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In the rough and rugged play of northeast Minnesota football, there’s never an easy Friday night.  The North Branch Vikings found that out the hard way last week as they were upset 29-28 by the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks, throwing their once-promising section seed up in the air.

The big momentum swing in the game came midway through the fourth quarter with the Vikings leading by seven at 28-21 and driving against the tough Thunderhawk defense. North Branch, which rarely passes the ball, dropped quarterback Jacob Robillard back and he was hit from the blindside and the ball popped straight up in the air directly to a Grand Rapids defender, who was then easily off to the races from 50 yards out for a touchdown. The Grand Rapids coaches recognized the moment and went for two points and the lead. They ran a successful quarterback sweep to the right side and it ended up being the deciding factor as the game ended up at 29-28 in favor of the Hawks.

Things looked great early for the Vikings, though. 

Four plays into their opening drive of the game, senior Tyler Minke bounced off some tacklers and hit paydirt on a 35 yard touchdown run that made the game 7-0 after Chaz Johnson’s extra point.

Then, Grand Rapids had a quick turnover on their first drive when a pitch out left was behind the running back and he couldn’t corral it. North Branch’s Logan Hammel pounced on the ball and put NB back in business right away. The Vikings made good on the turnover, driving 41 yards in seven plays to score a touchdown and go up 14-0. The big play in the drive was an 18 yard scamper up the middle by Brody Mitchell and a one yard touchdown plunge by London Olson.

Grand Rapids answered with a long touchdown drive of their own to cut the lead in half, but North Branch’s offense seemed to be as fired up as ever. It didn’t take them long to score their third touchdown of the game, this time on a trick play. After moving down to the 33 yard line, the Vikings faced a fourth and 10. They were well out of Johnson’s range for a field goal, and punting wasn’t the play. 

Robillard handed the ball off to Minke, who then stretched the play out towards the right, and meanwhile, Robillard sneaked  behind everyone on the left side.  Minke stopped, planted his foot and fired a rainbow over the confused Thunderhawk defenders to hit Robillard perfectly in stride for a 33 yard touchdown.

On Rapids’ next drive, despite moving the ball quickly, they turned it over again when North Branch’s Nolan Bahr made a beautiful defensive play. The quarterback was running out wide and tried to take Bahr on as he approached him, and Bahr wrapped up around the quarterback and ripped the ball out of his hands on their way to the ground. Bahr secured the ball in his possession, and the Vikings were back in business. Everything seemed to be going right for the Vikies, and it felt like it was going to be another romp for the red and white.

North Branch flew down the field, looking to score again. They gained 11 yards on the first play on a Mitchell dive, and then two plays later, Robillard called his own number and raced down the field for a 41 yard gain that set NB up near Rapids’ redzone. But, on the next play, Mitchell fumbled the ball while being tackled and Rapids recovered, stalling the Vikings’ drive.

The Thunderhawks again went to work, moving the ball down into North Branch’s territory after back-to-back gains that got them 39 yards, but on fourth and one from the Vikings’ 24 yard line, the Hawk running back was popped by Robillard after getting the first down and the ball squirted out and the Vikings recovered for their third takeaway of the game. But, after this one, there was short time on the clock before the halftime horn, and the Vikings were only able to approach midfield by the time the clock ran out.

But, the Vikings still led 21-7 and were receiving the second half kickoff. The problem was, Rapids made some halftime adjustments to their defense and were able to limit the rushing attack of North Branch after the break. They were forced into a rare three and out to start the half, and then Rapids had a very impressive 25 yard punt return after a big Carter Drill boot. It set Rapids up with a short field at North Branch’s 41 yard line. Four plays later, Rapids scored from 27 yards out to pull within one score at 21-14.

North Branch put together their best drive of the second half after that score. They took 14 plays, converted two third downs and two fourth downs on the drive, and scored on a six yard touchdown pass from Robillard to Nathaniel Edwards-Gaona. The long plays that helped set up the score were a 22 yard keeper from Robillard on third and four and a 20 yard scramble from the quarterback when no one was open on fourth and two.

