Photo by Sam Thiel YME’s Ethan Peterson carries the ball during their game against Lakeview on Friday. The Sting defeated the Lakers 34-20.

COTTONWOOD - Yellow Medicine East tailback Ethan Peterson got the ball early and often in Friday night’s contest with the Lakeview Lakers as he steamrolled his way to a 256-yard, two-touchdown night to help play spoiler to the Lakers’ homecoming with a 34-20 victory.

Providing a preview of what was to come, the Sting unleashed their ground game with a great deal of success in their first drive of the game starting at their 41-yard line. Before long, Yellow Medicine East found itself across midfield and continuing to pick up big gains. Opening up the playbook, the Sting went to the air for the first time and entered the Lakers red zone with the completion. Testing the Lakers pass-defense once more, the Sting hit paydirt for their first touchdown on a seven-yard pass from Angel Jimenez to Carter Sneller to give them an early 6-0 lead. After the extra point, the Sting pulled ahead early 7-0.

On the ensuing Lakers drive, the Sting defense was more than up for the challenge posed by quarterback Aaron Loe and his talented group of receivers as they went three-and-out and were forced to punt on their first drive.

Beginning at their own 20-yard line, the Sting offense went back to work with a strong emphasis on the ground game that the Lakers were unable to stop. With the offensive line creating ample space, Peterson continued to churn out hard-fought yards that would inevitably bring the offense nearing the red zone where they threatened to add to their early lead with the clock winding down in the first quarter. With the ball placed at the 22, Peterson took a handoff to the house for YME’s second touchdown in two drives. After a missed extra point that would follow, the Sting found themselves ahead 13-0 with a minute left in the first quarter.

In need of an answer on their second drive, the Lakers offense began to move the ball for the first time after being shut down on the previous drive. A quarterback keeper by Loe and a converted pass attempt to Carter Louwagie brought the Lakers into the red zone where they looked poised to find their first touchdown. The drive would stall, however, as the Sting defense clamped down and forced a fourth and long. The Lakers would take a shot at the end zone and drew a pass interference penalty but were unable to capitalize as they turned the ball over deep in Sting territory early in the second quarter.

Late in the second quarter, with the Sting still holding onto a 13-0 lead, the Lakers put together a key scoring drive with seconds left on the clock. On fourth and long, Loe dropped back to pass and found receiver Parker Hoffman who lateralled it to a trailing Elijah Sterner who took it the rest of the way for the touchdown. At the end of the half, the Sting carried a 13-6 lead but the Lakers had the momentum on their side and were due to receive the football to start the second half.

Picking up where they left off at the end of the first half, the Lakers proceeded to open up the second half with a clinical drive with a healthy dose of Sterner and passing plays to Louwagie to pick up big chunks of yards. Into the red zone with the ball at the three-yard line, Sterner plunged into the end zone for his second score of the day and with the successful extra point, tied the game at 13-13.

After stalling in their final drives to end the half, the Sting offense came alive in timely fashion in their first drive of the second half with Peterson piling up the yards and keeping the Lakers defense off balance. Near midfield, the YME offense faked a handoff that caught the Lakers secondary by surprise and forced them to take the bait. Running all alone without a defensive back in sight, Jimenez delivered a pass in stride to Bennett Knapper who reeled it in and crossed the goal-line untouched to retake the lead.

Refusing to back down, the Lakers went 67 yards on their next drive capped off by a shovel-pass touchdown to Louwagie from 11 yards out to even the game up at 20-20. Unfortunately for Lakeview, the Lakers couldn’t make a stop on defense on the next Sting drive and running back Ayden Friese took a handoff five yards for the score to put YME back up again in what was becoming a track-meet second half. On the extra point attempt following the Friese touchdown, Lakeview blocked the extra point to make it 26-20 with the clock winding down in the third quarter.

Now entering the fourth quarter, the Sting defense stepped up big for a key stop deep in their own territory that gave the ball right back to their offense where they would continue pounding the ball with Peterson and Friese digging deep for hard-fought yards that brought them to the one-yard line. On third and goal, Peterson looked like he would be tackled for a loss with a defender making contact behind the line of scrimmage. Instead, Peterson delivered a text-book stiff arm that gave him the running room to march into end zone for his second touchdown of the day and seal the victory for the Sting.

With their victory, the Sting now move to 2-3 on the year and will look to improve to .500 with a win next week over Lac qui Parle Valley at home.

The Lakeview Lakers will look for their second win of the season when they take on Ortonville on the road.