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North Branch took a while to separate from the Mora Mustangs at their homecoming game on Friday, September 22, but once the heat turned up, Mora folded up shop and the Vikings moved to 3-1 with a 40-14 victory.

The Mustangs came out firing, trying to catch the overhyped homecoming squad on their heels. They took to the air on the first play of the game and a nice throw on a running back wheel route from the quarterback under pressure moved Mora from their own territory down to North Branch’s 15 yard line. 

Five plays later, Mora scored the first touchdown of the game and converted the two point try to go up 8-0.

North Branch came back with a couple of nice chunk plays to open their first drive of the game, before the big one, a 53 yard scamper around the left side for quarterback Jacob Robillard. The junior has become very adept at hiding the ball when he has it, keeping the defense guessing. North Branch’s extra point by Brody Beaver was good and they trailed by one.

The Vikings’ defense then came up big on Mora’s next drive. The Mustangs gained 28 yards on their first two plays, but then started going the wrong way. On second and seven, the Mustangs proceeded to commit a false start penalty and a holding penalty before a Brody Mitchell sack forced Mora into a third and 26. The long down left Mora without many options, and they eventually punted after a short run.

The Vikings then showed Mora what a grinding, Wing-T offense can do to a defense. They went on a 10 play drive where they only faced two third downs, both of them short, before finishing it off with a 30 yard touchdown run from Carter Drill directly up the middle in which he was untouched. Beaver’s extra point fell short and the Vikings led 13-8.

Not to be outdone, Mora essentially mimicked North Branch on their next drive, but didn’t get the long touchdown run with it, so it took even more time off the clock.  They went on a 17 play drive that featured a fourth down conversion and two other short third down conversions. It ended with a touchdown from three yards out to put Mora up 14-13. They were stopped on their two point conversion to keep the deficit at one for NB.

The long drive sucked up most of the second quarter, leaving Mora ahead at halftime, but North Branch was set to receive the second half kickoff.

The Vikings proceeded to march down the field on their first drive, using big gains on the ground from Robillard, Nolan Volner and Tyler Minke to move into scoring position. Robillard called his own number from three yards out and scored a touchdown to put North Branch up 19-13. The extra point wasn’t a given because a blindside block penalty on the touchdown had pushed it back to the 17 yard line, making it closer to a 34 yard extra point, and Beaver nailed it, putting NB up 20-13.

Mora, who had been tiptoeing on a fine line in the first half with their offense as it is, ran out of luck on their first drive of the second half. They got to midfield, but then faced a fourth and seven. Their quarterback dropped back to pass but was  bullrushed by NB linebacker Jacob Tiegen, who forced a fumble. Minke hopped on the loose ball and the Vikes had a short field to work with.

On the very next play for the NB offense, Volner took a handoff to the left side of the line. He weaved through some great blocks, made one cut back move and was off to the races for a 47 yard touchdown to stretch the Vikings’ lead to 26-13. Beaver’s extra point went wide left and the lead remained at 13.

Mora again stalled out near midfield on offense, getting into a fourth and 12 situation on their own 44 yard line. A creative punt block rush from the Vikings resulted in Volner getting a free run at the punter, who decided it was a better idea to take off with the ball instead of trying to kick it. He was stopped at the 50 yard line and North Branch took over with another short field to work with. Although they couldn’t move the ball on this drive, they struck gold on the punt after going three and out.

The Mora punt returner curiously didn’t call a fair catch despite two NB defenders bearing down on him, and it led to a disjointed return as the Viking defenders let up, thinking he had called for the fair catch. Once the Mora returner shifted past them, he got a little wild in his return, swinging the ball out to the side like a loaf of bread, and the Vikings took advantage, punching the ball loose and jumping on it for a turnover, giving them the ball at the 19 yard line.

The Vikings decided it was time to pull out their rare passing attack on the first play and although Robillard underthrew Volner by a bit, the running back made a nice adjustment to come back to the ball for a 17 yard gain. On the next play, Robillard scored his third touchdown of the game from three yards out. Beaver’s converted extra point put NB up 33-13.

Mora was forced to go out of their comfort zone with the score getting out of hand, and it paid off for NB. They got the Mustangs into a third and long and multiple defensive lineman pressured the Mora quarterback into a panic before Minke finished him off for another sack for the Vikings’s defense.

Although North Branch was in complete control, Mora thought they might have a glimmer of hope after punting away when the ball took a fortuitous Mustang bounce and rolled all the way down to NB’s three yard line, pinning the Vikings very deep in their own territory.

North Branch was just trying to get some breathing room on the first play, but was stuffed for just one yard. On the second play, though, they got a bit more than that. Volner took a handoff from Robillard around the left side and gained a big chunk of yardage before encountering a Mora defender, who was the last line of defense before a lot of grass was in front of Volner. The junior running back delivered an assaultive stiff arm to the defender, throwing him to the grass and racing away from the pack for a 96 yard touchdown run, putting the final stamp on the game for North Branch at 40-14.

With the win, the Vikings move to 3-1 on the season, but they have a tall task coming up this week. They’ll travel to Duluth for a dance with the Denfeld Hunters on Friday, September 29 at 6 p.m. Denfeld is 4-0 on the year with wins against Mora, Grand Rapids, Pine City and Duluth East. Even though those teams have a combined record of 3-13, the Hunters are still a dangerous team that’s ranked in the top 10 in both the Star Tribune poll, and minnesota-score.net’s QRF ranking.

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