LAWTON, Iowa — Cole Wagner always wanted to play in a homecoming win.
Now he has one.
Wagner and the Lawton-Bronson High School High School football team pulled off an improbable comeback win over MVAOCOU for the Eagles’ 2025 homecoming on Friday on Tom Lang Field in Lawton to open district play in Class 1A-1.
“(After the game), I knelt down and had tears in my eyes,” Wagner said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a homecoming win here. I’m just happy to get to be a part of one.”
The last Lawton-Bronson homecoming win came in 2020, a 54-13 win over MMCRU in mid-Sept., almost five years to the day.
“It’s always great to be able to win in front of the home crowd,” said Lawton-Bronson head coach Chad Moseman. “Especially when we played such a great game against a great team.”
Lawton-Bronson junior quarterback Noah Drew threw for 297 yards and completed 22 of 39 passing attempts with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also hauled in an interception on defense.
“It feels good,” Drew said. “We’ve got three wins in a row now after losing our first game, but we love getting the win here at home for homecoming over a really good opponent. We haven’t won on homecoming for a while.
“My O-Line gives me a lot of time, so all credit goes to them. Our chemistry level is really high. Last year we went 0-9, but coach Moseman has really brought us together and it’s really great to see our hard work pay off.”
Eagle running back Jaxson Otto, a sophomore, and senior Lane Mitchell combined to rush for 112 yards on 27 carries.
Mitchell had the go-ahead touchdown with under a minute left.
Mitchell also tallied 11 ½ tackles on defense, second-most on the team behind the 15 tackles posted by junior Breighton Carlson.
The Eagles (3-1, 1-0 Class 1A-1) needed a lifeline with two minutes left in the fourth quarter with MVAOCOU (3-1, 0-1 Class 1A-1) holding possession.
But the Lawton-Bronson defense held to force a Rams punt from their own 40-yard line. The snap sailed over the punter’s head, and Lawton-Bronson took over on the MVAOCOU 18.
On the next play, Drew found Jaxson Otto for a 17-yard gain to get the Eagles down to the 1-yard line, where Mitchell put Lawton-Bronson up for good.
To start, the teams exchanged turnovers as MVAOCOU fumbled and junior Landon Grell picked off the first pass attempt by the Rams junior Caden Schmidt.
The Eagles cracked the scoreboard first with three minutes left in the opening quarter, when a 30-yard field goal by Brandon Lane put Lawton-Bronson up 3-0.
With just over eight minutes left in the second, Schmidt hit senior Adlyr Redenius for a 25-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-3 Rams, but Lawton-Bronson needed little more than two minutes to answer with a 37-yard TD pass from Drew to Wagner.
Less than two minutes after that, Schmidt found senior Tanner Dixon down the MVAOCOU sideline for a 38-yard touchdown to make it 14-10 Rams, and MVAOCOU added a 28-yard field goal by Joey Koithan just before the halftime horn as the sides went into the intermission with the Rams up 17-10.
Lane added his second field goal for the Eagles, a 26-yarder, with 8 minutes, 22 seconds left in the third to make it 17-13 Rams.
Lawton-Bronson took a 19-17 lead when Drew found senior Connor Clausen in the back of the end zone. The ball deflected off an MVAOCOU defender who dove after the ball in midair trying to make a play on it, but instead it popped up and fell directly into the waiting arms of Clausen.
MVAOCOU drove down to again take the lead as a five-yard touchdown run from senior Manny Cameron made it 23-19 Rams before Lawton-Bronson found a way to win it late.
Cameron ended with 127 yards on 33 carries while Schmidt threw for 188 yards while completing 13 of 25 passing attempts. Wagner hauled in six catches for 139 yards and the score, and junior Kolson McNear went for five catches for 47 yards.
“Lane Mitchel and Breighton (Carlson) were excellent on defense for us tonight,” Moseman said. “Cole Wagner came up with some huge plays on offense. Kolson McNear had some big plays and Noah just ran the offense like he does. The offensive line is getting better and better every day, too.”
As MVAOCOU tried for a desperation last-minute score, the Lawton-Bronson defense came up with back-to-back sacks, the final one by Mitchell to ice the win.
“That’s a really good football team there with MVAOCOU,” Moseman said. “They came in undefeated, ranked 10th in Class 1A. They deserved that ranking. Our program is coming around, though, after last year’s struggles. We only have six seniors on our squad, but to pull off that win says so much about the resiliency of the kids on this team.
“I’m just so happy to be a part of it. But next week is another ranked opponent (Ridge View), so we’re going to have to keep playing hard, our district is really, really tough this season.”
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