It’s been 82 years since Mason City and Clear Lake have met in a varsity football game, but the two teams will renew the intra-county battle tonight at Mohawk Stadium in Mason City. The Lions are coming off their 14th straight year of making an appearance in the playoffs, while the Mohawks have already started their season with a tough 24-7 “week zero” loss to Ames.
Clear Lake coach Fred Wieck says Mason City has an advantage having played last week. He says he doesn’t know what he has in his team right now, but Mason City does. Wieck says they do have the advantage of looking at the tape of last week’s game to find out what Mason City does.
Wieck says it should be a good early-season contest for his team. “They are a big school, we’re not going to whine about it or worry about it. They obviously have a lot more kids than we do do choose from, but when it comes down to it there will only be 11 kids on the field at once,” Wieck says.
Mason City High coach Justin Penner says they welcome the challenge from perennial Class 3A power Clear Lake. “When a program is proud in their tradition and their history, they are not going to change a lot of things out of respect for us,” Penner says. He says the players change, but the things Clear Lake does will not.
Penner agrees with Wieck that his team has the upper hand by playing a game last week. He says Clear Lake had the opportunity to scout them, but his team will have better game conditioning and understand the intensity and speed of the game a little bit better because of the first game.
By Bob Fisher KRIB Mason City