Left: Joe Borud found some running room against the Eveleth- Gilbert Golden Bears in the Vikings Homecoming game. Above: Jack Wieben ran for a first down on this play. Wieben scored the Vikings’ lone touchdown in the 41-6 loss to the Golden Bears.
Winless Eveleth-Gilbert traveled to Cook County on Friday, October 4 to face the winless Cook County Vikings in what looked like (on paper) to be a good game. But the game didn’t turn out that way as the Golden Bears scored two touchdowns right off the bat to take a 14-0 lead two minutes into the contest.
The Golden Bears’ first touchdown came on Eveleth’s second offensive play when their tailback took it outside and went around the corner and ran untouched for a 70-yard touchdown. The Vikings fumbled the kickoff and Eveleth recovered, and two plays later the same tailback scored on a short run to make it 14-0 followed by two successful kicks for the points after. Eveleth scored another touchdown with 5:48 left to play in the first quarter and scored one touchdown in the second quarter, and the Vikings trailed 28-0 at the halftime break.
In the third quarter the Vikings got untracked on offense and scored their lone touchdown on a nifty run by Jack Wieben. That series included a couple of nice passes from Leo Johnson to Owen Anderson. Anderson ended his night with 4 catches for 104 yards.
Eveleth also scored in the third quarter on a trick play. They lined up for a 40-yard field goal attempt by their excellent kicker, Stephen Day, who has made one field goal from 47 yards this year. But the center snapped the ball to the tailback who had nothing but daylight between him and the end zone.
The Golden Bears scored one more touchdown in the fourth quarter to make the final score 41-6.
Between the 20-yard lines the Vikings moved the ball pretty well, and held the ball 26 minutes to Eveleth’s 22 minutes.
For the game Jack Wieben rushed for 69 yards on 20 carries and Joe Borud rushed for 57 yards on 15 carries while Jamie Wick had one catch for 13 yards and Andy Farley caught one ball for 13 yards. Leo Johnson was 6-18 for 130 yards. The Vikings ended with two fumbles and one interception and also put the ball on the ground several more times but were able to recover.
On defense three Vikings, Jonny Jacobsen, Joe Borud, and Seth Warren, each had 7 tackles. Owen Anderson and Frankie Miller had 6 and Brandon Curtis and Andrew Lashinki had 5 tackles. Jake Carlson had 4 tackles; Devynn Deschampe and Jack Wieben 3, Dylan Works and Cy Fortunato, 2, and Noah Warren and Andy Farley each had 1 tackle. Jonny Jacobsen, Seth Warren and Brandon Curtis each recorded one sack.
Head Coach Mitch Dorr said, “Our defensive line played pretty solid. I thought Seth Warren played excellent football this week.”
Injuries have wreaked havoc on his squad this season, said Dorr.
“Jacob Schroeder (215-pound fullback) was out with a sprained knee which really hurt us because he is our starting middle linebacker and starting fullback. That’s one of the toughest things this team has faced, keeping players healthy. The real issue we face is that when you lose a key guy, you have to move other guys around. When you move those other guys around, you have to move even more players. We never get used to the same lineup and it creates inconsistency.
“An example is when you lose a great player like Jacob Schroeder at fullback, we had to move Jack Weiben (our halfback) to fullback. Then we move our quarterback/ wide receiver (Joe Borud) to halfback. Now we have to find another receiver. Now…what if we want to run another offensive set? The whole chain of moves starts all over.
“The same thing starts on defense. Coaches usually spend the majority of time coaching schemes and fundamentals. This season we have been forced to coach personnel each week where sometimes we are teaching guys his fourth or fifth position,” said Coach Dorr.
The Vikings play Mesabi East at Mesabi on Friday, October 11 and then end the season against Barnum October 16 at Barnum.
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