Tigers Give Bears All They Can Handle

 TIPTON — In a much anticipated high school football match-up, the Tipton Tigers hosted West Branch last Friday. The Bears came in with a high state ranking in Class 1A. Both teams wanted to get a boost heading into the first week of district play next week. Tipton passed the ball far more than expected and put up a strong defensive line, yet West Branch spread the ball around for a 24-14 win over their hosts Friday.

 Bear receiver Trey Eagle, quarterback Gavin Hierseman, running back Tanner Lukavsky and kicker Cael Fiderlein all recorded six points each in the game.

 “That was a hard-fought win,” West Branch Head Coach Butch Pedersen said in the post-game huddle. “You’ve got to give credit to Tipton — they’re a good football team. But you beat them by, so we’re a pretty good football team, too.”

 Tipton Head Coach Mark Langenfeld said the Tigers “shot ourselves in the foot.”

 “West Branch — they’re not only a good team, they’re a disciplined team,” he said. “They don’t make mistakes. I mean, how many … if you look at the penalties and you look at big plays? They had them all. A disciplined team. Those are the toughest to beat.”

 Langenfeld called himself happy with the Tigers’ “physicality.”

 “I thought we matched a great West Branch team pretty well,” he said. “But we can’t make mistakes.”

 He did think the Tigers’ defensive line highlighted their side of the game.

 “Personally, I think our defensive line is one of our better groups of people,” Langenfeld said. “But Lukavsky killed us with the cutbacks. It goes back to discipline. We tried, got a little excited, overpursued and the kid’s got great vision.”

 The Bears got off to a slow start but managed a 10-0 lead at halftime, and both teams scored once in each of the latter two quarters.

 Dakota Kaalberg made one of the bigger yard-gathering receptions on a trick play late in the second quarter. Eagle had returned a punt to Tipton’s 42 but a Tiger sack set West Branch back eight yards to midfield. On the next play, Gavin Hierseman threw a lateral to Eagle, who played quarterback in junior varsity, and Eagle tossed it 30 yards to Kaalberg along the Tiger sidelines, who made a leaping catch for it. Kaalberg then caught another short pass to put West Branch that much closer, and a Fiderlein field goal with 2.8 seconds left helped the Bears reach that 10-0 halftime lead.

 In the first three weeks of the season, Tipton had only connected on seven passes for 153 yards. On Friday, they found receivers five times for 49 yards.

 “That’s something we practiced a lot this week and had to get going,” Langenfeld said. “We haven’t been able to throw the last few games and it hurt us two weeks ago. Last week we had a nail-biter because they put 9-10 guys in the box and you can’t block 9-10 with only seven. We did the best we could — we got about four yards at a time. It was enough against Durant, but it’s something we worked a lot on in practice.

 Tipton collected 117 yards at halftime, 14 more than West Branch’s 103, even though the Tigers had yet to cross the goal line. The Tigers held West Branch to minus-12 yards rushing in the first half.

 “I’m happy with how my team responded,” the Tigers coach said. “What I’ve seen in the past year is that the team gets down and we fall apart, so there’s a lot to build off of thee for us. I think things are looking positive going into district play and what better than to play a strong opponent (before that)?”

 West Branch did not allow the Tigers to get any closer than 10 points in the second half, but the backbreaker came midway through the fourth quarter. The Bears’ drive stalled at the Tiger 40 and Tanner Lukavsky’s punt rolled into the coffin corner, putting Tipton on the one-yard line.

 On the third running attempt, the Bears knocked the ball loose and Morgan Hartz recovered it back at the Tipton 1. Already up 17-7, West Branch ran a quarterback sneak and Gavin Hierseman punched it in for a 24-7 lead.

 A Frank Bierman 25-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter and an Austin Lenz 5-yard in the fourth quarter accounted for the THS points.

 Lenz rushed for 73 yards on 17 carries while Tanner Lukavsky led West Branch rushers with 74 yards on 13 carries. Hierseman passed for 110 yards and Blake Wilking passed for 25 yards for the Tigers. Defensively, Cael Fiderlein and Trey Eagle led Bear tacklers with 11 and 10. Tipton was led by Nile Schuett with 7, and Connor Hermiston, Jessie Lieser and Kaleb Nerem each with 6.

 The Tigers hit the road this week when they play Camanche to open district play. The game will be played at the Clinton Lumberkings stadium with a kick-off time of 4:45.


