High school football playoffs continue tonight — #1 Clear Lake hosts Mount Vernon — St. Ansgar. West Fork, Osage, HD-CAL play

CLEAR LAKE — It’s the opening round of the high school football playoffs for the large classes, while the smaller classes enter the second round tonight.

For the top-ranked Clear Lake Lions football team, they’ll host Mount Vernon in a Class 3A first round contest.

The Lions are 9-0 on the season, have only allowed seven points during district play, and have only given up 35 points this season. The Mustangs are 6-3 and have the fourth-best scoring offense in Class 3A, and Clear Lake coach Aaron Stensland knows they have to be ready for a high octane offense. “They’re very formidable on offense, they’ve scored a lot of points this year. They’ll be a fantastic team with a lot of multi-dimensional guys out there to take care of them.”

Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester says Clear Lake is a great team that will challenge them tonight.  “They are athletic, fly around, they can do a lot of different things. Offensively they can run the ball, they can throw the ball around, and defensively, they are an attacking defense. Their secondary, their linebackers move well. We just have to do a great job. We just have to do what we do, and I think it’s going to be a tremendous matchup between the two of us.”

You can hear the Clear Lake-Mount Vernon game on 103.7 The Fox and watch it on northiowanow.com starting with the Radio Iowa Scouting Report at 6:00 PM, the pre-game starts at 6:15, with kickoff from Lions Field scheduled for 7 o’clock. The other side of the Class 3A Pod A has Nevada at Carroll in a game that kicks off at 8:00 PM

— Other high school playoff games tonight involving area schools:
Class 2A Pod D — Hampton-Dumont-CAL (5-4) at Osage (9-0)
Class A Pod B — West Fork (7-2) at St. Ansgar (9-0)

See the full playoff schedule by clicking here