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With eight minutes left in the third quarter of last week’s Section 7AAAA championship game, North Branch was comfortably ahead of Hermantown 28-7 and looked to be punching their third straight ticket to the state tournament.

But, within about a quarter’s worth of time, the Hawks recovered two onside kicks and North Branch — who only threw the ball 30 times all year — threw two interceptions. Those sudden changes allowed Hermantown to go on a 28-0 run for the last quarter and a half and eventually upset the Vikings 35-28 to earn a bid to the state tournament.

The Vikings opened up the scoring in the game when they took their first drive all the way down for a touchdown. The big play was Dooley Beaver’s 35 yard scamper up the middle that he made some slick moves on en route to the endzone.

After the Chaz Johnson extra point put the Vikings up 7-0, their defense, who played outstanding in the first half, answered the call.

Hermantown moved the ball, but it took them forever to make any headway as they gained small chunks of yards at a time. Eventually the Hawks were faced with a fourth and five from NB’s 19 yard line. They went for all the marbles by throwing into the endzone, but senior defensive back Tyler Minke had great coverage and the ball sailed out of the back of the endzone.

North Branch started to drive on their next possession, getting the ball to Hermantown’s 43 yard line, but on a fourth and one play, the Vikings fumbled the ball on what would have been a conversion, turning the ball back over to H’Town.

North Branch’s defense was up to the task again, though, forcing a punt after just five plays for the Hawks and getting their offense right back on the field.

The offense paid off the defense’s hard work by giving them a rest and going on a 13 play drive that was capped off by a four yard touchdown run by Minke. It was a classic North Branch drive as they ripped six to eight yards a clip and the only high stress play they faced was a fourth and short, and they got Hermantown to jump offsides on it without having to run a play. Johnson’s extra point was good and NB was cruising, up 14-0 midway through the second quarter.

Hermantown decided to use their quarterback on the next drive, and a combination of his legs and a couple nice pass plays finally got them moving. A missed tackle at the 13 yard line resulted in the Hawks scoring their first touchdown of the game to trim the lead in half at 14-7.

But, the rest of the first half belonged to North Branch. Brody Mitchell started the next drive off with a 50 yard run down to the Hawks’ 28 yard line. Two plays later Minke took a pitch to the right side and looked to throw. He probably should’ve tucked the ball and just ran it, but he decided to heave the ball anyway. Luckily, Nathaniel Edwards-Gaona went up between two defenders and made an acrobatic catch at the three yard line.

Minke then got the touchdown plunge two plays later  as the clock wound down and NB was up 21-7 just before the halftime break.

The Hawks received the kick to start the second half, but on the very first play, junior Logan Hammel flashed another big time play by stripping the ball from the running back and Nolen Volner pounced on it to give NB quick possession.

Seven plays later, the Vikings were facing a fourth and four from the Hawks’ eight yard line and Minke absolutely bullied two defenders on his way to the end zone for his third touchdown of the game. The senior flexed his muscles after the play for a well deserved celebration.

Johnson’s extra point split the uprights and NB was up 28-7 and the state tournament seemed like a foregone conclusion for the Vikes.

On the next drive for Hermantown, they went back to the air and found success again. They completed three passes and that’s all it took for them to score, as the last one was what looked like a harmless pass out to the flat, but a busted coverage resulted in a 29 yard touchdown.

All still seemed fine for North Branch at that point as they were still up by two scores and had been moving the ball all night, but that’s when the onside kicks started for the Hawks.

Two straight successful onside kicks resulted in two straight scorers, and with 10 minutes left in the game, the Vikings found themselves in a tie game at 28-28.

Another big problem with the Hawks recovering two straight onside kicks is the Vikings went over almost a full quarter of game time without touching the ball on offense. So what had been a smooth offense earlier turned into a bit of a struggle when they finally did take the field.

It eventually led to the Jacob Robillard pick on third and eight that gave Hermantown another jolt of momentum, which led to the go-ahead score. 

The Vikings didn’t go down without a fight, though. Without much time still on the clock, two big Robillard runs got them back in scoring range, moving all the way down to Hermantown’s 18 yard line. A run was stuffed on first down and then on second and nine, Robillard rolled out to his right and threw a desperation heave back across the field where two Hermantown defenders were waiting and snagged an interception that sealed the game.

The Hawk sideline erupted in disbelief with hands outstretched in the air and some hands on top of their helmets wondering how they pulled off the miracle comeback.

For the Vikings, it was a stunning collapse that ended an era for seniors with near unrivaled success. 

The loss marked the end of the decorated careers of Robillard, Beaver, Minke, Volner, London Olson, Carter Drill, Matt Fenton, Austin Reynolds and Moses Ochoa.

Hermantown went on to be seeded second in the Class AAAA North bracket and will face the third-seeded 8-2 Orono Spartans in the first round of state at Alexandria on Thursday, November 7.

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