks’ make-up or the make-up of their head coach Mike Parkinson.
And that is why the Hawks posted a 48-21 victory on the road Friday night over Iowa Valley’s Tigers. Lynnville-Sully improved to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in Class A District 7 action while Iowa Valley dropped to 2-3 and 1-2.
“Our guys stepped up to the challenge. They’ve stayed together as a team through the losses this season and continued to work as a team,” Parkinson said. “Mentally, the guys were pretty sharp tonight.”
Lynnville-Sully has moved the football in games all season.
“We finished tonight. We had a drive right away, which wasn’t perfect, but the kids pushed through it and scored. That set the tone for the game,” Parkinson said.
That drive was capped by a 6-yard touchdown run by Sage Ehresman, who ended up with 100 yards on 15 carries for the game. Ehresman scored three times to lead the Hawks to victory.
Ehresman caught a 50-yard scoring pass from Kobe Fisk in the second quarter. He wrapped up the Hawk scoring with a 15-yard run to the end zone in the fourth quarter.
A 9-yard touchdown run by Ross Van Wyk put the Hawks up 13-7. Fisk and Noah Zylstra had short touchdown runs to bookend Fisk’s touchdown throw to Ehresman in the second quarter. Van Wyk tacked on back-to-back two-point conversion runs as the Hawks built a 35-7 halftime score.
Quentin Thompson intercepted a Tiger pass in the second half and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown.
“Our offensive linemen did a great job of blocking and opened holes for our backs to run through. Defensively, the guys up front controlled things a the at the line of scrimmage,” Parkinson said. “It was just a solid team effort. The guys stayed positive and we saw progress every week.”
Fisk went 5-of-9 passing for 105 yards. Van Wyk rushed for 89 yards on 18 carries and Zylstra has 32 yards on 12 carries. Caden Dunsbergen caught two passes for 29 yards and Baker Zegers made one catch for 20 yards.
Defensively, Noah Zylstra was credited with six tackles while Noah Engle and Caleb James each had five tackles.
Lynnville-Sully hosts BGM for its homecoming game Friday in district play.
Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.