At that point, NB was up 28-14 and it looked like everything had been corrected by the Vikings and they were well on their way to another victory, but the fourth quarter eventually belonged to the Thunderhawks. 

Rapids’ answered back with a long drive of their own to score a touchdown in the fourth quarter and although the score was obviously the biggest part of it, the extra point sequence ended up being extremely costly as well for NB. On Grand Rapids’ first attempt, Minke came off the right edge and stuck his arm out to try to get a mitt on the kick. He didn’t get to the ball and the kicker missed the extra point, but Minke ran into the kicker, who dramatically hit the cold turf, and that drew the flag for roughing the kicker. Rapids got another try at the kick and it was good, putting them down 28-21.

Either way, everything was still in front of North Branch and in their offense’s hands, which is where they wanted to be. The Vikings opened the drive with two runs of two yards, facing a third and six. Robillard hit a wide open Minke down the right side of the field and he picked up 23 yards, moving into Grand Rapids’ territory. On first down, the Vikings were flagged for holding, putting them into a first and 19 spot.

The Vikings typically have no problem attempting to run out of those long distance downs, trusting their offense, but the Vikings decided to pass, and that’s when the fateful interception returned for a touchdown happened, completely flipping the game on its head.

There was still a good amount of time left for the offense to answer back, but they picked a tough time to have their worst stretch. The Vikings picked up a first down quickly on their next drive, but facing a third and two, Olson was dragged down just behind the line of scrimmage and on fourth and two from their own 35, Robillard missed Edwards-Gaona on a pass down the field to give the ball back to the Hawks.

The North Branch defense was up to the task though, forcing Rapids into a fourth and six from NB’s 31 yard line. The Thunderhawks ran a pass up the middle by Minke made a great play, tackling the runner two yards short of the first down sticks and giving the offense one more chance.

The drive started out well with a six yard rush by Olson in which he was facemasked on, so that brought the ball all the way to the 50 yard line, the Vikings then moved the ball down to Rapids’ 33 yard line after a few and needed to throw a pass because there were only seconds left on the clock. Robillard was sacked as he rolled out right, but the Rapids linebacker had tackled an NB tight end down the field, resulting in a 10 yard penalty, moving the ball to Rapids’ 24 yard line.

Head Coach Justin Voss decided to trot out Johnson to attempt the walk off winning field goal. Johnson has been nails on extra points so far, but he hadn’t tried any field goals so far this year. Johnson let loose on the 41 yard attempt and it had more than enough leg, but he pulled it just left – which can be a result of overkicking for power – and the Rapids defenders waltzed off the field in joy while the North Branch players looked on in disbelief that they lost the game.

The Vikings ran for 353 yards as a team, with Robillard going for 147 and a score and Minke and Mitchell each running for 67 yards. But, outside of Minke and Robillard, the Rapids defense held the other facets of the potent NB rushing attack to 139 yards on 34 carries, which is well below their average.

Before the game, North Branch’s goal was simple: win out and they would secure the number one seed in sections, which comes with a bye and home field advantage in the semifinals at least (the finals are played at a ‘neutral’ site in Duluth). But, after the loss, things get very muddled. Hermantown, Duluth Denfeld and North Branch are now all 3-1 in the section. Although North Branch beat both of those two teams, that’s their only loss. North Branch also lost to Pequot Lakes in the opener. Denfeld and Hermantown will play each other in the season finale, so one of those teams will get another loss, but North Branch may need one of them to find another loss to get back to the top seed.

The section is seeded by QRF, a formula that takes many factors into account. The Vikings are currently second, just decimals behind Hermantown. North Branch will play Duluth East this week, which is a Class AAAAA school and Hermantown faces Esko, an AAA school. Regardless of records, the formula does weigh class size into wins heavily, so that helps the Vikes if they can win out over Duluth East and Cloquet. But either way, what was once a crystal clear picture for North Branch became very fuzzy in Grand Rapids on Friday.

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