The Lake Mills football team took advantage of a late fumble by Northwood-Kensett and the Bulldogs’ Royce Byrnes connected on 28 yard pass to Dylan Davis setting up the game-winning one yard touchdown run by Tyler Rice with 22 seconds left. The Bulldogs defeated Northwood-Kensett 14-7 Friday in Lake Mills.

The Vikings had a chance to tie the game at the end, when Spencer Capitani rushed for a 49 yard run and got out of bounds with four seconds left, but the last second heave into the end zone fell incomplete as the clock struck zero.

“It was a classic rivalry game,” Lake Mills head football coach Bill Byrnes said. “Their offense got going, our offense got going. The difference was the turnover at midfield in the fourth quarter. We got momentum and we got the go ahead touchdown.”

For Northwood-Kensett, it’s looking at the positives and to keep improving.

“Were trying to build on the positives as much as we can,” Northwood-Kensett head football coach Dave Capitani said. “We’re disappointed we lost but we know they are an outstanding football team. Obviously we felt we had our opportunities to win the game. But like I said, we’re looking at the positives and improve on some of those negatives.”

Perhaps the biggest play of the game happened late in the fourth quarter.

After a fumble by Northwood-Kensett that was recovered by Lake Mills, Bulldogs quarterback Royce Byrnes took the second snap of the series and rolled out to his left where he found receiver Dylan Davis for 28 yards with 40 seconds left.

Two plays later, Tyler Rice plowed into the end zone from one yard out to give the Bulldogs the 14-7 lead.

“That’s the biggest catch he’s ever made,” Byrnes said of Davis. “Royce put it in there and we took it in from there. It was something we thought we could do as the game went on and we executed it.”

While Capitani said that the play is one his defense can learn from.

“He just got behind us a little bit,” Capitani said. “I think if we made a play on the ball we would have picked it. But he tried to jump for it because it was under thrown. But its one of those things you have to learn.”

After a scoreless first quarter, it was Lake Mills that got on the scoreboard first in the second quarter.

Byrnes found running back Alex Grunhovd in the end zone with four minutes and 24 seconds before half-time to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead.

Grunhovd also had a 44 yard run during that scoring drive before half-time.

After half-time, Northwood-Kensett responded as quarterback Spencer Capitani ran for a 13 yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7.

The score stayed the same until the fourth quarter when Rice scored the go ahead touchdown for Lake Mills.

Tyler Rice lead the Bulldogs in rushing with 17 carries for 71 yards and a touchdown, while Royce Byrnes had 9 carries for 54 yards and went 4-for-12 passing for 101 yards and a touchdown.

For the Vikings, Spencer Capitani had 14 carries for 148 yards and a touchdown, while Nik Werner had 11 carries for 35 yards.

Both teams are in action next week as Lake Mills travels to West Hancock, while Northwood-Kensett host Rockford in Northwood.

Lake Mills 14, Northwood-Kensett 7

Northwood-Kensett 0 0 7 0 – 7

Lake Mills 0 7 0 7 – 14

First Quarter

No Scoring

Second Quarter

LM – Byrnes 6 yard pass to Grunhovd (Byrnes kick good)

Third Quarter

N-K – Spencer Capatani 13 yard run (Werner kick good)

Fourth Quarter

LM- Tyler Rice 1 yard run (Byrnes kick good)

LM NK

First Downs 14 12

Rushing yards 207 253

Passing yards 101 7

Total yards 308 260

Passing stats 4-12, 101 yards, 1 TD 1-5, 7 yards

Interceptions 0 0

Fumbles lost 0 1

Punts 3 5

Penalties 4 6