In the home season finale played on a snow-covered and muddy Lyle Anderson Field on Wednesday, October 14, the Cook County Vikings football team put together their best game of the year with a solid 27-10 victory over the Carlton Bulldogs.
TheBulldogs came to town fresh from a 10-8 win over the Chisholm Bluestreaks, but ran into a very different Vikings team than the Bluestreaks beat 33-6 in the season opener at Lyle Anderson Field.
The Vikings were bitten by the injury bug before the season even got underway, but now they finally had everyone – back and healthy (with the exception of senior TE Cody Anderson). It made a huge difference as the Vikings showed the hometown fans what might have been this season.
No one was missed more than senior FB/LB Kipp Sande who is the kind of athlete and leader who is very hard to replace on a high school team. His return from the injury list two weeks ago at Barnum has had a huge impact. He has solidified the defense and led the team in tackles in both games. In the win over Carlton he also led the Vikings’ offense in rushing with 189 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns.
Photo by Todd Smith Above: Cook County Football coaches were all smiles in the huddle at the Wednesday, October 14 game at Lyle Anderson Field. The Vikings put together their best game of the year and defeated the Carlton Bulldogs, 27-10.
With the return of Jacob Rude to the offensive line, the line has shown marked improvement and has begun to play with a lot more fire in the belly. They have been opening up some nice holes for the Vikings’ backs to run through.
Head Coach Mitch Dorr said, “This was our best overall performance, especially considering the weather conditions. Kipp Sande ran with authority and our offensive line really played well.”
Another bright spot for the Vikings has been the emergence of junior lineman Nick Austin whom Coach Dorr praised saying, “Nick Austin really played well on both sides of the football.”
Offensively the Vikings rushed for 311 yards on 50 carries for an average of 6.2 yards a carry. To go along with Sande’s numbers, Brock Hommerding gained 72 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown and Kale Boomer added 47 yards on nine carries.
Left: FB/LB Kipp Sande led the Vikings’ offense in rushing with 189 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns.
Defensively, the Vikings had their best game of the season and held the Bulldogs to 114 yards on 41 carries for an average of 2.8 yards a carry. Sande led the way with 15 tackles; Rude had 13 tackles, recovered a fumble and had a quarterback sack; Mike Austin, Nick Austin, Dylan Anderson and Dylan Quaife all had nine tackles each with Nick Austin also recovering a fumble.
Coach Dorr said, “Our defense was terrific all night. Dylan Anderson (junior linebacker) showed some good defensive play that we are expecting from him.”
The Vikings opened the game on defense and things looked good when the Bulldogs went three-and-out and punted the ball to James Groth who received the punt and ran 60 yards for an apparent touchdown. The celebration was short-lived however when the play was called back for 12 men on the field.
Instead of the Vikings drawing first blood it was the Bulldogs who scored first when WR Chase Jokinen caught an Allan Davis pass for a 15-yard touchdown strike midway through the first quarter. Jokinen added the extra point to make it 7-0 Carlton.
The Vikings used up the rest of the time in the first quarter on a 12-play drive. The drive was finished off on a four-yard touchdown run by Sande on the first play of the second quarter. The point-after was botched so the Bulldogs led 7-6 with 11:55 to go in the second quarter.
The Vikings got on the board a second time when the defense forced a three-and-out and then the offense rushed 10 times in a row to march 53 yards to a touchdown with Hommerding finishing off the drive with a one-yard TD run. The Vikings decided to go for two and Boomer found Groth with a pass in the back of the end zone to make the score 14-7 Vikings with 6:44 left in the second quarter.
Afterboth teams turned the ball over, the Bulldogs drove as far as the Vikings’ 14 yard line where Dylan Anderson broke up an attempted pass and the Bulldogs’ Jokinen kicked a 24-yard field goal. The kick was good, which made the score 14-10, Vikings, with 1:30 left in the second, which remained the score at the half.
It’s not often that one looks at a high school football scoreboard and it reads 10 points due to a field goal being kicked, but it turned out to be a nice score to look at for Vikings fans. The 10 points would remain on the scoreboard for the entire game as the Vikings did all the scoring in the second half.
The Vikings made it 20-10 with a ball control type drive of 63 yards in nine plays for a touchdown that was finished off on a 19-yard run by Sande into the right corner of the end zone at 7:13 of the third. The Bulldogs blocked the extra point kick attempted by Alex Senty.
Both defenses kept the other at bay for the rest of the third quarter and into the fourth, but the Vikings were gaining a little in field position. A punt gave them the ball at the Bulldogs’ 42-yard line. From there it took the Vikings just three runs by Sande to score the final touchdown of the game at 9:53 of the fourth. The touchdown run came on a 23-yard scamper up the middle with a cut to the right and into the end zone. This time around Senty connected on the kick adding the point after to make the final score 27-10 Vikings!
What appeared to be a lost season for much of the year has suddenly turned interesting with another tune-up game for the playoffs at Ely, on Thursday, October 22. If the Vikings can come away with a well-played victory against the Timberwolves they would have put together three pretty good games in a row!
It’s a brand-new sudden death season in the playoffs with East Central being the team to beat, but with a jumble of teams in the middle with no clear cut dominating team… who knows? The Vikings have as good a chance as any.
Go Vikes!
Come cheer
our Vikes!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
First Round Playoffs
Location & Time TBA
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