By Jacob Heid

Sports Editor

ALMOND – The Almond-Bancroft football team had a couple of big offensive performances and scripted a perfect defensive game plan to take down Newman Catholic, the defending 8-player football state champions, 52-14 in a conference game in Almond on Sept. 22.

Senior quarterback T.J. Lamb completed 17 passes for 360 yards and five touchdowns. 

Shane Klismith was on the receiving end of eight passes, gaining 229 yards, and had five touchdowns.

Junior receiver Ayden Phillips had 136 yards receiving and one touchdown as well. 

“We’re very happy. We went out and performed our game plan and it just fell into place for us,” Almond-Bancroft Head Coach Andy Louis said. 

Almond-Bancroft allowed Newman Catholic to strike first about halfway through the first quarter. 

That passing touchdown was the last we heard about the Cardinal offense until the third quarter due to the driven defense by the Eagles.

Lamb helped the Almond-Bancroft offense answer Newman’s initial score. 

As the offense drove the field, the senior quarterback found his teammate from 40 yards out to tie things up at 6-6.

The defense made its first stand, turning the Cardinals over on downs. 

On the next possession, an option play allowed running back Emmitt Stiles to toss one to Klismith to take a 14-6 lead early in the second quarter.

Almond-Bancroft used that momentum to force another turnover, jumping on a bad snap and starting its next offensive possession on its 38-yard line.

“That’s the best our defense has played all year,” Louis explained. “[The players] finally stepped up, like I said, and they performed exactly what the game plan was.”

Chewing nearly four minutes off the clock, the Eagles plunged into the end zone to extend its lead to two scores with five minutes left in the half. 

The offensive blitz continued after the defense executed another stop that only had the defensive unit on the field for one minute. 

Lamb threw his second touchdown on the next possession, finding Phillips, a 6-foot-6 six junior, for a 49-yard touchdown to make it a 28-6 Eagles lead. 

The Lamb and Klismith connection kept rolling early in the second half, putting another six points on the board after a 60-yard catch and run to put the game out of reach, 36-6, after a successful two-point conversion. 

“They were trying to take Ayden away from us, so Shane just stepped up and did what he had to do,” Louis stated. 

Newman finally scored its last points of the game late in the third quarter, putting the score at 36-14 with one quarter remaining. 

It seemed like every time Klismith touched the ball, he found the end zone. That was the case for a fourth time in this game, scoring on a 57-yard catch and run on a 1st and 27. 

The Eagles scored once more before the end of the game, putting the nail in the coffin of a dominant performance.

Almond-Bancroft has won four straight games and sits at 4-1 (2-0).

After scoring 40-plus points in the last four contests, the Eagles travel to Wild Rose on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m.