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While they’ve run up a 27-5 record over the last three years heading into their state semifinals game against Hutchinson, they’ve made a lot of teams look overmatched and confused on defense while they’ve ran their Power T offense full of deception, misdirection, traps, pulls and counters. 

Hutchinson has an equally deceptive offense, but their talent level and pedigree is a bit more established than North Branch’s, and it showed as the Tigers beat the Vikings 56-28 on Friday, November 17 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

One could even say North Branch got ‘North Branch’d’ in the contest.

The game started with Hutchinson receiving the short opening kickoff and bringing it back to their own 45 yard line. Two short runs led to a third and one, but Hutch’s fullback Carter Verhasselt then took the first leg of Hutch’s vaunted double dive play and bounced to the right side and found a lane for a 43 yard gain down to NB’s three yard line. The lane was created when the second fake handoff went to the tailback and moved two North Branch defenders in the wrong way. Hutch tailback Nathan Thode then finished the drive off two plays later with a one yard touchdown run. Charlie Renner’s first touch was a good two point conversion for the Tigers.

North Branch then took over and engineered an impressive drive on their first try. The Vikings didn’t move the ball the first two plays, but then went to the passing well early with quarterback Jacob Robillard. He delivered a nice pass to Nathaniel Edwards-Goana, but it was picked off when Edwards-Goana was mugged on the top of the route. Luckily, the refs called it and the 15 yard penalty on Hutch put NB near midfield.

Despite a false start penalty two plays later, the Vikings still moved the chains when Robillard raced around the right side of the defense for a 15 yard gain. The Vikes gained a few yards after that first down, but were eventually faced with a fourth and five from Hutch’s 33 yard line, opting to go for it.

Robillard dropped back to pass again and delivered a rainbow down the middle of the field to junior Tyler Minke. Thode was in single coverage for Hutch and made a nice play on the ball in front of Minke, but the Viking wouldn’t be shut out of the reception. He went over Thode’s back and took the ball off of his helmet and ripped it away and secured possession near the five yard line as Thode went down to the ground. Minke remained on his feet and walked into the endzone for a highlight-worthy 33 yard touchdown that energized the whole North Branch team and crowd that had made the trek to Minneapolis in support.

Robillard shook off a couple of tacklers on the two point conversion attempt and it was good and tied the game at 8-8.

All of the momentum gained from the play, however, was whooshed out of the building like the old exit doors at the Metrodome when Hutchinson went to their air attack on the first play of the next drive. Senior quarterback Logan Butler delivered a beautiful strike down the middle of the field and Renner caught it in stride, shook off the tackle attempt and raced to the endzone for a quick 64 yard touchdown for the Tigers. Renner’s two point conversion was good and Hutch retook the lead in a snap at 16-8.

On NB’s next drive, Robillard threatened quickly, busting to the ride side for a 27 yard gain on the first play, but the Vikes only gained one yard in their next three plays as they found it hard to move the Hutch linemen off the ball, and they were forced to punt.

Hutch then answered by going on a very North Branch-esque drive, going 15 plays before scoring on a 10 yard touchdown by Thode. Renner’s third two pointer of the day made the score 24-8 Hutch.

The Vikings then went on a  nightmare stretch on offense. Three of their next four drives ended in turnovers in their own territory, including an interception and two fumbles. On all three occasions, Hutch responded with touchdowns and two pointer conversions to stretch their lead.

The ironic part was that in the middle of that tough stretch, North Branch had their most efficient and effective drive of the night, going 59 yards in six plays, capped by a 17 yard touchdown run from Austin Anderson. Carter Drill and Anderson both had double digit yard rushes on the drive. The Vikings’ two point conversion was no good on that play, so that left the game at a manageable score of 32-14 at halftime, but the ensuing fumbles both killed NB drives to start the second half.

The Hutch touchdowns that followed stretched their lead to 48-14 midway through the third quarter and it was fairly academic at that point. Minke did catch another nice 14 yard  touchdown pass down the middle from Robillard before the third quarter was out, but the Tigers were able to move the ball at will on offense, making any sort of comeback nearly impossible.

The two teams each added a touchdown in the fourth quarter, with Brody Beaver running one in for NB after a very nice 23 yard reception by him down to the three yard line. The scores tallied up for a 56-28 win in favor of Hutch as they moved on to the state title game and NB’s season ended.

Robillard, a junior, did all he could to keep the NB offense humming. He was four-of-five for 93 yards and two touchdowns passing and had 112 yards on 15 carries rushing. Anderson added 67 yards on 11 carries and Carter Drill, who has been battling an ankle injury all postseason, had six carries for 32 yards.

Minke had two catches for 47 yards and two scores and Beaver also had two catches for 46 yards.

Thode paced Hutch with 171 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries. Verhasselt had 121 yards on 13 carries and Renner had 84 total yards with two touchdowns and six two point conversions.

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