Sports

Runaway winners

By Matthew Semisch

10/28/2014

The sport of football doesn’t get much uglier than it did when Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) met Vermilion for the first time earlier this month.

DCB won the game 13-12 in spite of staggeringly poor execution on both teams’ parts. The game featured five quarterbacks, nine interceptions, and the two teams combined to go 3-for-34 on third downs.

From DCB’s perspective, the Lumberjacks’ second meeting with the Ironmen at Les Christian Field was nothing like the first.

Meeting this time in the first round of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC) playoffs, the Jacks were rarely in trouble. Vermilion scored first 2:30 into the game, but DCB stormed back and won comfortably by a 52-19 margin.

“For the most part, I think we played a pretty good team game,” Jacks head coach Tim Pfeifer said. “We didn’t have the best start, but once we got going, we got going pretty well, and overall we’re pretty pleased with what happened.”

Vermilion struck first on Friday, though and in stunning fashion. Ironmen quarterback Trenton White linked up with wideout Khalil Walker on a 34-yard touchdown pass just 2:28 into the game.

From there on, though, the Jacks rolled and rarely let up.
Quarterback Krae Kelso started the revival with a four-yard run into the end zone 4:54 into the game. He then hit wideout Dontrael Brown on a 46-yard touchdown pass with 3:52 left in the frame to help put DCB up 14-7.

The Jacks found themselves up 21-7 after the first quarter. Late in the frame, DCB linebacker Carlton Rematt forced an Ironmen fumble that safety Kendall Felder returned nine yards for a score.

The score was bumped to 28-6 near the halfway point of the second quarter when Kelso found wideout DaRobert Tezino on an 83-yard touchdown pass.

A Drayton Murphy field goal from 31 yards out and a three-yard scoring run from Kelso then helped put another 10 points on the board before halftime.

Jacks defensive back Devin Davis put DCB up 45-6 with 4:48 left in the third quarter. Intercepting a pass from White - one of the Vermilion quarterback’s three picks on the day - Davis ran the ball 40 yards into the end zone for a score.

DCB backup quarterback DeAngelo Orum then capped off the scoring with a four-yard scamper on the Jacks’ following offensive drive.

Vermilion scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter in an attempt to make the score more respectable, but far too much damage had already been done.

“We’ve played pretty well in our past three games, and I think this game was continuing on that,” Pfeifer said. “I don’t know if that’s the best game we’ve had all year, but we’re pretty happy with the way we played and we hope we can keep it going and keep getting better.”

DCB will travel to Minnesota later this week to take on Rochester Community and Technical College in the MCAC playoff semifinals. The Jacks’ meeting with the Yellowjackets will start on Saturday at 1 p.m.