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Robbinsdale Cooper 13, North Branch 7

Trying to shake the funk of three straight losses to open the season, the North Branch football team hosted Robbinsdale Cooper on a chilly Friday night.

They also tried to shake their offensive woes with another shuffle in the backfield. In the first game of the year, it was Jarod Mold at quarterback and Zack Sundly at running back. For the second and third games, it was Sundly at quarterback with a rotation of running backs behind him. For the Cooper game, the Vikings started sophomore Reid Johnson, who saw his first action of the year in the Vikings' blowout loss to Chisago Lakes.

Sundly moved back to running back and split time with senior Brett Klun, who was returning from a shoulder injury suffered in the Vikings loss to Tartan.

With the shuffled look, North Branch hoped to kick start their offense, which has been stagnant for the most part this year.

The strategy worked, to a degree, in the early stages of the game. North Branch was able to effectively moved the ball in the middle of the field, but whenever they would start approaching Cooper's red zone, things locked up and they would just spin their wheels in place with no progression.

The defense was doing the same. They were giving up yards and they even gave up a few big plays, but they applied the 'bend, but don't break' theory, stepping up when they needed to and keeping Cooper out of the end zone in the first quarter.

However, the tide started to shift towards the Hawks when they dropped a punt inside the Vikings five-yard line at the beginning of the second quarter.

Desperate for breathing room, the Vikes went to Sundly and Houle to dig them out, but the Cooper defense, featuring two interior lineman that are over 280 pounds, kept them boxed inside their own 10 yard line and forced a punt.

After Sundly got off a decent punt, Cooper took over at their own 38 yard line and it didn't take long for them to use the advantageous field position to score. After two plays netted them 13 yards, junior running back Billy Kellogg took a handoff behind the left tackle and bounced it outside and raced to the end zone for the first score of the game. The ensuing extra point made it 7-0 in favor of the visiting Hawks.

Throughout the rest of the half, North Branch just couldn't get the break that they needed. They were always just a yard short of recovering the fumble, and even had a chance for a pick six late in the half.

With the Hawks trying to add to their lead, junior quarterback Brennan Macon dropped back to pass and let a ball hang down the middle of the field under some pressure. Senior safety Jared Houle and sophomore linebacker Brandon Thauwald converged to intercept the ball, with Houle having a bead on it and a ton of room to run down the left side of the field, but the two collided in midair and the ball fell harmlessly to the grass.

It would've been fitting had they returned a late first half pick for a score, since the deciding factor in Cooper's win last year over North Branch was a 97 yard interception return for a touchdown at the end of the first half.

In the beginning of the second half, North Branch put together an early drive, but it fizzled out with no points.

Midway through the third quarter, though, the Vikings took over at the Hawks' 39-yard line after a bad Cooper punt.

Klun took advantage of that quick, scampering 26 yards off the right tackle and putting the Vikings at Cooper's 13 yard line.

After two runs lost the Vikings four yard, Johnson hooked up with fellow sophomore Tony Denn in the back corner of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown. Denn had a Cooper defender draped all over him, and although the corner was called for pass interference, it didn't matter since Denn made the tough over-the-shoulder catch. The ensuing Trent Holmes extra point made the game 7-7.

Again, the teams went back to battling in the trenches and waging most of their battles in between each others 20 yard lines. But, Cooper was starting to get the better of the exchanges and much of the game was played in North Branch's half of the field. Houle even saved some sure points in one instance when he stepped in front of a pass in the end zone and returned it 15 yards to keep Cooper from scoring.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, though, the Hawks made their power move. They started on their own 43-yard line and slowly, but methodically moved down the field. They went 57 yards on 13 plays in just under four minutes, highlighted by some big fourth down conversions, and scored on a five-yard touchdown scamper by Kellogg. The extra point sailed wide, but the demoralizing drive was tough for the Vikings to swallow.

North Branch was never able to put together another threat to Cooper, with the game ending in a 13-7 triumph for the Hawks.

The loss sent North Branch to 0-4 on the season, and prevented first year head coach Nick Nitti from getting his first career victory.

The next step for the Vikings is homecoming. They will host the Columbia Heights Hylanders this Friday at 7 p.m. The Hylanders are in the midst of a trying season, as they've been outscored 167-46 in four games this year, including a 38-6 loss to Class 2A Rockford.

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