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Chisago Lakes 30

Pine City 16

It’s not how you start but how you finish, and the Wildcats finished strong. Strong enough to erase deficits of 8-0, 16-8, and 16-15 last Wednesday against Pine City. Strong enough to win their third game of the season, giving them a 3-5 record heading into the section playoffs.

Playing in front of their home crowd, the Dragons held the advantage for most of the first half. Pine City first got on the board on their first drive of the game. Set up by the pass, the Dragons sprung their running back free for 45 yards for the opening score. Add the two point conversion and the score was 8-0.

It stayed that way until the second quarter. That’s when Chisago answered. After a slow start offensively, just like Pine City did in the first, the ‘Cats went to the air to open some things up. The result was a 17-yard touchdown strike from Mike Tschida to Karl Kaiser. A two point conversion later and the game was tied 8-8.

However, as quickly as that happened, the Dragons grabbed the lead once again on the ensuing kick-off, rumbling 70 yards for the score, putting them back in front 16-8.

Weiss and the Wildcats knew they needed to respond, and they did. As a matter of fact, it only took them three plays to do so. On the heels of two solid runs by Trent Froberg, Tschida went deep again, hooking up with junior tight end Trevor Johnson for a 41-yard touchdown. Tschida finished the first half with three completions and two of them went for touchdowns. The strike pulled the Wildcats within one at the half, 16-15.

“We’re pretty balanced right now on offense,” mentioned Bill Weiss, Chisago Lakes head football coach. “Sometimes just throwing the ball stretches the defense a little bit. We had some big plays by the pass and that enabled us to be more effective in running the ball as the game went on.”

Still looking for their first lead of the game, everything came together for the ‘Cats in the second half. First, after 46 yards through the air in the first half, the Chisago defense held the Dragons to just six passing yards and only two first downs in the third quarter. Second, after opening things up with their passing attack, the Wildcats went to their rushing game, pounding the ball down the field. Carl Hoffman was one of the backs getting the brunt of the work. The junior found the end zone on the Wildcats’ first drive of the third quarter on a two-yard touchdown scamper, putting Chisago in the lead for the first time in the game, 23-16.

“Sometimes it just takes some time to get the ball rolling, to get in the flow of the game,” said Weiss. “We really weren’t doing anything special, we just started to build some momentum.”

The ‘Cats stayed on the ground the rest of the way, rushing for a total of 183 in the second half compared to just 41 in the first. Still leading 23-16 in the fourth, Trent Froberg capped off the Chisago win with a 10-yard score, giving the Wildcats a 30-16 win.

The win was the ‘Cats first since their 35-13 victory over Zimmerman on October 1.

“Sections aside, the kids just wanted to win. It’s been that way all year,” remarked Weiss. “We needed that, no question, but as far as sections go, we’re not going to approach the game any differently because we got it. It was just big for us to get a win in terms of confidence.”

Chisago, the number seven seed in section 4AAAA, now looks ahead to St. Michael-Albertville in the first round. The Knights grabbed a two seed in the section after rolling to a 6-2 season record. One of those wins came against Chisago Lakes on September 24 when they defeated the ‘Cats 63-24.

“St. Michael is a great team, but the last time we played them it wasn’t a good night for us, we turned the ball over way too many times (seven),” mentioned Weiss. “We were able to move the ball on offense. The bottom line is, we are a better football team than we were then.”

One of the reasons for that is because Chisago is finally getting some of their players back from injury. Nick Spehar was in the line-up versus Pine City, while defensive stand-out Eric Schumacher will return for the game, as will junior Jason Kellum.

“That’s obviously going to help, getting some of those guys back,” said Weiss. “That’s going to make us even better. We’re playing well right now as a team. I think we have a good chance.”

Chisago Lakes 30

Pine City 16

1 2 3 4 F

Chisago Lakes 0 15 8 7 30

Pine City 8 8 0 0 16

Scoring:

First Quarter-

PC- 45 yrd. TD run

(2 pt. conversion) 0-8

Second Quarter-

CL- Kaiser 17 yrd. TD rec.

(2 pt. conversion) 8-8

PC- 70 yrd. kick-off return

(2 pt. conversion) 8-16

CL- Johnson 41 yrd. TD rec.

(Kick good) 15-16

Third Quarter-

CL- Hoffman 2 yrd. TD run

(2 pt. conversion) 23-16

Fourth Quarter-

CL- Froberg 10 yrd TD run

(Kick good) 30-16

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