Week 1 Football Preview: Webster City vs. Humboldt

The Webster City Lynx come into the 2021 regular season ranked 4th in the initial Radio Iowa poll. The Lynx, while losing some key pieces, have UNI Dome dreams in their sights for the 2021 season, but will have to shore up as members of the new Class 4A. The Lynx open up with longtime rival Humboldt on Friday night, a series that has Webster City with an 8-2 lead since 2010. Webster City won last year’s matchup 21-14, the last win by Humboldt came in 2018 with a 21-0 shutout.

The Lynx a replacing key pieces to the 2020 playoff team, such as quarterback Chase Rattenborg, running back Trey Mathis, and two-way players Tyler Olson and Jack Van Diest. However, the Lynx return a bulk of their offensive line from a season ago, as well as running back CJ Hisler. The quarterback competition has seemingly come down to a three-man battle between juniors Ty McKinney and Austin Mason, and Sophomore Briar Klaver. Replacing Trey Mathis is also, a large question, but CJ Hisler seems ready to step into his role, leaving younger backs such as Jaxon Cherry and Connor Hanson and Devon Stoakes as possibilities to fill the void. Senior tight end JJ Moore will look to be the one anchor the offensive line.

The Humboldt Wildcats will look to build off of a 5-4 campaign in 2020 that saw the Wildcats with arms reach of nearly every game on their schedule. Humboldt lost 3 of the 4 games on their schedule by a combined 17 points, with the outlier being a 31-14 loss to Ballard, Huxley. The Wildcats return dual-threat quarterback Cade Matson, who was one of two quarterbacks in Class 3A to pass for 1,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards last season, along with West Delaware quarterback Jared Voss. Matson does return a pair of big weapons in the passing game, with receivers Jacob Heier and Nolan Lammers.

Kickoff for Webster City and Humboldt is slated for 7 PM at Lynx Field on Friday, August 27th.