Photo by David Borer: Zak Jorgensen of Fort Dodge sprints past the Webster City defense on Friday night at Lynx Field.

WEBSTER CITY — Some fans will see Fort Dodge’s 7-6 win at Webster City on Friday as an ugly victory.

The Dodger defense would beg to differ.

Another unwavering performance by the squad’s veteran unit pushed Fort Dodge across the finish line on a perfect evening for football at Lynx Field. The Dodgers (2-0 overall) surrendered only 137 yards from scrimmage in defeating Webster City (1-1) for the first time since the renewal of the gridiron rivalry five years ago.

“Our main goal coming in was to be the more physical team, because (in years past against the Lynx), they’ve been able to make that claim,” Moser said. “The final score is what it is — we obviously would’ve liked to have finish more drives — but I thought we did what we set out to (accomplish). And a lot of that is because of the tone the defense set.”

The Dodgers didn’t win the turnover tally, and had to fight through 55 yards of first-half penalties. They also had a 65-yard fumble recovery and return for a touchdown by senior Jesse Egli called back in the third quarter.

The offense moved the ball — rushing for 170 yards and passing for 115 more — but Webster City denied Fort Dodge a breakthrough touchdown and stayed within striking distance on the scoreboard throughout.

Three FDSH drives stalled on downs in Lynx territory — at the 31, 36 and 22 yard line. Lynx junior Grant Arends intercepted a pass, and senior Dawson Bertran recovered a fumble.

Webster City also had a few missed opportunities, as Israel Torres just missed go-ahead field goal tries from 45 and 24 yards out in the second and third quarters, respectively.

Trailing by a point with a little over four minutes left in regulation, the Lynx opted to punt from the Dodger 45-yard line on 4th and 15 and pin Fort Dodge deep in its own territory. Moser turned to Dreshaun Ross as the closer, and the senior star delivered a trifecta of first-down runs behind his offensive line — covering 44 yards on seven carries — to seal the victory.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Dodgers hit paydirt for their only touchdown on a 6-yard pass from junior Tru McBride to classmate Cal Pederson with 7:40 left until halftime. Webster City’s Jaxon Griffith broke loose on a 42-yard scoring run four minutes later, but FDSH senior Noah Daniel blocked the extra point in what wound up being the difference in the final score.

McBride found junior tight end Zak Jorgensen for a pair of huge pass plays covering 45 and 39 yards to flip the field in the Dodgers’ favor. The first was the highlight of their lone touchdown drive.

Fort Dodge junior Will McElroy was the workhorse on the ground for the second consecutive week, rushing 24 times for 115 yards.

Griffith had 13 carries for 64 yards to pace the Lynx, who had 346 rushing yards in a 42-8 victory last week against Iowa Falls-Alden. The Dodgers had eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage in the first half and 10 total.

The contest went quickly, finishing in just over two hours.

“We got in our own way a lot, and it’s never easy to win on the road when you’re a minus-two in turnovers,” Moser admitted, “but our guys were determined to leave here with a win. It wasn’t easy, but we knew it wouldn’t be. We still have a lot to work on and clean up, but like I said last week, it feels a lot better to do so (following a victory). And we’re not going to apologize for that.”

Fort Dodge hosts old Big 8 foe Waterloo East (0-2) on Friday. The Trojans dropped a 45-20 decision to Marshalltown last night.

Webster City heads to Clear Lake for its first road contest of the season.

FD WC

First Downs 15 8

Rushes-Yards 38-170 35-112

Passing Yards ˜˜115 25

Comp-Att-Int 7-15-1 2-9-0

Total Yards 285 137

Punts-Avg. 3-26.0 4-33.5

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0

Penalties-Yards ˜ 8-70 4-30

Fort Dodge 0 7 0 0 — 7

Webster City 0 6 0 0 — 6

Scoring Summary

Fort Dodge — Cal Pederson (6-yard pass from Tru McBride), 7:40 left second. Bo Marsh kick.

Webster City — Jaxon Griffith (42-yard run), 3:33 left second. Kick blocked.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Fort Dodge: Will McElroy 24-115, Dreshaun Ross 10-51, Tru McBride 4-4. Webster City: Jaxon Griffith 13-64, Aiden Hrnicek 11-37, Kaleb Hansen 11-11.

Passing — Fort Dodge: Tru McBride 7-15-1-115. Webster City: Aiden Hrnicek 2-9-0-25.

Receiving — Fort Dodge: Zak Jorgensen 2-84, Tytrell Mosley 2-14, Dalton Eckley 1-6, Cal Pederson 1-6, Kyree Rochon 1-5. Webster City: Jaxon Griffith 2-25.