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Chisago Lakes 24, St. Anthony Village 21
Kaiden Melquist accounted for 243 yards of offense, passed for one touchdown and ran for another to lead the Wildcat football team to a 24-21 win over the St. Anthony Village Huskies last Friday, September 24 at Dennison Field in St. Anthony Village. The Wildcats piled up 279 yards on the ground and another 100 through the air as they picked up their first win of the season.

The Huskies’ opening kickoff sailed into the end zone for a touchback, and disaster struck on the Wildcats’ first play from scrimmage. After a handoff up the middle, the Wildcat runner was hit hard and fumbled, and St. Anthony fell on the ball at the Wildcat 17-yard line. Two plays later, Husky quarterback Mason Urdahl kept the ball and ran it in from the 17 to give the Huskies an early 7-0 lead. A nice return on the ensuing kickoff gave the Wildcats good field position at their own 44. Three plays later, the Wildcats faced second and one at the Husky 37. Operating from the shotgun, Melquist dropped back one step and lofted the ball down the right sideline. Receiver Bennett Senske outjumped a much shorter defensive back and came down with the ball in the 14-yard line. On the next play, Melquist handed the ball off to Gus Strub, who ran through a nice hole up the middle. He dove between two defenders over the goal line for a touchdown. Blake Trupe hit the extra point, and the game was tied at 7-7.

The game settled into a defensive battle, and each team punted twice. After a 32-yard punt, St. Anthony started from the Wildcat 43.  They passed their way to a first and goal at the Wildcat five-yard line. Taking a shotgun snap in a spread formation, Urdahl faked a handoff left, stepped right, cut up the middle and ran into the end zone untouched to give the Huskies a 14-7 lead. After a touchback, the Wildcats started the ensuing drive from their own 20. On third and eight from the 28, Melquist kept the ball, headed right and took advantage of some great blocking on the right edge to gain 13 yards and a first down. On the next play, Dyson Griffin took a handoff, headed toward the right sideline and ran upfield. He blew past a potential tackler at the St. Anthony 40 and was finally hauled down at the 29 after a 28-yard gain. On fourth and three from the 22, Melquist gained five yards on a keeper to keep the drive alive. But the drive stalled, and on fourth and 15 from the 22 Trupe trotted onto the field for his second field goal attempt of the season. Trupe put plenty of leg into the 39-yard attempt, and it sailed just inside the left upright to cut the Husky lead to 14-10. Starting on their own 20 on the ensuing drive, the Huskies ran 11 plays and moved the ball into Wildcat territory. Facing fourth and six from the Wildcat 28, the Huskies lined up for a 45-yard field goal attempt. As the ball was snapped, Luke Leadholm blew through the line from the right side, leaped and partially blocked the field goal attempt to keep the score at 14-10. The half ended two plays later.

The Wildcats forced St. Anthony into a three and out on the first drive of the second half and took over at their own 48 after a short punt. A 16-yard pass to Carter Anderson and a 13-yard gain on a pitch left to Anderson helped to move the ball to the Husky 19. Three rushes later, the Wildcats faced second and goal at the five. Melquist took a shotgun snap, shuffled a few steps to his left and cut through a hole toward the end zone. He was grabbed from behind at the three but dragged the tackler into the end zone for a touchdown, giving the Wildcats their first lead of the game at 17-14. Starting the next drive on their own 11 after a penalty on the kickoff return, the Huskies took eight plays to move the ball to the Wildcat 44. From the shotgun, Urdahl handed the ball off to a back who turned and flipped it back to him. The Wildcats had bitten on the run as a receiver streaked past the entire defense. Urdahl launched a ball from his own 47 to the wide-open receiver. He caught the ball at the ten, turned and waltzed into the end zone to give St. Anthony the lead at 21-17.

The Wildcats set themselves up in great field position by returning the ensuing kickoff to their own 45-yard line. Two runs by Melquist – a 14-yard run to the left and a 15-yard run up the middle – helped to move the ball to the 17-yard line. On the next play, Melquist faked a handoff, dropped back and fired a perfect pass to Brannick Malchow in stride in the front right corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a 24-21 Wildcat lead.

After the teams exchanged punts, the Huskies took over on their own 20-yard line. They went on an 11-play drive that moved the ball deep into Wildcat territory. On fourth and eight from the Wildcat 19, they lined up to try a 36-yard field goal from the left hashmark. The kicker nailed the ball, and it was well long enough, but it sailed just left of the left upright, keeping the Wildcat lead at 24-21. The Wildcats took over at their own 20 with just a few minutes left in the game. On third and thirteen from the Wildcat 36, Melquist kept the ball, squeezed through a hole up the middle and was off to the races. He was caught from behind at the St. Anthony 33. The Wildcats continued to run time off the clock as four more rushing plays against a tired Husky defense moved the ball to the seven-yard line with a minute left in the game. After two kneeldowns by Melquist, the clock went to 0:00 and the Wildcats had their first win of the season.

As described above, the game did not start off well for the Wildcats as they trailed 7-0 just 30 seconds into the game. Wildcat head coach Ryan Anderson said “Our message to the players lately has been to expect adversity. And we have to make sure we are not getting too high with the highs and too low with the lows. We know that bad things are sometimes going to happen in a game and we have to have the next play mentality and focus on being in the present, in controlling what we can control.” And discussing his quarterback’s stellar performance, Anderson said, ”Kaiden battled the whole game. He’s a little banged up and is not 100%, but not many guys are at this point in the season. He took a big step forward in this game. He took advantage of what the defense was giving us.”

Anderson continues “It was one of those games where we finally found more consistency. We played a very good game of complementary football. We made big plays on special teams, defense and offense. We did some nice things in the passing game, throwing for 100 yards for the first time in a while. That enabled us to soften up the defense. It wasn’t a ton, but it was effective. Defensively, we kept taking steps forward. Fisher Jorgenson and Logan Senske led us in tackles. Our defensive line is making the plays they need to make, keeping the linebackers free to do their jobs, as well.”

Football Notes
It’s homecoming for the Wildcats (1-3) tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at Chisago Lakes High School against the North St. Paul Polars (0-4). Anderson said “Even though the Polars haven’t won a game yet, just like us they have played a pretty tough schedule to this point. They have some threats on offense that we’ve got to be aware of on defense. Offensively, we need to be aware of a couple of different looks they will throw at us.”

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