An area first round 8-player matchup took place in Winfield on Friday night and Lone Tree emerged on the road with a 66-36 win over Winfield-Mt. Union to advance to the round of 32. 

The highly anticipated game was a back-and-forth track meet early with the Wolves holding a 36-28 lead at the break after Abram Edwards connected with Cam Buffington from 20 yards out as time expired in the second. The slugfest completely turned one-sided in the second half, as the Lions outscored the home team 38-0 and Head Coach Aaron Bohr loved the adjustments his defense was able to make. “They have a couple really good backs and they kept falling forward for extra yardage in the first half. We put an extra guy on the line in the second half and made sure they didn’t have an area to get started. Once we did that we forced some negative plays and things went a lot better on that side.” 

Will Hotz led the defense with 12 tackles. Cade Shield was efficient completing 10 of 14 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns while adding three more on the ground. Cade Patterson hauled in six receptions for 72 yards and a score. Alex Viner carried the rock 13 times for 110 and reached pay dirt twice. WMU was led by Buffington with 112 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The freshman also added a touchdown pass to Edwards from 23 yards. 

The Lions improve to 4-3 and have a rematch with undefeated Montezuma (7-0) on Friday. The Wolves conclude the season 4-4 and say goodbye to six seniors in Jack Jennings, Seth Schurr, Bryce Wade, Chance Malone, Andrew Brady, and Luke Pfeiffer.