Spirit Lake, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – With the 2024-2025 Iowa High School Sports season winding down, we continue our series of the best teams from the past sports year in the KICD 9-County Area.

We now go to Football, where we recognize Spirit Lake’s incredible run to the State Championship Game.

The Spirit Lake Football Program hasn’t seen many bad seasons. The last time they had a sub-.500 record was in 2009. The last 3 season’s though have been especially good. The combined record over that span is 31-5. The last run this strong from Spirit Lake came in 2011 through 2016 when they combined for a record of 60-5. In the 2022 season, the success felt a year or two early. Sophomores were up and down the starters for Spirit Lake that season, and the team turned in a 10-1 record, with their only loss coming to OABCIG in the 2A Quarterfinals. They would break into the Semifinals a season later, ultimately losing to Central Lyon/George-Little Rock 28-14, a game short of the State Championship.

So, the expectations were very high coming into the 2024 season. On August 30th, Spirit Lake opened with a loss to one of the top 3A teams in the State, Algona 42-40. That game was an absolute war of offenses, with the two teams combining for 864 total yards. Spirit Lake Quarterback Caden Lundt out passed the 4-star Iowa State Commit from Algona Alex Manske with 225 yards and 4 Touchdowns. 121 of those yards went to Senior Wide Receiver Dylan Stecker. Manske’s damage was on the ground though with 122 yards and 4 touchdowns.

After the dramatic opening loss, Spirit Lake would outscore opponents the rest of the season by an average of 34.3-5 and taking the District Championship.

Spirit Lake hosted a hard-nosed Cherokee team for the Class 2A Playoffs first round, who provided the biggest challenge since the Algona game. A couple of Interceptions by the braves stonewalled Spirit Lake drives. Neither team had a ton of success rushing the football despite matching each other in passing. Spirit Lake did lead 24-7 going into the 4th quarter and held off a furious Cherokee comeback to win 31-27 and advance.

Much like after the Algona game, Spirit Lake annihilated their next 3 opponents. They welcomed Osage for a 42-14 win, Made North Fayette Valley drive 3 and a half hours only to lose 24-13, and then advanced to the State Championship game with a 56-28 win over Prairie City-Monroe.

Spirit Lake would play West Lyon for the State Championship in Cedar Falls. Let’s quick turn back the clock again to the 2023 2A Quarterfinals, when Spirit Lake won a thriller against West Lyon 20-19 in order to advance to the UNI-Dome and State Semifinals. West Lyon came back with a vengeance for the 2024 State Championship game, decimating Spirit Lake 42-7, being the only team that could contain the Spirit Lake offense this past season. They not only contained Spirit Lake, but stopped them cold, holding them to only 8 yards on the ground compared to the Wildcats 277.

Some of the statistics are ridiculous to go over for this Spirit Lake Team.

Senior Quarterback Caden Lundt threw for 2,743 yards and 39 Touchdowns with only 9 interceptions.

Out of the backfield was the pick-your-poison duo of Bode Higgins and Will Ditsworth. Both averaged over 5 and a half per carry and totaled over 500 yards each, combining for 1,011 rushing yards on the year.

Where Spirit Lake really stood out though was Dylan Stecker, who caught 59 passes for 1,223 yards and 19 Touchdowns, good for 20.7 yards per catch. If teams somehow figured out how to guard Dylan, which was rare if at all, Ethan Stecker was also brilliant with 644 receiving yards and 10 Touchdowns. Numbers that would be at the top of many teams.

The Spirit Lake Offense averaged a whopping 356.8 yards per game and 41.7 points per game.

A very complimentary defense forced over 2 turnovers per game. Sam Henrickson picked off 3 passes on the season as a senior, racked up 35 tackles, 3 of such for loss. Tyson Robinson was a problem up front for opposing offenses, sacking the quarterback 10 times and bringing down nine tackles for loss with a couple of fumble recoveries for good measure. Will Ditsworth was a do-it-all defender, totaling 91 tackles, 9 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, recovering 4 Fumbles and picking off 4 passes.

All players mentioned statistically were Seniors for Spirit Lake, so it will be interesting to see how those gaps are filled in the coming year.

This has been another team of the year profile as we recap the 2024-2025 KICD 9-County Area Sports Year. The Spencer Area Girls Swim Team will be next.