IOWA CITY – Bob Forsyth wants his Linn-Mar football team to be an up-tempo unit on offense this year.

The Lions got a first-hand look at how such an attack can be run Friday night.

Iowa City West scored on six of its seven first-half possessions with a variety of weapons and ripped Linn-Mar, 67-28, in the opener at steamy Trojan Field.

West simply had too much size and speed for the Lions. Linn-Mar had some impressive moments on both sides of the ball, but wasn’t able to match the Trojans’ firepower.

“We had some spots in here tonight where we competed,” Forsyth said. “We kept competing until the end and that’s what you really want to see.

"We’re just going to get up tomorrow morning and try to get better.”

West employs a no-huddle offense that tries to dictate tempo. Forsyth’s goal is to get the Lions doing some of the same things. They were able to run some no-huddle and moved the ball at times. That wasn’t lost on Trojan Coach Brian Sauser.

“Coach Forsyth does a nice job with Linn-Mar,” he said. “They were completely out-manned at every position and we felt really good about that.

"We felt at halftime that we were better in all 22 spots, but we reminded them that Linn-Mar does a good job of executing its offense and we had to keep playing hard.”

Try as they might, the Lions had no answers for the Trojan offense.

West quarterback Nate Boland completed 13 of 19 passes for 297 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for three scores in three quarters of action.

“I think he is a real underrated player,” Sauser said. “He had a great season last year, but a lot of people said it was because of the receivers he had. Well, he looked pretty good out here tonight with a different group of receivers.”

Linn-Mar’s lack of size up front, which was even more evident without senior Jon Schlotterback in the lineup while nursing a hand injury, played a big part in the outcome.

“We were simply outmatched up front,” Forsyth said. “There’s no doubt about that. They did a nice job and they are an outstanding club.”

Linn-Mar, looking to rebound from a disappointing 3-6 season in 2012, was breaking in a new quarterback in junior Ryan Schmidt. He finished 14 of 25 for 234 yards, but was intercepted three times by an opportunistic West defense.

Schmidt connected with Griffin Brennecke on an 82-yard scoring pass late in the first half and also rushed for a pair of scores in his varsity debut.

“He’s got a lot of things to work on,” Forsyth said. “When you start 9 or 10 new guys on either side of the ball you are always going to have a lot to work on. We've got new guys all over the place and they got shell-shocked a little bit.

“We had a couple of chances to try and make things closer,” he continued, “but we just couldn’t make plays. We’ll have to regroup and I told the kids we will be a better football team next week.”

The Lions will host Dubuque Senior next Friday night at Linn-Mar Stadium.

IOWA CITY WEST 67, LINN-MAR 28

L-M    ICW
First downs     19      25
Rushes-yards    38-170    34-272
Passing yards      234      335
Comp-Att-Int    14-25-3    15-22-1
Fumbles-lost      0-0      0-0
Punts-avg.    4-31.2      0-0
Penalties-yards     3-36     8-69

Linn-Mar               0  14   7  7  - 28
Iowa City West   19  20  21  7  - 67

ICW – Devin Raffensberger 4 run (kick failed)
ICW – Nate Boland 34 run (run failed)
ICW – Anthony Batie 36 pass from Boland (Connor Gordon kick)
LM – Ryan Schmidt 1 run (Austin Wolter kick)
ICW – Boland 1 run (Wolter kick)
ICW – Raffensberger 36 pass from Boland (run failed)
LM – Griffin Brennecke 82 pass from Schmidt (Wolter kick)
ICW – Micah Kelsay 1 run (Gordon kick)
ICW – Kevin Dowell 5 run (Gordon kick)
LM – Schmidt 1 run (Wolter kick)
ICW - Boland 10 run (Gordon kick)
ICW – Batie 45 pass from Boland (Gordon kick)
ICW – David Millmeyer 34 pass from Aaron Bleil (Gordon kick)
LM – Ross Lembeck 5 run (Wolter kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing
Linn-Mar – Ross Lembeck 18-110, Ryan Schmidt 10-(minus 2), Tristan Freese 7-32, Andrew Gassman 1-3, Trevor Noble 1-6, Logan Benter 1-21 .
I.C. West – Devin Raffensperger, 9-74, Nate Boland 6-65, Micah Kelsay 5-40, Kevin Dowell 5-50, Clay Moel 2-10, Anthony Batie  1-11, Aaron Bleil 3- (minus 2), Austin Stumpf 1-23, Michael Krupp 1-1.

Passing
Linn-Mar - Ryan Schmidt 16-25-3-234
I.C. West – Nate Boland 13-19-0-297, Aaron Bleil 2-3-1-48

Receiving
Linn-Mar – Trevor Noble 4-35, Griffin Brennecke 2-101, Garett Evans 2-7, Adam Stolley 1-11, Andrew Gassmann 2 -37, Ross Lembeck 1-3, Tristan Freese 1-13, Matt Ramsey 1-27.
I.C. West – Anthony Batie 5-131, Oliver Martin 3-43, Devin Raffensperger 3-82, Conner Greene 1-29, Micah Kelsay 1-5, Kevin Dowell 1-11, David Millmeyer 1-34.