Minneapolis Lions fell in their home finale tonight against the Hoisington Cardinals, 41-6.

The game was moved up to Thursday night due to weather concerns in the area.

Injuries continued to plague the Lions this week as they were without starting quarterback, Junior Derek Freel, and backup quarterback Senior Kaden McCullick for the second straight week. Sophomore Trent Moeckel, who started last week, broke his finger during the game last week and is out for the season. This led to Minneapolis Head Coach John Haehn to change the offense around and ran a wildcat formation with Senior Tyson Villalpando and Freshman Gannon Cleveland running the quarterback duties .

Minneapolis started the game with the football, and on the first play, Villalpando ran it 40 yards to get the Lions into Hoisington territory. Five plays later, Villalpando would rush it in for a touchdown from two yards out with 7:41 left to go in the first quarter to put Minneapolis up, 6-0.

Hoisington would tie the game up, 6-6, on their opening drive as Senior Xavier Robinson’s 5-yard touchdown run capped off a nine-play drive for the Cardinals. Robinson would find the endzone again in the first quarter on a 1-play, 77 yard drive with 29.6 seconds left to go in the opening period.

Cardinals Junior Wyatt Pedigo came into the game 86 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards on the season and scored 14 touchdowns on the year. Pedigo ended up with a game-high 227 rushing yards and three touchdowns. His first score came with 8:46 left in the first half on a 48-yard scamper to put Hoisington up, 20-6.

Minneapolis defense put together a goal-line stance right before the half forcing a fumble by Pedigo at the one-yard line and recovered in the endzone for a touchback with six seconds left to keep the score, 20-6, at the break.

Halfway through the third quarter, the Lions forced another fumble by Pedigo with 5:50 left before the fourth. Minneapolis put together a tough drive behind Villalpando, who led the team with 88 yards on 23 carries, to set up a fourth-and-goal opportunity from the 5-yard line to begin the fourth quarter. Hoisington, however, were able to stop Villalpando at the 2-yard line to force the turnover on downs. Cardinals answered immediately with a 98-yard touchdown from Pedigo one minute into the fourth quarter to extend the lead, 26-6.

Pedigo would add another touchdown on a 3-yard carry with 6:46 left. Sophomore Josh Ball ended up on the scoreboard with a 1-yard touchdown run with two minutes left to bring it to the final score.

Minneapolis finished with 132 yards of total offense; 115 on the ground. Hoisington ended up with 508 yards of total offense, including 430 yards rushing.

The Lions are now 3-3 on the season and head on the road to face TMP-Marian in Hays next week before finishing the regular season on the road against Phillipsburg.

https://soundcloud.com/minneapolis-lions/minneapolis-football-10-4-18