Above: Hanging on by a thread—literally—Dillon Sjogren slowed the Ely running back just enough so that Ethan Sporn could come up and make a big hit on the ball carrier. Left: Busting through the line, Joe Deschampe wrapped up the Ely Timberwolves’ running back in the backfield for a loss on the play. Below left: The defense was the key to the Viking win against Ely. Here Jack Haussner wraps up the ball carrier with Andrew Miller charging in to help on the play.
Viking junior quarterback Josh Prom scored two touchdowns on oneyard runs in the third and fourth quarter to lead the Vikings to a 14-0 win over the Ely Timberwolves in the Vikings’ homecoming game played on a rain-slicked Lyle Anderson field on Friday, October 6.
A second-quarter touchdown run of about 40 yards by Ethan Sporn was called back because of a holding penalty against the Vikings; otherwise, both teams had trouble establishing much offense in the first half of a game that featured a lot of hard tackling and big hits.
With the win, the Vikings’ record is now 5-1, and the Timberwolves fall to 3-3. Midway through the third quarter the Vikings methodically marched down the field against the Timberwolves behind the running of Dillon Sjogren, Sporn, and Andrew Miller. Prom scored on a one-yard run and completed a two-point conversion pass to Miller to make the score 8-0 as a light rain fell and soaked the field.
A rugged Viking defense held Ely’s offense at bay through the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the Vikings ran four minutes off the clock on their lone scoring drive during the start of the period.
Head coach Mitch Dorr said Josh Prom was named the team’s Offensive Player of the Game. Prom had 19 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns. “He played a great game for us and was a leader from start to finish,” Dorr said.
Ethan Sporn earned Defensive Player of the Game honors for his six assisted tackles and nine solo tackles for a total of 15 tackles.
Sporn also carried the ball 16 times and rushed for 84 yards.
“I thought Andrew Miller had a fantastic game,” said Coach Dorr. “When Ethan came out with an ankle injury, he came in at quarterback, and we moved Josh back to halfback. We didn’t miss a beat as Andrew showed his experience and competitiveness. He was just fantastic.”
According to Coach Dorr, the critical moment in the game “was late in the second quarter when Ely had the ball on the four-yard line. They had four chances to score, and our defense shut them down…. I thought Coach Carpenter had a terrific game plan that was very well thought-out. Our guys executed well and the goal line stop was a huge moment in the game, which allowed us to go into halftime tied at 0-0.
“I thought our kids showed some mental toughness in the contest. Ely was back at full strength and played very well. There were some questionable calls in the game as well, and our guys just kept fighting. I was proud of our grittiness,” said Dorr.
The Vikings travel to Mountain Iron-Buhl to play the Rangers on Friday, October 14 in what should be a great match-up of two teams with identical records. Both teams’ lone defeat came at the hands of North Woods. North Woods beat the Rangers 49-22 and beat the Vikings 39-30. For the season the Vikings have averaged 47.3 points per game while the Rangers average 40.2 points per game.
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