Photos by Samantha Davis. Lakeview’s Braylon Breyfogle (right) and Landon Teske (left) celebrate after Breyfogle ran in for a touchdown in the first half against Madelia Friday night in Cottonwoon. The Lakers defeated the Blackhawks 70-8 in their season and home opener. Below: Lakeview’s Garrett Schafer rushes in for a touchdown in the first half against Madelia Friday night. Schafer had four touchdowns in the Lakers’ win.

COTTONWOOD — Opening the season up in dominant fashion, the Lakeview football team defeated Madelia 70-8 Friday night behind a tenacious effort on both sides of the field, and four touchdowns from Garrett Schafer. The Lakers scored 40 of their points in the first half. 

“[I’m] just really proud of an all-around team effort. Special teams, offense, defense. All three phases of our game were really good tonight,” Lakeview head coach Scott Hanson said. “That’s the stock that these guys put into, starting last October. This is a serious group of kids who put time in the weight room, and they’re doing the right things to achieve these things, but you got to keep getting better.” 

Lakeview set the early tone on the first play of the game by forcing a Blackhawks’ turnover, and they never looked back as Lakeview continued to break through on offense while interrupting Madelia’s with contagious defense. 

Along with Schafer’s four, Gage Dimmick also had a trio of touchdowns on the night, all coming in the second half. Braylon Breyfogle visited the end zone twice in the first half as well. 

“You always make a big jump from week one to week two. So, even though we had a big win tonight, we’re going to review our film, we’re going to break things down and fix our mistakes,” Hanson said. “Even though it’s a big win, you still have mistakes, and that’s the big thing with this group of kids. We’re not going to ever be too high or too low. We’re just going to keep grinding and keep getting better each week.” 

Lakeview, which holds an experienced group of 12 seniors this year, is coming into the 2025 season with a new starting quarterback in junior Logan Herrick. He takes over for Tyden Marczak who graduated. 

Herrick got some varsity time last season at the quarterback position, and threw the winning touchdown against Canby in the Lakers’ second game last year, Hanson said. 

The Lakers are coming off a 3-6 overall 2024 campaign, which was an increase from the team’s 2023 season when it went 1-8. The program has been rebuilding since its 9-2 run in 2022 after it graduated a hefty group of 16 seniors that year, and were Section 5A runners-up that season as well. 

The Lakers’ season came to an end last year after being eliminated by Canby in the section quarterfinals. 

Madelia entered Friday’s game after going 1-7 last season, and the Lakers and Blackhawks did not meet in 2024. 

Lakeview ultimately put the game away and out of reach for Madelia before the first half was completed, with the momentum starting on the first defensive play of the night with an assisted-sack by Jackson Staab and Cody Helmke. 

Blake Peltier then broke up a Madelia pass attempt to force a fourth down, and Schafer scored his first touchdown of the night on the punt return just two minutes into the game. 

Lakeview immediately forced another fumble on the Blackhawks in return, recovered by Peltier to give the Lakers back the ball. 

It wasn’t long until Schafer was back in the end zone, scoring on a handoff while in Madelia’s red zone to put Lakeview up 12-0. 

“The lineman up front did an excellent job tonight on all of their executions,” Hanson said. “We got Garrett, who had the four touchdowns, and one of those touchdowns was on a punt return. So, it wasn’t just offensively, it was special teams, too. It’s just a sign that we got good team speed,” Hanson said. “It’s just excellent to see those guys go out and rush.”  

Throughout the night, Staab and Dustin Schlenner continued to be competitive forces on the defensive end, continuing to interrupt any offensive Madelia attempted to build up. 

“We’re really big up front, and we got great senior leadership. Jackson and Dustin are great leaders for us, but they’re also really good football players, too,” Hanson said. “They’re bringing those younger guys along. Just an all-around team effort, and just really proud of every single one of our players and every one of our coaches tonight.” 

On a Madelia third down, Breyfogle recovered a fumble on the 28-yard line and ran in for his first touchdown of the game. A successful 2-point conversation from Schafer put Lakeview up 20-0, still in the first quarter. 

The Blackhawks nearly got on the board as they marched down to Lakeview’s 11-yard line, but Schlenner and Staab combined for another sack behind the line of scrimmage for a 6-yard loss to force another Madelia fourth down as the opening quarter came to a close.  

Schafer opened the second quarter with another touchdown on a 70-yard rush, erupting Lakeview’s bench along with the home crowd. 

An interception from Peltier gave the Lakers back the ball once again on Madelia’s 37-yard line shortly after. A 14-yard run from Chance Kosel gave Lakeview a first down right on the 20-yard line. 

Breyfogle ran in on the next play, his second touchdown, who also received the complete pass from Herrick for another successful two-point conversion to build a 34-0 lead with just under eight minutes to go in the first half. 

Schafer ran in for one more touchdown with 5:23 to go in the half, giving the Lakers their 40-0 advantage and brought the game to running clock territory for a majority of the second half. 

Lakeview kept its foot on the gas on both ends of the field for the remainder of the game, and cruised to its season and home-opening win in front of a packed home crowd. 

Kosel also had a touchdown in the second half, in addition to Dimmick’s three. 

Madelia’s lone touchdown of the night came with 14 seconds left of the game, along with a 2-point conversion. 

Lakeview (1-0) will next travel for its first road game to Lac qui Parle Valley next Friday at 6 p.m. 

“We got a lot of kids in the game tonight, throughout the course of the game, and we’re just going to keep building upon that,” Hanson said. “We were 1-0 this week, and that was our goal. After tonight, this week’s over, we get ready for Lax qui Parle next week, and want to do it again.”