Above: Andrew Miller (16) made a nice tackle on the Mountain Iron-Buhl ball carrier in the Vikings’ shutout of the once-beaten Rangers. Left: Jack Haussner (88) juked this defender on his way to one of his three touchdowns against MIB. Staff photos/Laurie Johnson
All the scoring the Vikings would need to beat the 5-1 Mountain Iron-Buhl Rangers last Friday occurred on the kick-off when Jack Haussner returned the ball 67 yards with less than 10 seconds gone off the game clock.
Viking quarterback Josh Prom carried the ball in for the two-point conversion, and the Vikings led 8-0.
Both teams pounded each other on defense through the first half. Each offense would generate a few first downs, but both sides had trouble getting close to each other’s goal line and the Vikings would take an 8-0 lead into the halftime break.
The third quarter was all Vikings as Prom hooked up for two touchdowns to Haussner, one for 42 yards with Prom converting the two-point conversion on a nice run. The second touchdown came on a 21-yard pass to Haussner. This time the run failed and the Vikings led 22-0, which would end up being the final score.
A significant loss for the Vikings occurred early in the second quarter when running back Ethan Sporn injured his shoulder and couldn’t play anymore. That meant younger players had to step up on defense and on offense, said head coach Brian Carpenter. “We sent in a lot of kids you might not normally see for a few plays here and there, and they all did their job.”
“Caide Northrup came in and played well for us,” Carpenter said. “As for Andrew Miller and Josh Prom, they both had great games on defense. And Haussner had a breakout performance for us tonight.”
When Sporn went down Andrew Miller sometimes shifted to quarterback and Prom to running back. For much of the second half Adam Dorr played quarterback and Miller and Prom ran the ball.
At night’s end, Prom gained 109 yards on 17 carries. Miller carried 16 times for 88 yards. Sporn rushed for 51 yards on seven carries, and Donte Deschampe gained 25 yards on four rushes.
Haussner had five catches or 84 yards and two touchdowns.
The Vikings finished with 17 first downs to Mountain Iron-Buhl’s 10.
Prom led the team on defense with 9.5 tackles. Miller had 8.5, Haussner 5.5, Keenan Hingos 5.5, Vaughn Swindlehurst 4.5, Caide Northrup 4.5, Joe Deschampe 3.5, and Connor Somnis had 2.5 tackles.
As for Joe Deschampe, the Vikings’ top lineman, Carpenter said, “He’s a disruptor on defense. He doesn’t get as many tackles, but he blows up plays so other kids can get tackles.”
After seven games the Vikings’ defense has been especially stingy, giving up 51 points, with two touchdowns coming on kick-off returns late in the game with the Vikings’ second string on the field. Coach Carpenter is especially proud of that stat.
With the win against MIB, the Vikings wrapped up the number one seed in the Section 7 nine-man playoffs.
The Vikings’ final game of the season was played on Wednesday, October 17 against 7-0 South Ridge. The winner of that game will win the conference championship game.
On Tuesday after practice, Coach Carpenter said his team was going into the game short-handed.
“We have only had 13-14 kids coming to practice this week because of illness. We have decided to rest Ethan Sporn for the game against South Ridge,” said Carpenter. “We want him ready for the playoffs,” the coach said. “We also hope to have Dillon Sjogren back for either that game or the championship game.”
Sporn is the leading rusher and one of the top tacklers on defense. Sjogren, a 220-pound big hitting middle linebacker, is the team’s best defensive player and a load at fullback for an opposing team’s defense to take down.
Sjogren got his cast off his foot on Tuesday, Oct. 16.
“I’m not saying tomorrow’s game isn’t important. Winning the conference title would be nice. But we are going to go into that game short-handed. Kids are going to have to really step up. We know what they (South Ridge) do. They run the ball right at you behind a big offensive line. There won’t be any surprises from them.”
The Vikings fell 24-28 to South Ridge. They play at home on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. against the winner of the 4th and 5th seeds’ Oct. 23 game.
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