Whether breaking tackles, making plays in space or denying opportunities, Ipswich turned to its playmakers to help produce a victory over Leola-Frederick Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers scored three touchdowns of more than 30 yards on the way to a 50-30 victory during the Lake Region Conference Football Classic at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

“We made a lot of great individual plays again this afternoon,” said Ipswich coach Brian Hogie. “That’s a big part of it for us. We try to spread the ball around, let our kids try to make plays and they did a great job again.”

Tyler Hettich played a key role in the triumph. He rushed for 136 yards, had 41 yards receiving and scored four touchdowns.

“Our O-line did a good job up front,” Hettich said. “Just got through, made some cuts, started running.”

The Titans had some early momentum in the contest and led 14-6 before things started changing. After short touchdown runs by Hans Lapka and Brayden Sumption, Leola-Frederick gave up 24 unanswered points.

The first came on a Hettich run to tie the game before the senior wrestled the ball away from a Titan receiver for an interception that he returned 13 yards to the Leola-Frederick five-yard line. He scored on the next play.

“It was a big game-changer,” Hettich said of his interception. “I just read the quarterback’s eyes. I happened to get there.”

Ipswich then extended its lead on a 48-yard pass from Ian Beyers to Trevor Heinz, who broke multiple tackles on the way to the end zone.

“Defensively in the first half we struggled to tackle,” said Leola-Frederick coach Jeff Kosters. “A couple of their touchdowns we had guys in the right spot, but they just didn’t make the play.”

The Titans appeared to have grabbed a bit of momentum heading into the half when Lapka added another TD with 21 seconds left. However, Hettich broke free on the next play from scrimmage and sprinted 63 yards for a score with four seconds left on the clock.

“He had some huge plays for us,” Hogie said of Hettich, who also produced eight tackles. “That pick was huge. We weren’t getting many stops. He gets a big run right before half.”

After a scoreless third quarter, Ipswich had one more big scoring play left.

Heinz hauled in a 32-yard pass from Beyers early in the final period. Heinz finished with five catches for 135 yards.

“Trevor Heinz was phenomenal again today for us,” Hogie said. “It really makes a difference when you can throw the ball and he can break a couple of his own out there.”

Each team added one last score as Carter Geditz had a TD for Ipswich and Levi Little had a touchdown for Leola-Frederick.

While Kosters was disappointed in his team’s tackling during the contest, he said the team still has a lot of football remaining this season.

“We’ll learn from it,” Kosters said. “We’ll watch film. We’ll try and get better.”

Ipswich, at 4-2 is gearing up for a playoff run. The Tigers took a step forward in that pursuit with the victory on Saturday.

“We knew that this was going to be a big game for us, just standings-wise where we could get ourselves moved up with a chance to maybe host a first-round game, because right now we’re not,” Hogie said. “Right now we’d be on the road.”

Ipswich (4-2) 6 30 0 14 – 50

Leola-Frederick (2-3) 8 14 0 8 -30

First Quarter

I – Tyler Hettich 12 pass from Ian Beyers, 6:53.

LF – Hans Lapka 7 run (Lapka run), 2:48.

Second Quarter

LF – Brayden Sumption 5 run, 8:48.

I – Hettich 7 run (Hettich run), 6:18.

I – Hettich 5 run (Trevor Heinz pass from Beyers), 5:18.

I – Heinz 48 pass from Beyers (Beyers run), 2:32.

LF – Lapka 1 run (Sumption run), :25.

I – Hettich 63 run, :04.

Fourth Quarter

I – Heinz 32 pass from Beyers (Hettich pass from Beyers), 10:02.

I – Carter Geditz 1 run, 5:41.

LF – Levi Little 10 run (Little run), 3:05.

OFFENSE: Ipswich rushing 26-194 (T. Hettich 11-136, Kyle Hettich 5-28, Geditz 6-24), passing 14-18-0 for 240 (Beyers 14-18-0 for 240), receiving (Heinz 5-135, Colby Sylte 1-45, T. Hettich 5-41, Chet Peterson 1-5), first downs 20; Leola-Frederick rushing 51-255 (Sumption 13-96, Gavin Nickelson 14-62, Hans Lapka 9-42, Westyn Thorpe 3-38, Austin Mantei 7-11), passing 8-13-1 for 89 (Sumption 6-11-1 for 82, Noah Kippley 1-1-0 for 7), receiving (Samuel Vetter 5-50, Lapka 2-30, Mantei 1-9); first downs 21.

DEFENSE: Ipswich, Hettich 8 tackles and 1 interception, Peterson 8 tackles, Heinz 7 tackles, Geditz 7 tackles; Leola-Frederick, Little 5 tackles, Vetter 5 tackles.