September 17, 2015 at 1:34 p.m.
Vikings fall victim to Big Lake's Tanner Teige, lose 39-22
Vikings fall victim to Big Lake's Tanner Teige, lose 39-22
The western school featured a varied spread passing attack that wasn’t very common in smaller school football, and although they never quite had the talent to hang with the top, huge schools, they could always hang up plenty of points.
This year, however, the Hornets used a grinding rushing attack to pile up the points as they beat North Branch 39-22.
The Vikings’ second straight away game came on a brisk fall Friday night, perfect weather for football. Big Lake hadn’t won a game coming in, having dropped their first three contests, and North Branch was reeling with two straight losses after a season-opening win at Grand Rapids.
The first quarter started all Big Lake. With some magnificient intial blocks and some shifty downfield moves, Hornet hybrid runner/receiver Tanner Teige ripped off a 59 yard touchdown run to put Big Lake up 6-0. They missed the ensuing kick, but it didn’t matter because they weren’t far away from striking again.
After a three and out on offense for North Branch, Teige scored a long touchdown of the receiving variety, catching a 45 yard pass from quarterback Ben Norgren to put BL up 12-0. This time, the kick was good and the Hornets enjoyed an early 13-0 lead.
But, as was the case in the Grand Rapids win, the Vikings have a dangerous return game and only needed one seam to get back into the game.
Jacob Souther found that seam on the kickoff that he had gathered in at his own 15 and bolted 85 yards to paydirt for a North Branch touchdown. Evan Amunrud’s kick split the uprights and the Vikes trimmed the lead to six at 13-7.
Big Lake started the second quarter fast, however. They got two more long scoring plays, a 28 yard passing score from Norgren to Nate Sandford and a third touchdown from Tanner Teige on a 26 yard rush. They missed both two point conversion attempts, though, and led 25-7.
The Vikings’ wouldn’t go away quietly, though. Kennedy Ashley, who teams have been keying on ever since his monter opening night against Grand Rapids, broke free for a 15 yard touchdown reception late in the first half. Brandon Miller, who delivered the strike to Ashley, ran the two point conversion in, and the Vikings were only down 25-15 and hoping to take it into the locker room that way.
Big Lake had other plans though. They drove down the field quickly, with Norgren connecting on a longer pass in the middle of the drive and Teige ripping off big chunks of yards. The drive culminated in a 23 yard touchdown run by Tiege, his fourth of the night. The extra point made it 32-15 in favor of Big Lake.
In the third quarter, the North Branch defense used a bend but don’t break philosphy. They stopped Big Lake on a fourth down conversion and generally kept the running game bottled up.
Meanwhile, on offense, Miller, who had a nice game running and throwing the ball, connected again with Ashley for a touchdown, this one from 14 yards out, to trim the lead back to 10 after the Amunrud extra point.
The defense, however, was wearing down at this point from chasing Tiege and Tristin Johnson all over the field throughout most of the night.
A long, sustained drive that chewed up clock eventually ended in a Teige one-yard touchdown run, giving him five in the game after only scoring two in the Hornets’ first three games. The score essentially sealed the game for Big Lake, giving them a 39-22 cushion and pushing it to a three possession game.
Miller’s stellar night featured 131 yards rushing on 27 attempts and 109 yards passing and two touchdowns on six-of-14 passing. Ashley had 71 yards receiving and two touchdowns on five receptions and Souther added a 38 yard catch to his long return touchdown.
Lucas Jensen-Schneider led the Vikings with nine tackles and Thomas Johnson had eight, but both are defensive backs, and it’s never a good sign when d-backs are the leading tacklers.
Most of those stops were against Teige, who had 323 yards of total offense to go along with his five scores.
The story of the game was again North Branch’s inability to sustain drives. They were two-of-12 on third downs for the game, and despite gaining a season-high 245 yards on offense, it was the big plays that essentially kept them in it until the final score.
North Branch now has two home games in a row, and it starts on Friday, September 18 against Duluth East.
The Greyhounds are 1-3 on the year with their only win coming against Duluth Denfeld.
After that, the Vikes host Princeton, who is also 1-3 on the year, on Friday, September 25. It’s going to be a crucial two week stretch for the Vikings to make a run with some winnable games.
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