The Lyle/Pacelli football team turned its level of play up a notch in the second-to-last game of the season to position itself for the No. 3 seed in Section 1 by toppling a troubled Cleveland team, 33-14, on Friday night.

The triumph put L/P at the .500 mark in the conference at 3-3 and bettered its record to 3-4 overall. The team has won its last three games.

Lyle/Pacelli's defense shut down the Clipper offense in the first quarter, thereby allowing its offense to use the wind at their back to score three unanswered touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of the game.

The first two end-zone celebrations were compliments of Chris Bergstrom, who donated runs of 2 and 38 yards to give L/P a lead of 14-0 after two successful Mario Cisneros point-after kicks.

Bergstrom broke through the 1,000-yard barrier with a gain in the second quarter. Bergstrom's season total stands at 1,031 yards with at least two games left to play.

The third touchdown came by way of a 19-yard pass reception from quarterback Jake Kaput to receiver Joey Greibrok, the former starting quarterback.

Ben Boyd did not mind the wind in his face starting the second quarter, as he broke open a 91-yard catch-me-if-you-can run at the 10:50 mark to distance Lyle/Pacelli from Cleveland, 27-0.

Shawn Harmon added a 1-yard touchdown of his own to make it 33-0 with a little over two minutes left in the half.

The Clippers put their first points on the board just 20 seconds before the halftime whistle on a Brandon McCabe 1-yard touchdown run, that added with a successful two-point conversion pass play made it 33-8 at the half.

"We made some mistakes tonight, but I am really happy with the boys' effort tonight," said Lyle/Pacelli coach Mark Buntje. Two of the mistakes Coach Buntje talked about came on costly fumbles inside the Clippers' 15-yard-line that thwarted two possible scoring drives.

The third quarter came and went without either team crossing the goalline. It was not until late in the fourth quarter when Cleveland would score its last points, an 11-yard touchdown pass play to make it 33-14.

Lyle/Pacelli dominated the ground game by running the ball 58 times to compile a staggering 455 yards to the Clippers' 108, and L/P would accumulate 492 total yards of offense for the game.

Three L/P ballcarriers exceeded the 100 yard mark during the game. Chris Bergstrom had 164 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns. Kellen Blaser ran the ball 23 times for 128 yards, while teammate Ben Boyd touched the ball six times for 113 yards and a touchdown.

"Both the offensive and defensive lines played well tonight, Shawn Harmon made some great blocks as did many others," said Coach Buntje. "This is a very important win for us. We will need this momentum as we look to play our last game of the season."

Lyle/Pacelli will hope to finish the regular season with a win as they host Alden-Conger (0-7) Wednesday night in Lyle.

Superlarks blank Alden-Conger

Grand Meadow scored at will against host Alden-Conger while placing a defensive wall in front of the winless Knights, denying them any offensive footprints into the end zone during a 58-0 shutout Friday night in Alden.

The Superlarks kept their opponents on their heels during the first 15 minutes of the game by scoring 27 points while operating out of the no-huddle offense.

"We wanted to work on our no-huddle offense tonight, so we used the first quarter to execute some plays using it," said Grand Meadow coach Gary Sloan. "I'm happy with the results."

GM racked up 467 yards of total offense against the Knights, who mustered only 105 yards of their own.

Kyle Breitbarth captained the Superlark offense by passing for two touchdowns and carrying the ball across the goalline twice for another two scores. Breitbarth went 7-of-17 for 141 yards passing and had six carries for 72 yards, averaging 11.5 yards per carry.

Zac Benson contributed a 55-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and finished with seven carries for 78 yards. He also caught the ball twice for 60 yards.

Tyler Knutson added a 5-yard reception from Breitbarth that ended in a touchdown in the first quarter, which put Grand Meadow up 27-0.

Anthony Stejskal touched the ball four times for 21 yards and added an 8-yard sprint into the end zone to make it a 34-0 game.

Ryan Ament averaged 9.8 yards per carry while carrying the ball eight times for 78 yards and one touchdown, including a 22-yard scamper that put the 'Larks up 40-0 at the half.

Eric Holst carried the ball once, a 3-yard run that resulted in the first touchdown of the game.

Six other Superlark rushers carried the ball for positive yardage.

Taylor Bunne contributed 12 points to the cause, with one touchdown coming on a 15-yard pass from Breitbarth in the first quarter and another on a, 18-yard interception return in the third quarter. That made it 46-0 in favor of the Superlarks.

The defense shut down Alden-Conger, which allowed the Grand Meadow offense to control the ball for the balance of the game.

The result ended in a lopsided late-season victory for the Superlarks, who currently stand third in the 9-man Southern Confederacy Conference.

"We tried to spread the ball around to as many players as we could after the first quarter," Coach Sloan said. "Our blocking has improved, individual blocking is more crisp."

Grand Meadow improved its SCC record to 4-2 and its overall record to 5-2. The Superlarks will close the season at home against Cleveland Wednesday night.