Lindal, Warren runs to victory
Warren and Round Lake's season finale was pretty much summed up with the weather. Just when Blue Devil running back Tommy Lindal scored his first touchdown in the first quarter, lightning struck to delay the game.
But unfortunately for Round Lake's defense, lightning just kept on striking for Warren, and Lindal in particular. Warren (8-1, 6-0 NSC) took it to the winless Panthers to the tune of a 40-0 shutout.
Lindal set the tone early, racking up 29 yards in his first carry before capping the drive off with an 18-yard touchdown just before the weather delay. Afterwards, Lindal didn't miss a beat, scoring 3 more touchdowns, including 69 and 85-yard scores.
Just in his sophomore season, Lindal came into the game with 907 total yards. It took all of six carries to eclipse the 1,000 yard mark. By the time he was done, Lindal had racked up 232 yards and 4 touchdowns on just 9 carries.
"It was a good night to run because with the weather, most of our plays were on the ground," Lindal said. "We were just looking to get me to a thousand, but I wasn't expecting this."
His efficiency gave him an impressive 25.8 yard per carry average on the game. With the sophomore year he's been having, that wasn't too far off of his season average.
"He's really had a good year," Mohapp said. "He really emerged going into the year and for a young player, he's really done an outstanding job. We really did not think we were going to get out of Tommy Lindal what we did. The best thing about him is that we've got two more years with him."
Beyond Lindal, Warren's overall offense was clicking. Blue Devil quarterback Zach Shaw hooked up with Ryan Maguire for a 31-yard touchdown with 2:03 in the first quarter. Dan Fontana was the last to score with a 2-yard score to close out scoring with 3:22 in the third quarter.
"We had a little delay in the game with the lightning, but when we came back out, we really established the ground game," Warren coach Dave Mohapp said. "We ground that out with the weather conditions ... We were able to run and get our offense going."
Round Lake was knocking on Warren's door late in the first half as they drove to the Blue Devil 20. But Mat Maldonado put an end to that with an interception.
A 40-0 loss wasn't exactly what Round Lake coach John Coursey had in mind to close out the season. But is happy with his team's progression over the course of the season.
"We are making improvement, but it's going to take a lot of work to get there," Coursey said. "We ran the ball well tonight. Our goal is always to get a first down or to get a three-and-out and we accomplished that a few times tonight."