Sports

Braaten helps North Dakota all-star team down Montana in Badlands Bowl

By Staff reports

07/01/2014

DICKINSON - Following a 54-6 North Dakota nine-man football state title game defeat to Cavalier, it would’ve been safe to say Hunter Braaten’s time with the Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn football team didn’t end as he’d hoped.

However, that loss in Fargo wasn’t to be the last game of his high school football career.

On June 21 in Dickinson, Braaten traded in much of his maroon-and-gold W-N-G Sioux uniform. In return, he donned a blue North Dakota jersey for the Knights of Columbus Badlands Bowl.

The Badlands Bowl is an annual all-star game that brings together many of the best senior high school football players from North Dakota and Montana.

This year’s edition took place at the Henry Biesiot Activities Center, home of the Dickinson State University football team.

North Dakota won this year’s Badlands Bowl over the team’s border rival in overtime by a final score of 25-22. It was the first time that the event, which has taken place every year since 1994, had been decided in an extra period.

Montana still holds the all-time Badlands Bowl series lead by 15-6 despite losing to North Dakota for the first time since 2010.

North Dakota got on the board in the first quarter with a three-yard touchdown run from Eric Bachmeier of Kindred. That was, however, the only time that the de facto hosts found paydirt that day.

Minot High kicker Ben Love supplied the rest of North Dakota’s points by nailing six field goals. The fifth, a 24-yarder, tied the game with three seconds left in regulation before Love won North Dakota the game in overtime from 36 yards out.

Braaten is a Minnesota State-Moohread recruit who will redshirt this next season, thus giving him a fifth year of eligibility. He served as a quarterback for  the Sioux, but he turned out as a wide receiver for North Dakota in the Badlands Bowl.

Although he’s redshirting, Braaten is listed on the Dragons’ roster as a wide receiver.

He had a productive day in the all-star game, hauling in three catches for 60 yards. His yardage put him second on the North Dakota team behind only Dylan Skabo of Dickinson, who finished the game with an even 100 yards from seven receptions.

Braaten was one of only three nine-man football players from North Dakota to play in the game. Luke Bacon of Towner and Tanner Volson of Drake-Anamoose, both of them linemen, also featured.