Left: Lining up for the National Anthem, coaches, players and fans pay tribute to the flag and all it stands for. Above: Leo Johnson scrambled for a short gain against Deer River on this play.
The Cook County High School Viking football team traveled to Ogilvie on Friday, September 27, 2013 to face the Ogilvie Lions and lost a heartbreaker.
Early in the first quarter the Vikings marched down the field behind the running of fullback Jacob Schroeder. The Lions couldn’t stop the 215-pound Schroeder as he bulled his way down the field. But, in a season of twists and turns that so far have gone against the Vikings, the drive ended at the Ogilvie 10-yard line and Schroeder was out of the game.
“On the first drive, we marched the ball down 65 yards in about six plays behind Jacob Schroeder to the 10-yard line. Jacob was then hit on the 10, and left the game with a sore left knee. We were never the same after that play. Not only did we not score on that drive, but we never really recovered mentally. If Jacob plays, I believe the story of the game is totally different,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr.
Ogilvie scored a lone touchdown in the first half and led 6-0 at the break. Early in the fourth quarter the Lions’ top running back got free for a long touchdown run and after converting the 2-point conversion, the Lions were up 14-0.
Down 14-0 with 11:04 left to play and the Vikings deep in their own territory, halfback Joe Borud stepped up and repeatedly ran for 5 to 10 yards through Ogilvie’s defense. Borud scored the Vikings’ lone touchdown with 4:41 on the clock and then ran in the 2-point conversion. Once again the Vikings’ defense stepped up and stopped the Lions, forcing a punt.
With less than 2 minutes to play the Vikings took the ball from their 20-yard line and took it all the way down to Ogilvie’s 35-yard line, largely on a long pass thrown by Viking quarterback Leo Johnson to wide receiver Owen Anderson. The game ended when Johnson was sacked and Ogilvie took over and ran the clock out.
In the game, Joe Borud rushed for 185 yards on 30 carries. Jack Wieben carried 15 times and gained 64 yards while Schroeder ended his brief night with 24 yards on four carries. Owen Anderson had the Vikings’ only two catches for 49 yards, but the one catch near the end of the game went for 44 yards.
On defense Andrew Lashinski led the team with 7 tackles. Three Vikings—Devynn Deschampe, Joe Borud, and Frankie Miller—had 6 tackles, Owen Anderson and Jack Wieben ended with 5 tackles, Jonny Jacobsen and Dylan Works had 4 tackles and Jake Carlson, Brandon Curtis and Seth Warren finished with 3 tackles.
For the game the Vikings had 16 first downs to Ogilvie’s 7. Cook County gained 275 yards on the ground to Ogilvie’s 182 yards and the Vikings won the time of possession 29 minutes to Ogilvie’s 19 minutes.
“The defense played fantastic throughout the game except for two plays where we didn’t tackle. Overall, however, our defense played very well,” Dorr said.
“Defensively, I think Devynn Deschampe was dominating. He really played well. On offense I thought the line blocked really well. We had some huge holes to run through as we rushed for 275 yards,” said Dorr.
With the loss the Vikings’ record fell to 0-5, but the Vikings have been in three games and with a little bit better execution, the team’s record could be 3-2.
“We are making critical mistakes (lining up wrong, calling the wrong play, missing a block, over throws) when it counts the most. It is not one glaring error, but rather a slew of mistakes being made by just about everyone. It has been very, very frustrating,” Dorr said.
The Vikings’ Homecoming game is Friday, October 4 against Eveleth- Gilbert at 7 p.m. Come out and cheer on your Vikings.
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