One step forward, two steps back.

Linn-Mar’s young football team is experiencing growing pains and it was evident in Friday night’s 28-13 loss to Dubuque Senior at Linn-Mar Stadium.

The Lions had their share of good plays, but for every good play, there was a miscue that would put them in a deep hole.

“We just made too many mistakes tonight,” lamented Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth. “We’re a young team and we’re working hard trying to get them to grow up, but we are going through a tough time right now.

“We just made too many mistakes to win,” he continued. “Winning is hard and we just have to keep working at it. Right now we are making too many mistakes to win."

The Lions (0-2) were hurt by key penalties, turnovers and miscues that led to big losses. Friday night’s game was nothing like last year’s triple overtime win by Senior in Dubuque.

Rams’ Coach Dale Ploessi was pleased with the effort he got from his team after a season-opening 13-7 loss to Waterloo West.

“We didn’t play well last week, but we played well tonight,” he said. “We challenged our kids to come out and have a good start. It was important we establish a running game and I thought we did that."

After punting on their first drive, the Rams drove the ball down the field on their second possession, capping the drive on a 5-yard pass from Austin Clemens to Brook Anderson.

Linn-Mar fumbled on its next possession deep in its own territory. Five plays later, Parker Hammel ran it in from the 6 on the first play of the second quarter and the Rams had a 14-0 lead.

“Getting that turnover was key for us,” Ploessi said. “It was important that we got that second touchdown, because we had a little lull in the middle of the game.”

Linn-Mar put together a nice drive after the score, cutting the lead in half when quarterback Ryan Schmidt bulled in from the 1.

But Senior came right back to regain its 14-point lead. Running back Mike Williams, who finished with 153 yards on 28 carries, began gashing the Lion defense. Clemens capped the drive with a 1-yard dive to give Senior a 21-7 lead at the break.

Some of Linn-Mar’s problems were caused by a blindside blitz that caught Schmidt for big losses a few times, putting the Lions in second and third and long situations.

“We knew we had to do something different on defense because their motion package was giving us trouble,” Ploessi said. “They can get outside pretty quick so we felt we needed a little change-up. We added that in this week and it worked well for us.”

The Lion defense played much better in the second half and the offense put together a good drive late in the third quarter. Schmidt capped it with a 5-yard run. The PAT kick was wide, but the Lions were back in the game.

Senior responded with a big drive of its own. Hammel scored his second TD of the night with 10:15 remaining and the Rams defense denied the Lions on two straight possessions in the final minutes.

Forsyth said it was hard to come up with positives out of the game without looking at the tape.

“I’m sure I’ll see some positives, but right now we kill ourselves,” he said. “As coaches, and it starts with me, we have to do a better job coaching these guys and that will start tomorrow.”

Injuries have been a problem for the Lions. Senior Jon Schlotterback saw his first action of the season after missing the opener with a hand injury. State sprint champion Perrion Scott dressed for the game, but did not play.

“Jon’s a good leader for us and it was good to have him back in the lineup,” Forsyth said. “Perrion was just cleared today and he wasn’t ready to play but hopefully we’ll have him next week.”

The Lions will look for their first win of the season next Friday when they host Waterloo West.

DUBUQUE SENIOR 28, LINN-MAR 13
At Linn-Mar Stadium

DS    L-M
First downs         18         18
Rushes-yards    49-206    44-131
Passing yards      116        217
Comp-Att-Int    9-15-0    19-27-1
Fumbles-lost      1-0          3-2
Punts-avg.        5-30.8    4-32.5
Penalties-yards   9-64        7-54

Dubuque Senior   7  14  0  7  - 28
Linn-Mar              0   7  6  0  - 13

DS – Brook Anderson 5 pass from Austin Clemens (John Kloft kick)
DS – Parker Hammel 6 run (Kloft kick)
LM – Ryan Schmidt 1 run (Austin Wolter kick)
DS – Clemens 1 run (Kloft kick)
LM – Schmidt 5 run (kick failed)
DS – Hammel 1 run (Kloft kick)

Individual Statistics
Rushing
Dubuque Senior – Mike Williams 28-153, Austin Clemens 12-11, Parker Hammel 4-42.
Linn-Mar – Ross Lembeck  17-99, Ryan Schmidt 14- (minus 27),  Tristan Freese 8-40 ,  Logan Benter 4-25, Matt Ramsey 1-(minus 6).

Passing
Dubuque Senior – Austin Clemens 9-15-0-116
Linn-Mar - Ryan Schmidt 19-27-1-217

Receiving
Dubuque Senior – Nick Hoftender 2-22,  Nicholas Wilbrecht 3-57,  Mike Williams 2-21, Brook Anderson 1-5, Colton Iwasaki 1-11.
Linn-Mar – Trevor Noble 4-39, Griffin Brennecke 3-84, Garett Evans 5-30, Andrew Gassmann  2-12, Ross Lembeck 1-5, Tristan Freese 1-12, Matt Ramsey 2-20, Jon Schlotterback 1-11.