Upper left: In a rare moment, two Cass Lake-Bena players wrapped up Viking quarterback Kale Boomer for a fine tackle after Boomer had gained only 16 yards on the play. Above: Peter Warren broke for a long gain behind the blocking of Dakota Sorlie, Colin Everson and Thomas Anderson. Warren rushed for 8 touchdowns and had one called back. Left: Richie Furlong (reaching) and Owen Anderson combine on a fine tackle. The Vikings’ varsity defense held the Panthers scoreless.
The Cook County Vikings scored points about as fast as a football team can score them when they faced the Mesabi East Giants in Aurora last Wednesday night on the Vikings’ last regular game of the season.
On the Vikings’ first offensive series Peter Warren took a handoff from quarterback Kale Boomer and raced 59 yards for a touchdown. Colin Everson’s extra point kick was good and the Vikings led 7-0.
After holding (again) the Giants to no yards on their second series of offense, the Vikings took the ball back on a punt and started on their 47-yard line. On first down Boomer went back and threw a perfect strike to wide out Joe Borud who ran it 51 yards for the Vikings’ second touchdown. Again, Everson’s extra point kick was good and the score was 14-0.
Mesabi’s third series on offense went as well as its first two and they had to punt after three plays. This time they muffed the punt and the Vikings took over on Mesabi’s 28-yard line. It took two plays for the Vikings to score as Colin Everson sprinted 17 yards to the end zone. Everson immediately lined up and kicked the extra point. Now the Vikings were up 21-0.
After pushing Mesabi’s offense into another hole, the Vikings received a short punt and a couple of plays later Boomer snuck in from the 6-yard line. The kick failed and the score was 27-0 and the first quarter wasn’t quite over yet.
Early in the second quarter Boomer teamed up with Borud for a 29-yard touchdown strike. Everson’s kick was good and the Vikings were now up 34-0, but only for about 10 seconds because after the Giants received the kickoff they elected to throw on the first down.
Big mistake.
Boomer intercepted the Giants’ quarterback and ran 35 yards for a touchdown. Everson’s kick was good and the Vikings led 41-0.
Midway through the second quarter Mesabi scored a touchdown on a 7-yard run by Neil Sibert and the Giants converted on their two-point attempt to make it 41-8. But the Vikings scored again on a 35-yard scamper by Boomer and on a 5-yard run by Thomas Anderson to take a 52-8 lead into the halftime.
The Vikings rested many starters in the second half and scored one touchdown, a 1-yard run by Warren early in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Mesabi scored one more touchdown and made its twopoint conversion to bring the score to 59-16.
The Vikings finished the regular season 6-1 and finished second to Barnum in the Great Polar Red conference. If all goes right the two teams should meet again in the playoffs. Barnum beat the Vikings 30-7 earlier in the year, and the Vikings would like a chance to even the series.
For the game Boomer rushed for two touchdowns, threw for two touchdowns and intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. Boomer gained 83 yards on the ground and threw for 97 yards. Peter Warren led Vikings’ rushers with 131 yards.
Warren leads Vikings to 70-6 win in first play-off game
Not even the rain, wind, or cold could slow down Viking halfback Peter Warren as he rushed for 253 yards on 19 carries and scored eight touchdowns against Cass Lake-Bena last Tuesday night.
And often, it was just the wind, rain, and mud that were in his way as he blew by would-be tacklers or sprinted through holes large enough to drive a Mack truck through.
Warren reached the end zone on runs of 2 yards, 5 yards, 5 yards, 38 yards, 10 yards, 7 yards, 6 yards, and 23 yards.
For his efforts Warren set the state individual scoring record with 52 points, breaking the mark held in 2006 by DeAngelos Brakins of International Falls.
Warren’s eight rushing touchdowns also at least tied the mark set in 1966 by Jerry Simonson of Franklin who recorded eight TDs in a game against Echo. But one of his scores is believed to have come on a punt return. According to mnfootballhub.com website at least four other players have scored 7 touchdowns in a game.
Warren would have had another score but his best run of the night, a twisting turning touchdown run of 55 yards was called back due to a holding penalty in the second quarter.
The only other Viking to score a touchdown was Kale Boomer, who ran back a punt for 60 yards in the first quarter. The first seven times the Vikings got the ball they scored touchdowns, and often scored the two-point conversion with Warren running it in.
With 5:08 to go in the first quarter the score was 30-0 and the players from Cass Lake- Bena looked like they wanted to go home. They fumbled the ball a good dozen times through the contest, although they recovered the ball many times, only once for a gain.
Late in the second quarter Cass Lake marched to the Vikings’ two-yard line, but the center snapped the ball over his quarterback’s head and they recovered the ball back on the 16-yard line. They would score a late touchdown against the Viking 9th grade team otherwise they were held to almost zero yards of offense.
The Vikings led 30-0 after the first period; 54-0 at the half, and with both teams agreeing to let the clock run in the second half, the Vikings tacked 16 more points in the third period before resting most of their starters.
The Vikings play Blackduck in a semifinal at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 27 at home. The Drakes beat Mesabi East 38-0 in their first play-off game.
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