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For the second straight year, the North Branch football team dropped their season opener to a very talented and disciplined Pequot Lakes squad Thursday, August 29 in Pequot Lakes.

This year, the game was much closer, with the Patriots coming out on top 28-20, and it wasn’t without some late controversy. On Pequot Lakes’ last touchdown run to put them up two scores, their running back, JP Elsenpeter, clearly hurdled a North Branch defender to score from 15 yards out. Now that play may seem ho-hum and common in college and professional football, but hurdling a defender is an illegal personal foul in high school football nationwide, and results in a 15 yard penalty. It’s to protect the tackler from taking a foot or knee to the head and to protect the runner from the dramatic high impact falls that can happen in those scenarios.

Despite three referees all seeing the play clearly, and voracious protest from the North Branch coaching staff, no flag was thrown and the touchdown stood in what ended up being the difference in the score at the end of the game.

Before that missed call, however, North Branch, who is fresh off of a state semifinal appearance at U.S. Bank Stadium, missed plenty of opportunities to play from ahead against the Patriots and will be stewing about the loss for some time.

The normally potent NB offense, which returns quarterback Jacob Robillard and a stout running game with star backs Tyler Minke, Nolan Volner and Carter Drill, started the game with a three and out against PL’s defense. The Patriots then used some short runs mixed in with a 25 yard completion to Briar Nordby to move down the field and score the first touchdown of the game.

The Vikings did get the score back pretty quickly on the next drive, however. Drill opened it with a tough-as-nails 14 yard run in which he dragged four defenders multiple yards down the field. He then followed it up with a bit simpler 11 yard run to move North Branch to midfield. Two plays later, on a third and seven, the Vikings got a pass interference call against PL to move deep into their territory. Three plays later, and the Vikes were bailed out again as Nordby committed his second pass interference penalty of the drive. Robillard did the rest of the work, sprinting out right for a 16 yard gain down to the four yard line before punching it in two plays later for the Vikes first score of the year. NB’s two point conversion was no good and they trailed 7-6.

The defense answered the bell right away, forcing a quick three and out for the Patriot offense. There was a key missed opportunity though for the Vikings on the drive. Junior linebacker Logan Hammel stepped in front of the quarterback's pass on third down and was possibly ticketed for a pick six, but the ball rattled around in his hands and fell to the grass. 

Once the Vikes got the ball back on offense, they couldn’t move the ball in big chunks. They eventually faced a fourth and four from their own 45 and instead of punting the ball deep, North Branch went for it and only gained two yards, giving PL prime field position. Five plays later, Pequot Lakes scored again and with the extra point, they went up 14-6.

North Branch wasn’t ready to cede control of the game though. They proceeded to go on an 11 play scoring drive that was kickstarted by a 15 yard facemask penalty and then highlighted by a bruising 38 yard run by Drill that brought the Vikings inside the five yard line, where Robillard scored his second touchdown of the game. The big run from Drill was important to the Vikings for two reasons. He broke six tackles during the run, invigorating his teammates and the sideline for NB, and also because Robillard was a little nicked up to start the drive and wasn’t in at the time, meaning the Vikings were sans one of their best players on the field when Drill popped off the big gain. However, North Branch’s two point conversion attempt fell short again and they were trailing 14-12 with short time in the first half.

The defense came up with a fourth down stop as Pequot Lakes drove before half, but the Patriots got the ball after the break as well, and that drive did make it to paydirt. The Patriots opened with back-to-back nine yard runs and two plays later, they hit a 12 yard pass and then an impressive 33 yard touchdown run. Elsenpeter wriggled his way out of three North Branch defenders converging on a tackle for the score. With the extra point, the Patriots went up 21-12.

The Vikings tried their best to answer but Nordby thwarted their next drive with an interception that seemed to be equal parts luck and skill. 

At midfield, Robillard dropped back to pass and threw to a streaking Volner out of the backfield. He had gotten clear of Nordby by a few yards but the ball was just a bit underthrown. Volner made a nice adjustment to stop and jump and go over Nordby’s head, as he wasn’t looking back at the quarterback, but Volner couldn’t corral the acrobatic catch and unfortunately, the ball fluttered long enough to softly land in Nordby’s arms almost blindly. It was a true “look what I found!” interception by Nordby, who then smartly turned around and returned the ball all the way to NB’s 25 yard line. 

Luckily, the North Branch defense stiffened up and forced Pequot Lakes to go for it on fourth and 11 from the 14 yard line. The Patriots fell short, turning the ball back to the NB offense down nine.

But, the Vikings had a disaster strike on their next drive. Despite moving the ball a few yards and grabbing a first down, two penalties sent them far behind the sticks and on third and 22, Robillard had the ball squirt through his hands and Pequot Lakes recovered the fumble at the NB 15 yard line with another short field to work with.

The next play for Pequot Lakes was when Elsenpeter put his track and field talents on display and scored, putting the Patriots up 28-12 after the extra point.

Ever the resilient bunch, though, North Branch wouldn’t go away. A 32 yard pass from Robillard to Minke got their next drive moving and then another 32 yard beautiful touch pass to Nathaniel Edwards-Gaona got the Vikings in serious business. On the next play, Robillard wrapped around the right side of the defense again from 16 yards out and scored his third touchdown of the game. The two pointer was good and all of a sudden the Vikings were right back in the game, down 28-20 with four minutes left.

Unfortunately, the defense couldn’t quite come up with the big stop that they needed. They did force the Patriots into a third and one spot near midfield, but PL got a first down with a two yard pitch to the outside. Pequot Lakes was then able to run the clock out and preserve their one score win over North Branch.

The loss is a tough one for the Vikes to take, as there were opportunities to be had, but playing a team like Pequot Lakes will greatly help the Vikings as their season moves on.

North Branch will now take on Rock Ridge, who is new to the section this year, but not new to the schedule. North Branch has beaten the Wolverines three years in a row, averaging a shade under 50 points per contest. Rock Ridge were 55-0 winners over Hibbing last week, but Hibbing has won just three games in five years, so the true identity of Wolverines isn’t quite known yet.

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