Fulton falls to Lena-Winslow in 1A quarterfinal

FULTON – If the Lena-Winslow Panthers were a team appearing in a video game, their difficulty rating would be ridiculous.

The Fulton Steamers knew that well heading into Saturday’s Class 1A quarterfinal matchup in Fulton, but knowing it and being able to do anything about it are two very different things.

The Steamers couldn’t find the right combination of buttons to push on enough plays, and the Panthers made them pay with Madden-like explosive plays in a 52-14 win.

[ Photos from Fulton vs. Lena-Winslow Class 1A quarterfinal ]

Lena Winslow (12-0) advances to meet Forreston in the 1A semifinals. It will be the third time the two programs have met in the semifinals since 2017.

“They are just so good, so very good,” Fulton coach Patrick Lower said. “You have to play perfect, and you have to rely on them to make a couple mistakes. I think they made one mistake in the first half, and we didn’t capitalize on it.

“You’d like to say that ‘We just didn’t play well,’ but they had a lot to do with that. They are good, and you have to be perfect, and we weren’t perfect by any means. They’re the better team, and they’re moving on.”

The Steamers (9-3) received the opening kickoff and momentarily moved the ball, as quarterback Brayden Dykstra connected with Ethan Price on a 12-yard pass on the second play of the game. The drive stalled after that, and a fourth-down punt went straight out of bounds on the Lena-Winslow sideline.

The Panthers took over on the Fulton 42, and after a 2-yard gain by Gunar Lobdell, Jake Zeal burst into the open for a 40-yard touchdown. It was the first of six offensive plays of more than 40 yards for Lena-Winslow.

The Steamers were forced to punt again after three plays, and this time, Lobdell fielded the punt at the Fulton 40 and returned it 34 yards, setting the Panthers up with first-and-goal from the six. Zeal did the rest, scoring on the first play on a 6-yard run to put Lena-Winslow up 14-0 with 6 minutes left in the first quarter.

“It was really devastating,” Fulton senior Ryan Eads said. “It was like ‘Wow!’ and it was 14-0 right away. We can’t come out like that.

“They are just a really, really good football team. I think we played a little bit scared today, and they got the best of us.”

The second quarter became the Lobdell show, as his touchdown runs of 57 and 45 yards put Lena-Winslow firmly ahead at 30-0 with 6:42 left to play in the half.

“They are just so fundamentally sound in everything they do,” Lower said. “It’s nothing that is fancy or tough to figure out. That’s the part that’s frustrating: you know what’s coming.”

Fulton answered the second Lobdell touchdown with its first successful drive. The big play was a 57-yard pass from Dykstra to Price; the completion put Fulton in the red zone at the Panther 12. Another pass to Price put Fulton at the 5, and after a 4-yard run by Eads, Joel Ford scored from the 1.

The Steamers then forced a three-and-out, and a shanked punt gave them great field position at the Lena-Winslow 32. But after a 4-yard run by Dykstra, the Steamers failed to move the ball with three straight incompletions. The last incompletion drew the ire of the Steamer crowd, who wanted an interference call on the pass to Kole Schipper.

On the third play of the next drive, Zeal went around the end 60 yards for a touchdown. The Panthers added one more score on a 41-yard touchdown pass to Zeal from Drew Streckwald as time expired in the fist half. Le-Win went into the break leading 44-7.

Lena-Winslow kept rolling after the half, as Gage Dunker rumbled 56 yards on the first play to put the Panthers at the Fulton 15. Le-Win crossed the 40-point running-clock barrier moments later when Streckwald hit Jace Flynn for a 15-yard touchdown pass.

Fulton followed that with a six-play, 63-yard touchdown drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Eads.

It was the second straight quarterfinal appearance for the Steamers in their second season in the NUIC after leaving the Three Rivers. All four quarterfinal teams in the northern half of the 1A bracket were from the NUIC.

“I think since coming to the NUIC, we have enjoyed some great success,” Eads said. “We definitely gotten better over the last two seasons. This conference is really great, and definitely makes us better.”