With the players listening intently, Assistant Coach Bryan Carpenter gave instructions to the football team at a recent home game. The Vikings have had a hard season, losing many players to injuries.
The Cook County High School Vikings traveled to Mesabi East on Friday, October 11 to face the Giants in the Giants’ Homecoming game, and after playing a pretty good first half of football, fell hard to an inspired Mesabi team, finishing 44-12.
But the loss on the field wasn’t as bad as the loss of sophomore running back Jack Wieben. Wieben injured his leg late in the second quarter and had to be taken to the hospital where it was found that he had broken a bone.
“Jack broke his fibula so he will be out for the rest of the season,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr.
Once again in a long season of injuries, the Vikings suffered a loss much tougher than the loss of a game.
Injuries to key players have gutted the team this year. However, young players have had to step up and the experience they have gained should serve the team well down the road.
For the first quarter the Cook County Vikings played Mesabi East to a 6-6 draw.
Actually, two things happened in the first quarter that haven’t happened all year. First, the Vikings scored a touchdown on a Joe Borud run in the first quarter and second, the Vikings took their first lead in a game.
That lead, however, lasted but 21.5 seconds. That’s all it took for Mesabi to take the kickoff and then run one play that went for 50 yards and a score. Still, a tie was an improvement over the other games the Vikings have played this season.
The second quarter was also well played by the Vikings, although they gave up one touchdown and the two-point conversion to trail 14-6 at halftime.
Early in the third quarter things began to unravel for the Vikings. Mesabi, behind their fine running backs Zach Skelton and Neil Seibert, began running by and through Viking tacklers.
Meanwhile, the Vikings once again had to shift their lineup to make up for Wieben’s loss on both defensive and offensive sides of the ball and had trouble moving the ball despite Jacob Schroeder back at his fullback spot after missing a game because of an injury.
“Jacob is still banged up, but he will be ready to go for Wednesday’s game [against top-rated Barnum]” said Dorr.
When asked who stood out, Dorr said, “I thought [quarterback] Leo Johnson played one of his better games. I think he matured a lot throughout the game and became more comfortable running the option.”
No stats were available for this game, so passing, running and tackling totals are not available.
At press time on Wednesday, October 16 the Vikings played Barnum and then will most likely face Barnum again in the first round of the playoffs. The Barnum Bombers have been ranked second in Class A this fall, but were beaten by Braham two weeks ago.
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