Schoon, Warner help South win

CEDAR FALLS — Brayden Schoon of Creston and Nodaway Valley’s Trenton Warner were winners in their final high school football appearance Saturday.

Schoon and Warner were linemen for the South squad in the 2025 Iowa Shrine Bowl game at the UNI-Dome. Adlai Lounsberry of Van Meter hit his third field goal of the game, from 34 yards, with 20 seconds left to lift the South to a 16-13 victory.

The North had won four consecutive games and leads the series 28-24. The South’s last victory was in 2019.

Schoon, who has already began workouts at Iowa Western Community College, played left tackle for the South offense the entire game. In most cases players share a position for two quarters with another selected player, but the other left tackle suffered an injury during practice in the days leading up to Saturday’s game.

Warner, who reports to the Northwest Missouri State football team on Aug. 3, played defensive tackle for the South team in the first and third quarters.

The South led early in the game, 10-0, on a 51-yard field goal by Lounsberry and a 21-yard touchdown pass from Iowa City West quarterback Jack Wallace to receiver Jozef Reisz of Harlan to complete a 95-yard drive.

Magnus Burening of Waukee got the North on the board with a field goal and it was still 10-3 at halftime as the North missed a pair of second quarter field goals.

The North tied the game 10-10 as Spirit Lake’s Cade Lundt connected with Nathan King of Johnston for a 36-yard TD pass with 11:49 left in the third quarter.

Lounsberry then made a field goal from 49 yards late in the period for a 13-10 South lead before a North field goal tied it 13-13.

As time wound down in the fourth quarter it appeared it might end in the 13-13 tie after the South defense recovered a fumble Then, Wallace rolled out on a scramble on the South’s final possession and hit a wide open Maximus Dalton of Woodward-Granger for 46 yards to the North 15-yard line with 32 seconds left.

After three runs up the middle, Lounsberry was set up for his game-winning field goal. Lounsberry earned South Offensive MVP honors.

The process of bringing all-stars together for one week to work together and play as a team was rewarding, Schoon and Warner said.

“You just have to keep a level head,” Schoon said about the competition level, both in practices and Saturday’s game. “Kids might be going to big schools, but you just have to do what you do and work together. The bonding was the biggest part of it ... working together for one cause.”

“It kind of made me realize I still have more work I need to do,” Warner said. “We all meshed amazing from the first day. Everything clicked from the start. We’re all good at what we do, so we just had to come together.”

Kids Day was a special part of the week, both area players said. Children who are receiving specialized pediatric care through the work of Shriner’s hospitals were on the UNI-Dome playing field with the players.

“We went out and played catch with them,” Warner said. “One kid in a wheelchair, we pushed him up and down the field and he just loved it.”

“Kids Day was impactful to me,” Schoon said. “They came in with energy and just wanted to do something. That grew on us. They showed us that sometimes things might be hard, but you just keep going.”

Gabe Funk of Lenox was also selected to the South squad, but was unable to participate due to a lower leg injury suffered near the end of the baseball season. He is headed to UNI on a track and field scholarship.

Matt Straight of Logan Magnolia was head coach of the South team. His staff included Atlantic head coach Joe Brummer and Southeast Warren coach Shane Rowlands.