Lexington – Holdrege and Lexington played football against each other every year from 1922 until 2017. That is 96 regular season games and 1 playoff game. In the 97 games 37 were decided by 7 or less points. Tonight, after a 7-year hiatus the two schools met for the 98th time. This time the Dusters held on to win 35-27.
Both offenses struggled to find their footing in the first quarter as they ended tied 0-0. The second quarter however would be a different story as the two teams exploded for 35 points, included at 97-yard kickoff return by Cesar Cano and a hail mary that wasn’t, but then was. Kagan Steinke scored two touchdowns for Holdrege and Cano matched him with two, but it was an odd stretch to score that lead to a fumble recovery in the endzone as time ended in the second, that was back breaker for Lexington and gave Holdrege a 21-14 lead at the break.
Holdrege just up by three scores when Steinke scored again, and Landon Hartzog hit Joshua Janssen in the endzone from 18 yards out to go up 35-14. However, Lex battled back, Cano scored from 3 yards out and a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff led to a 32-yard pass from Jayden Thorell to Tyler Thorell made it a 35-27 game. The Minutemen failed to score on the next possession and Holdrege was able run out the clock.
Landon Hartzog finished 16-24 for 215 yards and 1 score for Holdrege while Kagan Steinke rushed for 115 yards and 3 touchdowns on 27 carries. Cesar Cano ran the ball 16 times for 155 yards in a losing effort for Lexington.