Team Statistics:

TIP WB

First downs 15 11

Total Plays 61 52

Total Yards 252 215

Pass yards 49 141

Rush yards 203 74

3rd down conv. 3-of-13 2-of-10

4th down conv. 3-of-3 1-of-1

Turnovers 2 0

Fumbles Lost 2 0

Interceptions 0 0

Penalties-yards 6-100 3-20
Quarter Scores:

1 2 3 4 Final

West Branch 7 3 7 7 24

Tipton 0 0 7 7 14

Scoring Summary:
1st Qtr - WB – Tanner Lukavsky 69-yard pass from Gavin Hierseman (Cael Fiderlein kick)
2nd Qtr - WB – Cael Fiderlein 33-yard field goal
3rd Qtr - WB – Trey Eagle 20-yard pass from Gavin Hierseman (Cael Fiderlein kick)
3rd Qtr - TIP – Frank Bierman 25-yard pass from Payten Elijah (Frank Bierman PAT)
4th Qtr - WB – Gavin Hierseman 1 run (Fiderlein kick)
4th Qtr - TIP – Austin Lenz 5-yard run (Frank Bierman PAT)

Individual Statistics:
RUSHING – WB: Tanner Lukavsky 13-74, Gavin Hierseman 12-(-4) Dakota Kaalberg 4-(-4). Tipton - Austin Lenz 17-73, Frank Bierman 8-46, Payten Elijah 6-41, Blake Wilkins 12-39, TEAM 1-4.
PASSING – WB: Gavin Hierseman 9-for-17 110, 2 TD’s, 0 INT’s, Trey Eagle 1-1 31 yards, 0 TD’s, 0 INT’s. Tipton - Blake Wilkins 3-for-10 29 yards, 0 TD’s, 0 INT’s. Payten Elijah 2-for-2 20 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT’s.
RECEIVING – WB: Dakota Kaalberg 4-36, Tanner Lukavsky 3-71, Trey Eagle 3-34. Tipton - Connor Hermiston 2-26, Frank Bierman 1-25, Payten Elijah 1-3, Austin Lenz 1-(-5).

Defensive Statistics:
Tackles (S-A-T): West Branch - Cael Fiderlein 7-4 11, Trey Eagle 2-8 10, Cameron Howsare 2-8 10, Tanner Lukavsky 5-4 9, Matt Paulsen 2-7 9, Dalyn Pedersen 0-8 8, Dakota Kaalberg 2-5 7, Jeff Bowie 5-1 6, Jack Robertson 2-1 3, Morgan Hartz 2-0 2, Brad Hunger 1-1 2, Dominic Culver 1-0 1, Andy Hensen 1-0 1, Gavin Hierseman 0-1 1, Peyton Miller 1-0 1, Kristian Nalan 0-1 1, Kaleb Sexton 0-1 1.
Tipton - Nile Schuett 4-2 7, Connor Hermiston 6-0 6, Jessie Lieser 4-2 6, Kaleb Nerem 4-2 6, Frank Bierman 3-2 5, Andrew Comstock 3-1 4, Payten Elijah 3-0 3, Jaxon Murphy 2-0 2, Collin Chambliss 1-1 2, Lake Anderson 1-1 2, Austin Lenz 1-0 1, Jack Boldt 1-0 1, Skyler Schmidt 1-0 1, Nolan Ohrt 1-0 1.
Tackles For Loss: West Branch - Cael Fiderlein 3, Jeff Bowie 2, Dalyn Pedersen 1, Cameron Howsare 1, Trey Eagle 1. Tipton - Nile Schuett 3, Jessie Lieser 3, Kaleb Nerem 2, Frank Bierman 2, Jaxon Murphy 1.
Fumble Recoveries: West Branch - Cael Fiderlein 1, Morgan Hartz 1. Tipton - none.

Kicking Statistics:
Kick-Offs: West Branch - Cael Fiderlein 5-216 yards. Tipton - N/A.
Kick-Off Returns: West Branch - Andy Henseon 1-22. Tipton - Austin Lenz 1-12.
Punts: West Branch - Tanner Lukavsky 6-230 yards, 38.3-yard ave. Gavin Hierseman 1-63 yards, 63.0-yard ave. Tipton - Payten Elijah 5-36 yards.
Punt Returns: West Branch - Trey Eagle 2-43, Dakota Kaalberg 1-8. Tipton - N/A.