Knights can’t hold lead in season opening loss

It was a tale of two quarters for Fremont-Mills in its opener Friday night at Exira-EHK.

The Knights sprinted out to a 20-0 lead in the opening half and appeared to be cruising until a flag negated kickoff return and a turnover flipped the momentum and Exira went on to score the final 20 points of the game in a 45-27 victory in non-district Eight-person football.

“We struggled all the way around,” said Fremont-Mills coach Jeremy Christensen, whose team lost their first season-opener since 2013. “Game one, there’s always things you think you know when you go into and you find out when you go into it, maybe you don’t. We have to do a better job getting us a time in the pass game. We got beat up front on both sides of the line, all over the place and along the sideline; you name it.”

The Knights looked confident and prepared early. A punt return for a touchdown by Jaeger Powers and a turnover they converted into another score to gave them a 13-0 lead after quarter. They extended that lead to 20-0 before the Tigers began to rally, trimming the lead to 20-14 at the half.

Exira briefly took a 25-20 lead with 4:30 to go in the third quarter before Knight quarterback Mason Vanatta scored a five-yard keeper to make it 27-25 with :22 left in the frame.

Exira responded with a touchdown of their own to take a 33-27 lead with just over eight minutes to go in the game but the Knights appeared to have an answer of their own when Vanatta returned the ensuing kick off for a touchdown. The play, however, was called back by penalty, negating the touchdown and the potentially momentum turning score.

The Tigers marched down the field to score on their next possession and picked off a Vanatta pass they also converted into another TD to secure the victory.

“The kickoff return by Mason being called back and the interception were huge,” he said. “They scored pretty quick right after those and it was one of those things where the wind came out of sails when Mason’s return got called back. It was a big momentum play where we could have taken the lead. It was one those things that snowballed on us.”

The Knights finished with 238 total yards of offense. Vanatta led the way with 81 yards rushing and two TDs while completing 4-of-21 passes for 65 yards and two interceptions.

The Wolverines head back out on the road Friday to face Lamoni.